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This paper, which serves to introduce the studies collected in this dossier, examines the practical reality of free speech in the Roman and later Roman empires. The Roman Empire had few legal restrictions on speech and imperial officials who were thought to punish critical speech generally provoked hostile reactions.
- Edward Jay Watts
- 2014
Frankness, Greek Culture, and the Roman Empire discusses the significance of parrhesia (free and frank speech) in Greek culture of the Roman empire. The term parrhesia first emerged in the context of the classical Athenian democracy and was long considered a key democratic and egalitarian value.
Jan 1, 2014 · This paper, which serves to introduce the studies collected in this dossier, examines the practical reality of free speech in the Roman and later Roman empires.
- The Idea of Freedom of Opinion in Ancient Greece
- Freedom of Expression Becomes A Right in The Roman Empire
- Censorship Rears Its Head
In the direct democracy of ancient Athens, citizens had the right to participate in common decision making. Of the total population of some 300,000 there were only 30,000 “citizens”, meaning political participation and the right to speak was available to just 10 per cent of the population. The highest authority was vested in the assembly, in which ...
Freedom of religion and opinion were especially valued at the beginning of the Roman Empire.6 However, direct participation in decision making was not as common as in ancient Athens. Gradually, the system of government came to consist of political parties and interest groups. At the same time freedom of speech lost part of its character as a citize...
Before Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press in 1436, books and writings had to be laboriously copied by hand. In practice, this happened mostly in monasteries and other religions institutions. It was not necessary to check texts or to have carefully monitored censorship. Printing techniques and the distribution of several copies of the same ...
- Pekka Hallberg, Janne Virkkunen
- 2017
Introduction: Freedom of Speech and Self-Censorship in the Roman Empire. Edward Watts. Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire, 2014. This paper, which serves to introduce the studies collected in this dossier, examines the practical reality of free speech in the Roman and later Roman empires.
This paper introduces the special issue on Freedom of Speech and Self-Censorship by considering the practical realities of speaking freely amidst an imperial climate with few formal restrictions on speech by many informal ways to penalize those who
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This book contains a collection of essays on the notion of “Free Speech” in classical antiquity. The essays examine such concepts as “freedom of speech,” “self-expression,” and “censorship,” in ancient Greek and Roman culture from historical, philosophical, and literary perspectives.
