The pragmatics of political oratory and decision making in Greek Antiquity

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The European practice of public speaking has its origins in Greek and Roman antiquity. In Greek cities and in the Roman Empire, political decision-making was essentially linked to deliberative debate, i.e. speaking before different political bodies. Since the 5th century B.C., rhetoric was part of the general education of the ruling classes and played a central role in political communication throughout antiquity, but also in all subsequent epochs of European culture through the persistent reception of ancient education. Our research will focus on the connection between oratorical practice and political decision-making and the interaction between speakers and their audiences in its performative, spatial and acoustic conditions. To this end, we will examine different types of assembly buildings from the central areas of Greek culture – from the earliest assembly buildings to Imperial odeia. We will discuss places of public debate in their architectural context and their acoustic dimension as well as speakers and their auditoria. These are conceptualized as part and expression of a specific social configuration, in which the respective roles were determined by various demands and expectations of social and legal status, habitus and education. Based on the study of relevant literary and epigraphic sources as well as the analysis of the architecture of assembly buildings (theaters, agorai, ekklesiasteria, bouleuteria), the practical process of typical oratorical activities in Greek culture will be reconstructed and, using suitable examples, simulated acoustically and visually. This is a precondition to critically examine common assumptions about the practical process of oratorical performance and about the communication and interaction between speaker and auditorium at various public spaces. Furthermore, examining the pragmatics of oratorical events – the practical course of public speaking, but also the social and political, constructional and thus also acoustic conditions and vocal prerequisites of speech – opens up a new approach to hitherto little studied questions such as the accessibility and mode of working of ancient assemblies and the options and limits of political participation.