Note 706 — Chapter XLVI · CONSTITUTIONAL AND JUDICIAL CHANGES AT ATHENS UNDER PERIKLES.

That the difference between the dikast and the juryman, in this respect, is only one of degree, I need hardly remark. M. Merlin observes, “Je ne pense pas, comme bien des gens, que pour être propre aux fonctions de juré, il suffise d’avoir une intelligence ordinaire et de la probité. Si l’accusé paroissoit seul aux débats avec les témoins, il ne faudroit sans doute que du bon sens pour reconnoitre la vérité dans des déclarations faites avec simplicité et dégagées de tout raisonnement: mais il y paroit assisté presque toujours d’un ou de plusieurs défenseurs qui par des interpellations captieuses, embarrassent ou égarent les témoins; et par une discussion subtile, souvent sophistique, quelquefois éloquente, enveloppent la vérité des nuages, et rendent l’évidence même problématique. Certes, il faut plus que de bonnes intentions, il faut plus que du bon sens, pour ne pas se laisser entrainer à ces fausses lueurs, pour se garantir des écarts de la sensibilité, et pour se maintenir immuablement dans la ligne du vrai, au milieu de ces impulsions données en même temps à l’esprit et au cœur.” (Merlin, Répertoire de Jurisprudence, art. Jurés, p. 98).

At Athens, there were no professional advocates: the accuser and the accused—or the plaintiff and defendant, if the cause was civil—each appeared in person with their witnesses, or sometimes with depositions which the witnesses had sworn to before the archon: each might come with a speech prepared by Antipho (Thucyd. viii, 68) or some other rhetor: each might have one or more ξυνηγόρους to speak on his behalf after himself, but seemingly only out of the space of time allotted to him by the clepsydra. In civil causes, the defendant must have been perfectly acquainted with the plaintiff’s case, since, besides the anakrisis, or preliminary examination before the archon, the cause had been for the most part already before an arbitrator. In a criminal case, the accused party had only the anakrisis to guide him, as to the matter of which he was to be accused: but it appears from the prepared speeches of accused parties which we now possess, that this anakrisis must have been sufficiently copious to give him a good idea of that which he had to rebut. The accuser was condemned to a fine of one thousand drachms, if he did not obtain on the verdict one-fifth of the votes of the dikasts engaged.

Antipho not only composed speeches for pleaders before the dikastery, but also gave them valuable advice generally as to the manner of conducting their case, etc., though he did not himself speak before the dikasts: so also Ktesiklês the λογόγραφος (Demosthenês cont. Theokrin. c. 5) acted as general adviser, or attorney.