ABSTRACT
This chapter establishes that there was an ideology of homicide at Athens, which consisted of beliefs in the antiquity, authority, and immutability of the legal provisions for dealing with the crime as well as the distinctive nature of both the crime and its legal treatment. The existence and nature of this ideology is established through a survey of sources that discuss Drakon, the author of the homicide laws, and the courts and the laws themselves, both from forensic oratory and other genres. This ideology is then used as a lens through which to read Demosthenes 23, a forensic speech that deals with a number of homicide laws and establishes their importance in order to attack the defendant’s allegedly illegal decree. This demonstrates that the ideology of homicide was a flexible rhetorical tool, as Demosthenes was able to use arguments that sought to manipulate the judges’ understanding of concepts such as the lawgiver and the comprehensive nature of the laws. It also begins to show how speaking about homicide in the dikastic courts (rather than the homicide courts) could afford speakers a different set of rhetorical opportunities when discussing the crime.
