Papers by Brenda Griffith-Williams
THE MATERIAL SIDES OF MARRIAGE Women and domestic economies in antiquity, 2016
Comitato scientifico tuomas Heikkilä-mika kajava-mika lavento Redazione simo ÖRmä, Roma Redazione... more Comitato scientifico tuomas Heikkilä-mika kajava-mika lavento Redazione simo ÖRmä, Roma Redazione del vol. 43
Use and Abuse of Law in the Athenian Courts, 2019
Emotion and Persuasion in Classical Antiquity, 2016
Instruction and example: Emotions in Xenophon's Hipparchicus and Anabasis…………………………………………………………….... more Instruction and example: Emotions in Xenophon's Hipparchicus and Anabasis……………………………………………………………. JAYNE KNIGHT Anger as a mechanism for social control in Imperial Rome……………. JUDITH HAGEN Emotions in Roman historiography: The rhetorical use of tears as a means of persuasion……………………………………………….. MATTHEW JOHNCOCK 'He was moved, but …': Failed appeals to the emotions in Ovid's Metamorphoses……………………………………………….
Classical Quarterly, 2012
Inheritance, law and religions in the ancient and mediaeval worlds, 2014
Friendship in Ancient Greek Thought and Literature: Essays in Honour of Chris Carey and Michael J. Edwards, 2023
Our Beloved Polites: Studies Presented to P. J Rhodes, 2022
An Athenian oikos became 'empty' if its kyrios died leaving no direct male descendants to inherit... more An Athenian oikos became 'empty' if its kyrios died leaving no direct male descendants to inherit his property and perform the customary rites after his death. The law enabled a man with no legitimate sons to prevent the extinction of his oikos by adopting a son, inter vivos or by will, but even if he did not do so his surviving relatives could still ensure the continuity of his oikos by giving him a son in 'posthumous adoption'. In Athens, as in other Greek states, the preservation of oikoi was a matter of public as well as private concern, and adoption could potentially be used as a strategy to maintain sufficient flourishing oikoi capable of supporting liturgies and paying taxes, while avoiding the consolidation of too much land into the hands of a wealthy elite. But, despite some indications that the archon had a duty to 'look after' empty oikoi, there is no evidence that the Athenian state played an active role in the regulation or enforcement of adoption, at least by the fourth century.
This paper challenges the traditional view that Athenian witnesses functioned as supporters of a ... more This paper challenges the traditional view that Athenian witnesses functioned as supporters of a litigant rather than impartial observers of events, and that evidence on such matters as family disputes is irrelevant to the legal issues in an inheritance dispute. Isaios wrote this speech for a client who claims the estate of Astyphilos, his half-brother by the same mother. His opponent, Kleon, a first cousin of Astyphilos on his father's side, says that his son was adopted in Astyphilos's will. To win the case, Isaios must prove both that the will is invalid and that his client is entitled to the estate as next of kin. He deploys 13 items of witness testimony, more than in any of his other surviving speeches. Witnesses testify not only that the will is a forgery, but also that Astyphilos never spoke to Kleon after a quarrel between their fathers, whereas Astyphilos and the speaker enjoyed a close fraternal relationship. On the traditional view, Isaios is asserting a moral claim to the estate, knowing that his legal case is weak. I argue that evidence of relationships within the family is relevant to the validity of the will, as part of the argument from probability that Astyphilos was unlikely to have adopted his enemy's son. Some important aspects of the speaker's story are, nevertheless, unsupported by testimony, and I conclude that Isaios was probably trying to disguise his client's vulnerability on the issue of kinship by making the most of his evidence against the will.
Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, 2011
Sparta, uniquely among ancient Greek poleis, retained an archaic system of hereditary rulership i... more Sparta, uniquely among ancient Greek poleis, retained an archaic system of hereditary rulership into the Hellenistic era. The Spartan kings functioned primarily as military leaders and were not absolute rulers; by the sixth century, if not earlier, their conduct was subject to the oversight of the ephors and their authority to rule derived from the will of the citizen body. In the normal course of events, a king's successor would be his oldest son. The sources surveyed here reveal a consistent adherence, from the earliest times, to a fixed order of succession based on the principle of patrilineal male primogeniture, with provision for a brother or other collateral kinsman to succeed a king who died leaving no son. There was, unsurprisingly, no place in the system for a regnant queen. However, as we shall see from the case of Gorgo (daughter, wife, and mother of successive kings), it is possible that the succession could in some circumstances be influenced by the female bloodline. Perhaps from as early as the tenth century BC, but more plausibly from the eighth century, 1 the Spartan kingship was shared by members of two royal houses, the Agiad and the Eurypontid. According to a Spartan tradition related by Herodotus, the dyarchy originated when king Aristodemos died shortly after the birth of his twin sons, Eurysthenes and Procles. The Spartans wanted to make the older child king according to their nomos, but did not know which had been born first. After consulting the Delphic oracle, and establishing which twin was the older, they made both children kings but gave the older one greater honour. Herodotus discredits this story, saying that no-one but the Spartans believed it, and modern scholars prefer to explain the dyarchy in terms of the amalgamation of two communities, but the traditional story confirms the importance attached by the Spartans to the nomos of primogeniture and their belief in its antiquity.
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Papers by Brenda Griffith-Williams