Josiah Ober Collegiate Professor of Ancient History
About
Sara Forsdyke is an historian of ancient Greece who writes about democracy, slavery, and the law, both ancient and modern. Much of her work begins from the proposition that the ancient Greek past can serve as a valuable resource for examining the issues of today, including how to strengthen our democracy, how to recognize and reduce patterns of discrimination and inequality, and how to reform our criminal justice system.
Her publications include Exile, Ostracism and Democracy: The Politics of Expulsion in Ancient Greece (Princeton, 2005); Slaves Tell Tales: Politics and Popular Culture in Ancient Greece (Princeton, 2012) and Slaves and Slavery in Ancient Greece (Cambridge, 2021). She has written numerous articles on such topics as political protest in pre-modern societies, ancient and modern concepts of the rule of law, and the ways that slaves leveraged the law to advance their interests. For a full list of publications, see a link to her CV.
She is currently working on a project on trial by jury in ancient Greece and contemporary America. A key argument is that trial by jury is essential not just for the equal protection of the law, but also for the engagement of citizens in their democracy. Examination of the ancient Greek jury trial sheds light on these fundamental principles and demonstrates how they are undermined when jury trials are circumvented, as they often are today, as a result of the plea bargain process.
Books:
Slaves and Slavery in Ancient Greece. Cambridge University Press, 2021.
Slaves Tell Tales and Other Episodes in the Politics of Popular Culture in Ancient Greece. Princeton University Press, 2012.
Exile, Ostracism and Democracy: The Politics of Expulsion in Ancient Greece. Princeton University Press, 2005.
Edited Volume:
R. Balot, S.Forsdyke and E.Foster eds. The Oxford Handbook of Thucydides. Oxford, 2017.
Recent Articles and Book Chapters:
“Early Greek Democracy” in The Cambridge History of Democracy (forthcoming)
“‘Doing Whatever She Wants and Going Wherever She Pleases’ The Legal Capacities of Enslaved Women in the Delphic Manumission Documents” co-written with Katelin Mikos, PhD student, University of Michigan (forthcoming)
“Trial By Jury in Classical Athens: A Travesty of Justice?” for conference volume in Honor of Jeffrey Rusten, Cornell (forthcoming)
“Unfree and Enslaved Persons” in Hans Beck, Christy Constantakopolou and Jeremy MacInerny eds. The Oxford History of the Classical Greek World (forthcoming)
“How to Find a New Master: The Agency of Enslaved Persons in Ancient Greece” in S. Gartland and D.Tandy eds. Voiceless, Invisible and Countless: Subordinate Experience in Ancient Greece, 800-300 BCE. (forthcoming)
“Slave Agency and Citizenship in Classical Athens” in Symposion: Gesellschaft für griechische und hellenistische Rechtsgeschichte. Wien, 2018: 345-366.
“Ancient and Modern Conceptions of the Rule of Law” in M.Canevaro, A.Erskine and J.Ober eds. Ancient Greek History and Contemporary Social Science. Edinburgh, 2018.
Blogs and Opinion Pieces:
“Looking Backward in Order to Look Forward: Lessons about Humanity and the Humanities from the Plague at Athens” in K. Hass ed. Being Human During COVID. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. 2021. 176-180.
“Slavery Then and Now: Interrogating the Past to Understand the Present” http://www.cambridgeblog.org/2021/07/slavery-then-and-now-interrogating-the-past-to-understand-the-present/
“Ridding Ourselves of a Demagogue: What the Ancients would have thought of Impeachment” https://press.princeton.edu/ideas/ridding-ourselves-of-a-demagogue-what-the-ancient-greeks-would-have-thought-of-impeachment?utm_source=facebook-main&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=Ideas&utm_content=websitelink.
“Free Speech in Herodotus’ Histories” Herodotus Helpline. A World-Wide Community dedicated to the Father of History. https://herodotushelpline.org/ask-us/
