Conflits et portraits de famille chez les Bousélides

Why study genealogies of which we have only fragments, and which we know are as much a biological fact as a discursive construction? How can we do this avoiding both the pitfall of positivist reconstitution and that of delegitimizing the actors’ discourses? This book attempts to answer these two interwoven questions by applying to Ancient History the formalized methods inherited from quantitative history and which are now commonplace in the Digital Humanities.

The book focuses on the genealogical discourses produced by the descendants of Bouselos, who fought over the inheritance of their cousin Hagnias, who died without male children in Athens in the 4th century B.C. This case is at the core of two forensic speeches written by Isaeus (11, On the Estate of Hagnias) and Ps.-Demosthenes (43, Against Makartatos). The fact that we can still read two contradictory accounts of the same series of lawsuits, quite a rare occurrence in itself, makes it possible to compare the family portraits presented to the court. It allows us to study the genealogical manipulations produced to create a more advantageous positioning for oneself within the family circle, as well as the discourses on kinship written to convince the judges. To do this, the author relies on a formalized method based essentially on cross-visualization, so named because it multiplies and compares visual forms such as family trees, structure diagrams, and graphs. Cross-referencing visual models, just as we crossreference sources, enables us to study the genealogical fabric of the actors more accurately, as well as that of the scholars who observe them. This book therefore embraces a new method to analyse incomplete, biased, uncertain, and hypothetically reconstituted genealogical material: the multiple prosopographical assumptions that must be preserved become a valuable tool to reach valid conclusions regardless of the hypothesis chosen. The use of Digital Humanities, taking seriously the actors’ discourses and deconstructing the scholars’ tools, sheds new light on the study of kinship in classical Athens. The book is accompanied by online annexes and technical notes that allow readers to replicate the method in other fields of study.