ABSTRACT
The underlying rationale of this chapter emerges from the fact that most researchers isolate and examine the (admittedly better attested) more recent picture of forensic rhetoric found in the Athenian courts of the late fi fth and fourth centuries. This book offers an additional, historical perspective, rendering references to rhetoric found in other literary sources and in earlier periods unavoidable. The current chapter offers a historical background to the theme of character evidence and illuminates the sequence of changes that took place in the fi eld of rhetoric before the age of the Attic orators. Developments taking place in the archaic period, such as the transformation of dispute-settlement procedures, the development of instinctive argumentation to an art (rhetoric), and the codifi cation of oral rules after the re-invention of writing, form the basis of a better understanding of later issues of Athenian law. The Athenian legal system (and the wide presence of character evidence in particular) needs to be examined from a holistic point of view, as a living organism which evolved for centuries.
