Extract

For most Greek states our evidence is too poor and patchy for us to be able to say much. We know a little about 5th-cent. bce Athens. Sir K. Popper famously praised it as an ‘open society’ but the tolerance of that society had limits. There is some evidence for literary censorship, though of a haphazard and perhaps ineffective sort. *Phrynichus(1) got into trouble near the beginning of the century for putting on a *tragedy dealing with a sensitive political topic (Hdt. 6.21). Between 440 and 437 bce there were formal restrictions on ridicule in theatrical comedy (Fornara no. 111 with the important discussion of ‘political censorship’ at DFA3 364; cf. comedy (greek), old, § 4). On the other hand there were (Dover and Stone) no ‘witch-hunts’ against intellectuals, though *Anaxagoras and other associates of *Pericles(1) were prosecuted in the courts. Anaxagoras' ostensible offence was impiety, and the decree of *Diopeithes, if historical, would provide hard evidence for public control of religious teaching.