Slave Witnesses in Antiphon 5.48

Abstract

Antiphon 5.48 suggests that slaves were competent to serve as witnesses in Athenian homicide cases, an interpretation which sits poorly with our general understanding of Athenian legal procedure. Attempts to emend or reinterpret the clause are unpersuasive; and recent attempts to support the traditional reading are equally unpersuasive. The traditional interpretation is, in fact, correct, but it is simply established by an exact parallel in Plato's Laws (937A).