A Detailed History of Lawyers in Ancient Greece, Rome, England and France

First published in 1849 in London under the title Hortensius: or, The Advocate, Forsyth's History of Lawyers is a spirited account of advocacy in ancient Greece, Rome, and England and of the bar in France. Acknowledging that "[w]e are too apt to cloth the ancients in buckram, and view them, as it were, through a magnifying glass, so that they loom before us in the dim distance in almost colossal proportions, " Forsyth presents in familiar terms the language of the law and how advocates behaved. Frequently citing classical sources with his own translations, he describes in impressive detail such things as curious trials and the rights and obligations of counsel.

William Forsyth [1812-1899] was an English lawyer and author of many works on law and literature, including History Of Trial By Jury (1852).

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I. Advocacy in Theory
CHAPTER II. The Athenian Courts
CHAPTER III. Sketch of the Roman Law and the Roman Courts During the Republic
CHAPTER IV. Advocacy in Ancient Rome
CHAPTER V. Some Account of the Advocates or Rome During the Republic
CHAPTER VI. The Bar Under the Empire, and in the Middle Ages
CHAPTER VII. The Noblesse de la Robe
CHAPTER VIII. Advocacy in England
CHAPTER IX. The Honorarium
CHAPTER X. Forensic Casuistry