As G. rightly notes at the end of this book, accurate information about the experiences of those involved in the sex industry in classical Athens is difficult to come by. The lives of both female and male sex labourers are usually obscured by ideology and by the purpose of the texts in which they appear as characters, whether that be entertainment (in comedy or poetry), persuasion (in various types of oratory) or some other goal. What is possible, as G. artfully demonstrates, is to unpick what the presentations of these people reveal about the values and anxieties of the society they lived and worked in, and the ‘complex networks and ambivalent attitudes’ they navigated (p. 161). In this book, focused specifically on forensic oratory, G. explores how the presentations of sex labourers as characters in Athenian lawcourt speeches respond to and expose Athenian ideas about gender roles, citizenship, freedom and enslavement, and the physical body. (G. carefully chooses the term ‘sexual labour’ over ‘sex work’, so as to elide neither the mobilisation of modern sex workers towards the legitimisation, agency and safety of their profession nor the central role of enslavement in the ancient sex trade.)

The book is divided into chapters each focusing on a particular forensic speech. An introduction establishes context both for forensic oratory and Athenian legal practice and for sexual labour in classical Athens, and also sets up G.'s key theoretical inroads, with a focus on space and mobility. Chapter 1 examines Lysias 4, a case of intentional wounding arising from a conflict over an enslaved female sex labourer. It begins the book's exploration of the characterisation of female sex labourers as having undue influence over men and also compares stereotypes of sex labourers carried over from Athenian comedy. Chapter 2 focuses on Isaeus 6, a complex inheritance case in which the speaker alleges that the mother of one of the claimants was not a legitimate wife but a sex labourer, thus invalidating his claim. This forms the basis of an examination of the view of female sex labourers as destabilising the oikos and, by extension, the polis. Chapter 3 turns to the well-known speech by Apollodorus, [Demosthenes] 59, in which Neaira is identified as a foreign sex labourer, to argue that her ‘marriage’ to Stephanos is illegitimate. Here, the perceived danger of female sex labourers is shown to extend particularly towards ritual practice, the preserve of female citizens; sex labourers are shown to be presented as foils to good female citizens, who embody certain characteristics that sex labourers do not. Chapter 4 moves from female to male sex labourers, examining Lysias 3, another wounding case arising from a dispute over a sex labourer, this time a boy named Theodotus. The discussion explores the speech's parameters for the correct way to love a boy, and sexual labour's proximity to, but important distinction from, the practice of pederasty. Chapter 5 takes Aeschines 1 as its focus, the case against Timarchus for improperly exercising citizen rights to which he was not entitled due to his previous work as a sex labourer. The key arguments revolve around the disposition of the pornos as misaligned with citizen values of moderation, and the perception of the danger posed by men who are ruled by the desire for money and who shield their sexual activities from view inside private houses. A conclusion draws together the theoretical threads that emerge through the individual chapters, highlighting the orators’ use of sex labourers in court to make arguments about the correct conduct of both male and female citizens and the dangers posed by sex labourers and particularly their mobility in the city and in private homes as well as particular constructions of the body, enslavement and foreignness.

G.'s study is a valuable addition to the scholarship on these speeches. The book's structure, taking each speech in turn but drawing out consistent themes from chapter to chapter, allows for a useful analysis of both widespread attitudes towards sex labourers in Athenian courtroom rhetoric and the specific strategy of each speech in its context. Several speeches in the book, notably [Demosthenes] 59 and Aeschines 1, have attracted attention in previous studies for both the prominence of sexual labour and the luridness of their narratives, but G.'s approach gives fresh consideration to their position within the greater Athenian forensic context and, among other findings, demonstrates clearly that their strategies were not entirely unique, but rather the culmination of a more widespread set of rhetorical approaches and values.

Perhaps the most compelling thread of the book's argument is the series of observations on the effects and perceptions of sex labourers’ mobility. In Chapters 1–3 G. draws out the portrayals of Alke, Neaira and the unnamed woman in Lysias 4 as especially mobile both within Athens and further afield. This mobility is presented as a marker of their opposition to citizen wives; legitimate wives were (ideologically speaking) expected to remain within the home, essentially immobile. Female sex labourers, who were not tied to one household, could move more freely between a variety of locations: brothels, symposia and private homes, where they might take up long-term residence, but were not restricted in the same way as citizen wives. Conversely, Aeschines presents Timarchus’ sexual activity as troubling because it takes place in private homes away from public view, unlike the socially appropriate expressions of male homosexual sexuality that occurred in the gymnasium and were viewed as part of paideia, the education of citizen youths. G. demonstrates persuasively that the movement of sex labourers of both genders beyond the bounds of spaces that were socially designated for their citizen counterparts made them dangerous, allowing their subversion of the institution of citizenship. As G. puts it, ‘they exist at the boundaries of such institutions and have the potential to dissolve them’ (p. 160).

G. also shows that place more generally is an important feature of the forensic portrayal of sex labourers. Aeschines locates Timarchus in spaces within the city that seem to have been associated with sexual labour, particularly the deserted areas around the Pnyx. Outside of the astu, the orators place female sex labourers in locations popularly associated with their trade: Neaira in Corinth and Megara, Alke in the Piraeus. The orators make them seem naturally suited to these places; thus, when they subsequently enter private homes, religious festivals, the assembly or other locations representative of Athenian institutions like marriage and citizenship, they are disruptive and out of place.

The mobility of sex labourers and their placement in certain locations also point to another key conclusion of G.'s study: that, regardless of their status, sex labourers are regularly associated with foreignness and enslavement. The orators demonstrate this association in a variety of ways, including where the sex labourer is placed, as already noted, and especially how they use their body. This is particularly (though not exclusively) relevant to male sex labourers: G. artfully draws out implicit knowledge that would have been familiar to the Athenian jury about how citizen men were expected to use their bodies, and how their bodies were examined as a feature and an emblem of their citizenship. As a result, when Timarchus’ body is studied, according to Aeschines, his inappropriateness for citizenship is clear. G. emphasises the role of sex labourers in expressing and defining Athenian social anxieties in the courtroom, a location where, especially in public suits, institutions such as citizenship, marriage and democracy were to be protected.

The volume will be a valuable addition to the library of scholars in Athenian forensic oratory and ancient sexuality and gender.