Areopagitics

The title page of the Areopagitics.

" Areopagitics: Speech on the freedom of the press from censorship, addressed to the Parliament of England " - a polemical treatise by John Milton , directed against censorship . "Areopagitics" is considered one of the most influential and soulful philosophical speeches in defense of freedom of speech and press .

Published on November 23, 1644 , in the midst of the civil war in England , Areopagitics borrowed the name from the speech of the Athenian orator Isocrates , written in the V century BC. e. Like Isocrates, Milton did not intend to address the sitting in person, having drawn up the text in the form of a pamphlet, the very output of which violated the prohibition of unprincipled publication refuted by the poet.

As a supporter of the parliament, Milton sharply criticized the resolution of 1643 adopted by the deputies on preliminary censorship of publications, noting that there were no such orders either in classical Greece or in Ancient Rome. The text of the treatise is full of references to ancient and biblical sources, reinforcing the arguments of the English poet, who had already suffered from censorship when trying to publish several treatises in defense of divorce .