ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the methods and tactics by which character evidence was adduced in the courts of classical Athens. This subject relates to deeper issues of Athenian life. As has already been argued in the previous chapter, the Athenian ideas of ‘human character’ directly infl uenced the tactics they used in their courts. Furthermore, the newly developed disciplines of rhetoric, dialectic and logic, also played a major part in shaping the methods of argumentation. For instance, the combination of the inductive way of reasoning, supported by the undecided questions regarding the stability of a person’s character (which in more sophisticated circles gradually gave way to a belief in the changeable nature of character), forced litigants to use a series of past examples and actions in order to deduce a certain character trait. Apart from these issues, the more practical side of rhetoric will be examined, discussing devices and tricks employed by orators in order to obscure an opponent’s ethos or to hide weaknesses in their own case. In the course of the chapter, the approach of modern courts will be discussed in offering a comparative perspective.
