Papers Published

1. Rigsby, KJ. "Pericles' decree censoring comedy." Transactions of the American Philological Association  vol. 150 no. 2,   287-297. [doi]

   Abstract:
   The claim that Pericles in 440 sponsored a decree restraining comedy because of the genre's offensiveness should be rejected. The claim depends on the scholium to Ar. Ach. 67; this paper argues that the alleged decree was the scholiast's deduction from a victor list that showed three non-performance years in a festival. These are better explained as a suspension in only one of the two dramatic festivals, occasioned not by hostility to freedom of speech but perhaps by limited resources caused by the siege of Samos.