ABSTRACT
This paper analyses the use of witnesses in classical Athenian lawcourts both for its epistemological implications – what does it tell us about Athenian ideas of 'expert witnesses', of reliability, of truthfulness and bias – and for the information it gives us about Athenian society and court practice. The fact that most witnesses in Athenian lawsuits are overtly partisan has surprised modern commentators, but in comparative perspective this is far from unusual. An Athenian litigant was permitted to share his allotted speaking time with one or more supporting speakers. The fact that witnesses in Athenian lawsuits appear as supporters of the litigant rather than offering independent corroboration of his account of the facts of the case has often been noticed, but has usualiy been treated as a survival of the use in earlier periods of 'oath-helpers' who supported the litigant by taking an oath attesting to his version of the facts of the case.
