The Legal Regulation of Private Conduct at Athens: Two Controversies on Freedom

Abstract

Despite the Athenians’ pronounced ideology of personal freedom (“living as you like”), many scholars deny that they enjoyed either positive freedoms (in particular to speak free of interruption in the Assembly) or negative freedoms, where the state could intervene as it wished, as against Sokrates for his religious views. The current essay argues that in their personal lives the Athenians were entirely free, except when speech or action materially harmed the community. A second ideology that community welfare superseded the wishes of any citizen was both universal and paramount – even for Plato’s Sokrates.