The Age of Pericles | Family and Property (Lecture 10)

Lecture 10: One of the most abundant sources of information from the Athens of Pericles is the large number of surviving legal speeches. These are not all about matters of politics or international policy. The majority, in fact, are examples of the many suits generated in the Athenian courts by property disputes between or even within families. In this lecture, we will use speeches by Lysias, Demosthenes, and Isaeus to investigate the complex web of family ties and property ownership. In the case of Diogeiton’s family, the members of one branch of the family sued their relatives, claiming that trust funds had been embezzled by their own grandfather! More typical was the dispute in which two families came to blows over a wall erected along the property line preventing runoff water from reaching one of their farms. In a third case, disputes arose when Ciron died, leaving descendants from two marriages to battle over the inheritance. These cases give a fascinating glimpse into the lives of ordinary families of 5th-century Athens, for whom the land was the supreme measure of wealth.

Suggested Reading: Freeman, K. The Murder of Herodes. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1991.
Jones, N. F. Ancient Greece: State and Society. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1996.
Lacey, W. K. The Family in Classical Greece. London: Thames and Hudson, 1968.

Lecture 11: https://rumble.com/v5ej37m-the-age-of-pericles-coins-trade-and-business-lecture-11.html