The article discusses the similarities between the basic procedural guarantees of the accused in Polish and Athenian law (V, IV century BC). According to the author, these convergences are not accidental, but are the result of inspiration of former Western, especially German, reformers of criminal law, Athens solutions. Due to the rational and strongly democratic nature of the criminal trial in Athens, they were recognized as a manifestation of natural law and recognized as the basis of a modern criminal trial. For the same reason, they were also used in Poland. It is therefore justified that the concept of basic procedural guarantees of the accused under Polish law was borrowed from Athens law.