social role and legal actors

Lysias

Metic logographos, one of ten canonical orators. Known for clear prose and character sketches (ēthopoiia). Wrote speeches like Against Simon (Lysias 3). His career shows how rhetoric, even from outsiders, shaped Athenian trials.

Demosthenes

Greatest Athenian orator, both statesman and litigator. His speeches span politics (On the Crown) and law (Against Conon). He turned rhetoric into political power. His career embodies the overlap of courts and assembly.

Isaeus

Specialist in inheritance cases, teacher of Demosthenes. His surviving speeches focus on epiklêroi, intestacy, and kinship. In On the Estate of Pyrrhus (Isaeus 3), he shows the complexity of inheritance. He illustrates law’s entanglement with family strategy.

logographoi

Professional speechwriters composing orations for litigants. Famous orators like Lysias and Demosthenes did this work. Their speeches survive as our main evidence of Athenian law. They underscore how performance and rhetoric outweighed technical law.

sykophant (συκοφάνται)

Malicious litigant abusing graphai to harass or extort. Litigants often accused opponents of being sykophants to discredit them. Dem. 53 and 55 illustrate the trope. Athens fined losing prosecutors to curb this abuse.

Apollodorus (Demosthenic corpus)

Son of banker Pasion, wealthy litigant, author of several speeches misattributed to Demosthenes. Called the “eleventh orator.” His cases involve banking, liturgies, and inheritance disputes. He provides insight into finance and elite competition.

Polemarkhos

Archon responsible for cases involving metics and foreigners. In Dem. 59, he oversees Neaera’s case. Originally a military role, it evolved into jurisdiction over outsiders. It illustrates Athens’ regulation of citizenship boundaries.