I Confess: The Power of Confession: Episode 1 (Radio 3)

I Confess: The Power of the Confession looks at the history of confessions, which links the legal world of Cicero to our own. In Episode one, Dr Kathryn Tempest of Roehampton University excavates the roots of one of the most powerful legal concepts of all time. 'What is Truth?' asked Pilate, and he might also have reflected on that perennial legal problem 'How do we get at it?' If Jesus had been a slave, the prefect of Judaea would have had an easy option - torture followed by confession. In the ancient world, it was thought that slaves would only confess the truth if they were tortured. The slave's master was a rational creature, and could choose whether to tell or cover up the truth. But the slave was thought of as little above a beast who could be forced by violence to disgorge the truth. This was the sordid backdrop to justice which orators like Cicero drew upon when they addressed the courts of Ancient Rome.