Political Confrontation and Abuse of Justice in Athens

The study examines a number of examples of political use of justice in the history of Athenian democracy. Besides public indictment in procedures such as eisangelia and dokimasia, which were often political in nature, different cases of political trials are discussed, from those promoted by the democrats against Cimon and the Areopagus, to those against the entourage of Pericles, against the Arginousai strategoi, and against the democrats in 404 (Cleophon, Strombichides, Dionysidorus). Investigation shows that the political use of justice has to be considered an anomaly in political opposition to which people turn when confrontation under the normal constitutional ways is believed to be no longer possible, and when persuasion and search for consensus are replaced by the delegitimization of opponents and their elimination from the political agon through demagogic forms of justicialism.