Acquitted/Convicted by a Single Vote?

Abstract This paper deals with procedural issues related to the possibility of tied votes in fourth-century Athens and with the questions of court practice, recording, and rhetorical reuse of votes by ballot. It aims to provide a comprehensive discussion of all cases of nearly split judicial panels in Athens. It examines, first, the problems related to Aeschines’ statement (3.252) about an equal distribution of votes happening in a system with an uneven number of judges and subsequently explores the role of numbers, particularly vote counts, in the rhetorical presentation of data in oratory. Based on several exemplary court cases, it argues that their reliability and objective nature is questionable and that such data should thus be used with caution.