Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 19.pdf/511

 478

THE GREEN BAG

ANCIENT

LAWYERS

By Eugene F. Ware THE first definite records of legal custom and procedure come from the ancient city of Athens, and more particularly ap peared in the plays of Aristophanes over 2300 years ago. But traces of lawyers and legal procedure are very much older. In March of the year 422 b.c. Aristoph anes read one of his plays to a Greek audience in which he introduced some inter esting characters. It seems that a wealthy Grecian farmer, so the plot ran, had become inoculated with what he called the "horse fever." And this horse fever impelled him to horse racing and gambling; and in the course of campaigning his horses through the country, at the various races, and betting upon them, he became seriously in debt; and as Socrates was represented as running a law school at the time, or, in the language of the author, a "thinking-shop," the farmer determined to study law, and then try and defeat his creditors. He went, so the story runs, and studied with Socrates, but could not do very well and so quit; but as he had a son who also had the horse fever, and was betting on the races, he brought this son to Socrates, to have Socrates graduate him at law, so that the son could fight his father's creditors. To make a long story short, the young man was a failure, and the whole scheme came to naught. But in the play there are many interesting passages as showing the methods of the day. It seems that the people of Athens were extremely litigious. In fact a subsequent play, entitled "The Wasps, " was written by Aristophanes to set forth that particular characteristic among the people; but in the first play to which I allude, "The Clouds," there are more inter esting paragraphs than in the second. It appears from these plays that one method of issuing summons was verbal. The quar

rels that were had in the street generally ended by one of the parties, then and there before witnesses, summoning the other party to appear before a certain judge on a certain day; so it appears in that ancient time each person might serve his own summons ver bally, in the presence of witnesses; and hence when any accident or tort happened, one party immediately notified the other party to be and appear before a certain magistrate at a certain time to respond to such demand as might then be made, although there were professional summoners. The author, Aristophanes, seems to be very much opposed to lawyers, and repre sents them as full of tricks. For instance, let me read a passage: The old farmer is represented as talking to Socrates thus: Farmer. I have found a very clever method of getting rid of my lawsuit, so that you yourself, Socrates, would acknowl edge it. Socrates. Of what description? Farmer. Have you ever seen this stone in the drug stores, the beautiful and trans parent one, from which they kindle fire? Socrates. Do you mean the burning glass? Farmer. Yes, I do. Come what would you say pray, if I were to take this burning glass, when the clerk was entering the suit, and were to stand at a distance in the direc tion of the sun, thus, and melt out the letters of my suit? Socrates. It would be cleverly done. Farmer. Oh, how I am delighted that a suit of five talents ($5,000.00) has been thus canceled. (Clouds, 760.) This picture of ancient Athens is a valuable one. There is the drug store with a lot of druggist's sundries in. It is probably on a corner. There is a glass lens, for glass had long been known, at least three thousand