Areopagitica

right|thumb|Des Wilson in 1987 as president of the Liberal Party, holding as symbol of his office a copy of Areopagitica '''''Areopagitica; A speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc'd Printing, to the Parlament of England''' is a 1644 prose polemic by the English poet, scholar, and polemical author John Milton opposing licensing. Areopagitica'' is among history's most influential and impassioned philosophical defences of the principle of a right to freedom of speech and expression. Many of its expressed principles have formed the basis for modern justifications of that right.

==Background== thumb|The Areopagus, viewed from the [[Acropolis]] Areopagitica was published on 23 November 1644 at the height of the English Civil War. It takes its title in part from Areopagitikós (), a speech written by Athenian orator Isocrates in the 4th century BC. The Areopagus is a hill in Athens, the site of real and legendary tribunals, and was the name of a council whose power Isocrates hoped to restore. Some argue that it is more importantly also a reference to the defence that St Paul made before the Areopagus in Athens against charges of promulgating foreign gods and strange teachings, as recorded in .