Avengers of blood; homicide in Athenian law and custom from Draco to Demosthenes.

9783515091237

Avengers of blood; homicide in Athenian law and custom from Draco to Demosthenes.

Phillips, David D.

Franz Steiner Verlag

2008

279 pages

$95.00

Hardcover

Historia Einzelschriften; 202

KL4361

Employing sources from the Greek and Latin cannon as well as unique references in Icelandic sagas and the laws of Anglo Saxon kings, Phillips (history, U. of California, Los Angeles) tracks the development of homicide legislation from about 411 BCE to the end of the Classical era. He begins with an evaluation of enmity and vengeance and the litigation that ensued as the result of both. He then evaluates the role of homicide and vengeance in regulations generated from policymakers from Draco to Demosthenes. Philips analyzes the various legal and illegal facets of committing homicide, the workings of homicide and piety in families, and the limits of vengeance developed under Demosthenes. Phillips concludes by analyzing changes in homicide laws under the Thirty Tyrants and information unearthed from Lysias about playing by the rules and dealing with cyclical vengeance. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co.

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