c h a p t e r 2

Technical Rhetoric
The needs of democracy in Greece prompted the composition of the
rst classical handbooks of public speaking. Democratic government
existed in a number of Greek cities but most fully in Athens in the fth
and fourth centuries b.c. A series of political changes took place over a
period of more than two hundred years from monarchical to aristo-
cratic and nally to democratic government. Athenian democracy as-
sumed the active participation of adult male citizens in the deliberative
assembly and the lawcourts. Any male citizen could speak in the assem-
bly, which resembled a very large town meeting, but there was no re-
quirement that anyone speak there. In the lawcourts, however, men
involved in litigation or accused of a crime were normally expected to
speak on their own behalf. Women were represented in court by a male
relative. If for any reason, such as illness, a man could not speak on his
own behalf, a relative or friend could speak for him. It became possible
to buy a speech from a logographer, or speechwriter, which the party
involved would try to memorize, but there were no lawyers or others
with a special knowledge of law and procedure. Furthermore, there was
no public prosecutor; criminal prosecutions had to be conducted by the
injured party or a relative or some interested person.
The minimum size of an Athenian jury was 201 members, in impor-
tant cases, 501, and even more in some cases. The procedure in court
consisted primarily of a speech by the plainti and a reply by the defen-
dant, each in the form of a continuous address to the jury. Sometimes
there were two speeches by each. Evidence of witnesses was taken down
in writing before the trial and read out in court. The whole procedure