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Notes

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[1] Persons of this kidney are delineated to us as typical characters by Theophrastus.

[2] The nearest modern equivalent is a "basket lunch."

[3] Athenian opinion was on the whole in favor of receiving as valid testimony the evidence extorted thus from slaves by mere animal fear. Antiphon the orator speaks of how truth may be wrung from slaves by torture; "by which they are compelled to speak the truth though they must die for it afterward [at the hands of the master they have incriminated], for the present necessity is to each stronger than the future." This has been well called one of the few cases of extreme stupidity on the part of the Athenians.

[4] The odd unit was no doubt added to prevent a tie.

[5] Each court room had is distinguishing color. There were about ten regular court rooms, besides some for special tribunals; e.g. the Areopagus for the trial of homicides.

[6] We have not the exact text of all the dicasts' oath, but we can reproduce it fairly completely from Demosthenes's "Oration against Timocrates."

[7] These "friends," however, were never regularly professional advocates; it would have been ruinous to let the jury get the impression that an orator was being directly hired to speak to them.

[8] For the depths of personal insult into which Greek litigants could descend there is no better instance than Demosthenes's (otherwise magnificent) "Oration on the Crown," wherein he castigates his foe Æschines.

[9] For such an appeal to an Athenian dicastery, see Aristophanes's "Wasps." The pertinent passages are quoted in "Readings in Ancient History," vol. I, p. 238-40.

[10] Undoubtedly Socrates would have escaped with his life, if (after his original condemnation) he had proposed a real penalty to the jury, instead of an absurdly small fine. The only alternative for the dicasts was to accept the proposition of his opponents,—in his case, death.

[11] No one can read the story of the death of Socrates in the prison, as told by Plato in the "Phaedo" without feeling (aside from the noble philosophical setting) how much more humane were such executions by hemlock than is the modern gallows or electric chair.

A Day in Old Athens

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