The goddess of democracy crowning the people of Athens, c. 337 BC (Photo: Craig Mauzy)

The Athenians develop the world’s first democracy in the 6th century BCE. The right to isegoria or ‘equality of speech’ – including the right to address the assembly – is a cornerstone of Athenian democracy.

This is how the orator Aeschines describes the Athenian assembly:

“the herald … does not exclude from the platform the man whose ancestors have not held a general’s office, nor even the man who earns his daily bread by working at a trade; nay, these men he most heartily welcomes, and for this reason he repeats again and again the invitation, ‘Who wishes to address the Assembly?’”
(Aeschin. 1.27)

Jacques-Louis David, The Death of Socrates, 1787 (Public Domain)

In 399 BCE, the philosopher Socrates is found guilty of “refusing to recognize the gods recognized by the state” and “corrupting the youth”. He is sentenced to death by drinking poisonous hemlock. (Diog. Laert. 2.40)

Socrates’s pupil Plato later reconstructs his defense speech:

I know that my plainness of speech makes them hate me, and what is their hatred but a proof that I am speaking the truth?
– Socrates, according to Plato’s Apologia

Ashoka’s iconic pillar of Sarnath, c. 250 BC (Public Domain)

In the 3rd century BC, the Mauryan king Ashoka inscribes a number of edicts in stone in present day India. The inscriptions include one of history’s first ‘declarations of religious tolerance’:

“Growth in essentials can be done in different ways, but all of them have as their root restraint in speech, that is, not praising one’s own religion, or condemning the religion of others without good cause. And if there is cause for criticism, it should be done in a mild way.”
– The Edicts of King Ashoka

Read Ashoka’s edicts in full here.

Rome was the most powerful empire in the ancient world. But were the Romans free to speak truth to power? Who came out on top when the words of Cicero clashed with the ambition of Caesar and the armies of Octavian? And why did historians and astrologers become endangered species in the Roman empire? Find out in episode II.

The Romans swearing an oath over Lucretia’s body. Detail from S. Botticelli’s The Story of Lucretia, c. 1500. (Public Domain)

According to Roman legends, the Republic is born in 509 BCE when the Romans expel their last king and swear never to be governed by a tyrant again.

Liberty or libertas and equality before the law are cherished cornerstones in the Roman republic. According to the Roman historian Livy:

“the Romans… valued liberty first… no man stood above the law. They valued their liberty so much precisely because their last king had been so great a tyrant…”
– Livy, History of Rome 2.1

The general and consul Julius Caesar is a controversial character in the history of free speech. When he becomes consul in 59 BCE, he opens the Senatorial protocols for the public. The published acta diurna can be regarded as the first newspaper in history. Instead of silencing his political enemies with force, he generally prefers to fight back with words. Caesar’s polemical response to Cato the Younger, the Anticato, is a brilliant example.

On the other hand, Caesar’s grab for power is one of the main reasons for the fall of the Republic and the loss of liberty. When he names himself ‘dictator indefinitely’ in 44 BCE, Republican senators like Cicero and Cato the Younger view him as a serious threat to Roman liberty.

“War has no use for free speech”
– Caesar, according to Plutarch’s The Life of Julius Caesar 35.7

Cato the Younger (Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek)

Cato the Younger defends the republic to the bitter end. According to Cassius Dio, he pulls out his own intestines when Caesar’s assumption of power.

“I, who have been brought up in freedom, with the right of free speech, cannot in my old age change and learn slavery instead.”
– Cato the Younger according to Cassius Dio, Roman History 43.10

Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (public domain)

Augustus’ successor Tiberius convicts speech crime offenders to death and burns the entire works of seditious writers. In 23 CE, the poet Aelius Saturninus is hurled to death from the Capitol Hill for “reciting improper verses about the emperor”. Two years later, the historian Cremutius Cordus is convicted of treason for calling Caesar’s assassins, Brutus and Cassius, “the last of the Romans”.

According to the historian Suetonius:

“Every crime was treated as capital, even the utterance of a few simple words. A poet was charged with having slandered Agamemnon in a tragedy, and a writer of history of having called Brutus and Cassius the last of the Romans. The writers were at once put to death and their works destroyed”
– Suetonius: The Life of Tiberius 61.2

Why did the polytheist Ancient Romans persecute the followers of the new Jewish sect of “Christians” in the first three centuries AD”? How high was the price that Christians had to pay for casting away their ancient religious traditions for the belief in salvation through Jesus Christ? Did Roman Emperor Constantine end religious intolerance with the Edict of Milan? And why did the Christians persecute the pagans – and each other – once Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire? Why were temples and libraries destroyed and the female mathematician Hypatia killed by violent mobs? And did Emperor Justinian really end antiquity when he closed the Academy in Athens?

Find out when we discover how religious persecution and violence impacted lives, learning, and liberty of conscience in the period from the trial of Jesus to the age of Justinian. The Age of Persecution. That’s episode III of “Clear and Present Danger: A History of Free Speech”.

The great fire according to Hubert Robert (1787) (Public Domain)

A devastating fire breaks out in Rome in 64 AD. According to the historian Tacitus, the Romans think Nero started the fire. To shift the blame, the Emperor accuses the Christians and opens the first in a long series of Christian persecutions. The victims are crucified, burned and fed to the dogs.

“… to scotch the rumour, Nero substituted as culprits, and punished with the utmost refinements of cruelty, a class of men, loathed for their vices, whom the crowd styled Christians … First, then, the confessed members of the sect were arrested; next, on their disclosures, vast numbers were convicted, not so much on the count of arson as for hatred of the human race. And derision accompanied their end: they were covered with wild beasts’ skins and torn to death by dogs; or they were fastened on crosses, and, when daylight failed were burned to serve as lamps by night.”
– Tacitus Annales 15.44