Law, Violence, and Community in Classical Athens

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title Law, Violence, and Community in Classical Athens
Authors and Contributors      By (author) David Cohen
SeriesKey Themes in Ancient History
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:228
Dimensions(mm): Height 229,Width 152
Category/GenreWorld history
World history - BCE to c 500 CE
World history - c 500 to C 1500
World history - c 1500 to c 1750
World history - c 1750 to c 1900
World history - from c 1900 to now
ISBN/Barcode 9780521388375
ClassificationsDewey:340.5385
Audience
Professional & Vocational
Tertiary Education (US: College)
Illustrations Worked examples or Exercises

Publishing Details

Publisher Cambridge University Press
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publication Date 5 October 1995
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

The theme of this book is the legal regulation of violence and the role of litigation in Athenian society. Using comparative anthropological and historical perspectives, David Cohen challenges traditional evolutionary and functionalist accounts of the development of legal process. Examining Athenian theories of social conflict and the rule of law, as well as actual litigation involving the regulation of violence, he emphasises the way in which the judicial process operates in an agonistic social field. This perspective illuminates the social dimensions of litigation and the legal regulation of violence, and helps to explain otherwise puzzling features of Athenian litigation.

Reviews

'Cohen's is one of those exciting and rare books that take a large piece of historical orthodoxy, explain the intellectual matrix from which the accepted belief derives and present a cogently argued alternative ... [it] is one of the most perceptive and original works in Greek history to have been published for several years.' Times Literary Supplement