The Forensic Stage: Settling Disputes in Graeco-Roman New Comedy

Graeco-Roman New Comedy has traditionally provided a source for legal historians examining the language and operation of law both in Athens in the fourth century and in Rome in the second century BC. Adele Scafuro here provides the first comprehensive treatment in English of one crucial area of this vast field, namely, the way legal disputes are settled out of court in Athens, both on and off the comic stage. Beginning with a close examination of pre-trial scenarios in the Attic orators and looking for comparable ones in pre-classical Roman law, Dr Scafuro then turns to the plays of Greek New Comedy and their adaptations by Plautus and Terence. There she identifies similar scenarios especially in disputes concerning sexual violations, the marriages of heiresses, and divorces. She shows how the recognition of legal procedures aids interpretation of New Comedy texts.

• Pioneering work: a reference book for the New Comedy evidence for the out-of-court settlement of legal disputes in Athens and Rome • Combines expertise in law and literature • Provides material for broader cultural and literary interpretations of New Comedy text

Introduction; Part I. Pre-Trial Plays: 1. The staging of dispute settlement; 2. Initiating justice: threat, summons, and arrest; Part II. Reconciliation and its Rhetoric: 3. Private arbitration and reconciliation in Athens and Rome; 4. Scenarios of arbitration and reconciliation in New Comedy; 5. Redress for sexual offences in Athenian and Roman law; 6. The resolution of seduction and rape in New Comedy; 7. Arguing behind closed doors; Part III. Playing on the Boundaries of the Law: 8. Entrapment and framing; Appendices: 1. Official arbitration in the Attic orators; 2. Private arbitrations and reconciliations in Athens; 3. Remedies for enslavement, kidnapping and slave-stealing in Athens and Rome; 4. Controversial summonses in Rudens and Persa; 5. Threats of lawsuits and self-help remedies in Graeco-Roman New Comedy; 6. Ambiguous arbitri in Roman comedy; 7. Moikhos and moikheia.