THE ATHENIAN CONSTITUTION

By Aristotle

The Constitution of the Athenians or the Athenian Constitution (Greek: Ἀθηναίων πολιτεία Athenaion Politeia) refers to two texts from Classical antiquity: one probably by Aristotle or a student of his, the second attributed to Xenophon, but not thought to be his work. The Aristotelian text is contained in two leaves of a papyrus codexx discovered at Oxyrhynchus, Egypt in 1879. The other work was traditionally included among the shorter works of Xenophon.

THE ATHENIAN CONSTITUTION (350 B.C.)
1

...[They were tried] by a court empanelled from among the noble

families, and sworn upon the sacrifices. The part of accuser was taken

by Myron. They were found guilty of the sacrilege, and their bodies

were cast out of their graves and their race banished for evermore. In

view of this expiation, Epimenides the Cretan performed a purification

of the city.

2

After this event there was contention for a long time between the

upper classes and the populace. Not only was the constitution at

this time oligarchical in every respect, but the poorer classes,

men, women, and children, were the serfs of the rich. They were

known as Pelatae and also as Hectemori, because they cultivated the

lands of the rich at the rent thus indicated. The whole country was in

the hands of a few persons, and if the tenants failed to pay their

rent they were liable to be haled into slavery, and their children

with them. All loans secured upon the debtor's person, a custom

which prevailed until the time of Solon, who was the first to appear

as the champion of the people. But the hardest and bitterest part of

the constitution in the eyes of the masses was their state of serfdom.

Not but what they were also discontented with every other feature of

their lot; for, to speak generally, they had no part nor share in

anything.

3

Now the ancient constitution, as it existed before the time of

Draco, was organized as follows. The magistrates were elected

according to qualifications of birth and wealth. At first they

governed for life, but subsequently for terms of ten years. The

first magistrates, both in date and in importance, were the King,

the Polemarch, and the Archon. The earliest of these offices was

that of the King, which existed from ancestral antiquity. To this

was added, secondly, the office of Polemarch, on account of some of

the kings proving feeble in war; for it was on this account that Ion

was invited to accept the post on an occasion of pressing need. The

last of the three offices was that of the Archon, which most

authorities state to have come into existence in the time of Medon.

Others assign it to the time of Acastus, and adduce as proof the

fact that the nine Archons swear to execute their oaths 'as in the

days of Acastus,' which seems to suggest that it was in his time

that the descendants of Codrus retired from the kingship in return for

the prerogatives conferred upon the Archon. Whichever way it may be,

the difference in date is small; but that it was the last of these

magistracies to be created is shown by the fact that the Archon has no

part in the ancestral sacrifices, as the King and the Polemarch

have, but exclusively in those of later origin. So it is only at a

comparatively late date that the office of Archon has become of

great importance, through the dignity conferred by these later

additions. The Thesmothetae were many years afterwards, when these

offices had already become annual, with the object that they might

publicly record all legal decisions, and act as guardians of them with

a view to determining the issues between litigants. Accordingly

their office, alone of those which have been mentioned, was never of

more than annual duration.

Such, then, is the relative chronological precedence of these

offices. At that time the nine Archons did not all live together.

The King occupied the building now known as the Boculium, near the

Prytaneum, as may be seen from the fact that even to the present day

the marriage of the King's wife to Dionysus takes place there. The

Archon lived in the Prytaneum, the Polemarch in the Epilyceum. The

latter building was formerly called the Polemarcheum, but after

Epilycus, during his term of office as Polemarch, had rebuilt it and

fitted it up, it was called the Epilyceum. The Thesmothetae occupied

the Thesmotheteum. In the time of Solon, however, they all came

together into the Thesmotheteum. They had power to decide cases

finally on their own authority, not, as now, merely to hold a

preliminary hearing. Such then was the arrangement of the

magistracies. The Council of Areopagus had as its constitutionally

assigned duty the protection of the laws; but in point of fact it

administered the greater and most important part of the government

of the state, and inflicted personal punishments and fines summarily

upon all who misbehaved themselves. This was the natural consequence

of the facts that the Archons were elected under qualifications of

birth and wealth, and that the Areopagus was composed of those who had

served as Archons; for which latter reason the membership of the

Areopagus is the only office which has continued to be a

life-magistracy to the present day.

4

Such was, in outline, the first constitution, but not very long

after the events above recorded, in the archonship of Aristaichmus,

Draco enacted his ordinances. Now his constitution had the following

form. The franchise was given to all who could furnish themselves with

a military equipment. The nine Archons and the Treasurers were elected

by this body from persons possessing an unencumbered property of not

less than ten minas, the less important officials from those who could

furnish themselves with a military equipment, and the generals

[Strategi] and commanders of the cavalry [Hipparchi] from those who

could show an unencumbered property of not less than a hundred

minas, and had children born in lawful wedlock over ten years of

age. These officers were required to hold to bail the Prytanes, the

Strategi, and the Hipparchi of the preceding year until their accounts

had been audited, taking four securities of the same class as that

to which the Strategi and the Hipparchi belonged. There was also to be

a Council, consisting of four hundred and one members, elected by

lot from among those who possessed the franchise. Both for this and

for the other magistracies the lot was cast among those who were

over thirty years of age; and no one might hold office twice until

every one else had had his turn, after which they were to cast the lot

afresh. If any member of the Council failed to attend when there was a

sitting of the Council or of the Assembly, he paid a fine, to the

amount of three drachmas if he was a Pentacosiomedimnus, two if he was

a Knight, and One if he was a Zeugites. The Council of Areopagus was

guardian of the laws, and kept watch over the magistrates to see

that they executed their offices in accordance with the laws. Any

person who felt himself wronged might lay an information before the

Council of Areopagus, on declaring what law was broken by the wrong

done to him. But, as has been said before, loans were secured upon the

persons of the debtors, and the land was in the hands of a few.

5

Since such, then, was the organization of the constitution, and

the many were in slavery to the few, the people rose against the upper

class. The strife was keen, and for a long time the two parties were

ranged in hostile camps against one another, till at last, by common

consent, they appointed Solon to be mediator and Archon, and committed

the whole constitution to his hands. The immediate occasion of his

appointment was his poem, which begins with the words:

I behold, and within my heart deep sadness has claimed its place,

As I mark the oldest home of the ancient Ionian race

Slain by the sword.

In this poem he fights and disputes on behalf of each party in

turn against the other, and finally he advises them to come to terms

and put an end to the quarrel existing between them. By birth and

reputation Solon was one of the foremost men of the day, but in wealth

and position he was of the middle class, as is generally agreed, and

is, indeed, established by his own evidence in these poems, where he

exhorts the wealthy not to be grasping.

But ye who have store of good, who are sated and overflow,

Restrain your swelling soul, and still it and keep it low:

Let the heart that is great within you he trained a lowlier way;

Ye shall not have all at your will, and we will not for ever obey.

Indeed, he constantly fastens the blame of the conflict on the

rich; and accordingly at the beginning of the poem he says that he

fears' the love of wealth and an overweening mind', evidently

meaning that it was through these that the quarrel arose.

6

As soon as he was at the head of affairs, Solon liberated the people

once and for all, by prohibiting all loans on the security of the

debtor's person: and in addition he made laws by which he cancelled

all debts, public and private. This measure is commonly called the

Seisachtheia [= removal of burdens], since thereby the people had

their loads removed from them. In connexion with it some persons try

to traduce the character of Solon. It so happened that, when he was

about to enact the Seisachtheia, he communicated his intention to some

members of the upper class, whereupon, as the partisans of the popular

party say, his friends stole a march on him; while those who wish to

attack his character maintain that he too had a share in the fraud

himself. For these persons borrowed money and bought up a large amount

of land, and so when, a short time afterwards, all debts were

cancelled, they became wealthy; and this, they say, was the origin

of the families which were afterwards looked on as having been wealthy

from primeval times. However, the story of the popular party is by far

the most probable. A man who was so moderate and public-spirited in

all his other actions, that when it was within his power to put his

fellow-citizens beneath his feet and establish himself as tyrant, he

preferred instead to incur the hostility of both parties by placing

his honour and the general welfare above his personal

aggrandisement, is not likely to have consented to defile his hands by

such a petty and palpable fraud. That he had this absolute power is,

in the first place, indicated by the desperate condition the

country; moreover, he mentions it himself repeatedly in his poems, and

it is universally admitted. We are therefore bound to consider this

accusation to be false.

7

Next Solon drew up a constitution and enacted new laws; and the

ordinances of Draco ceased to be used, with the exception of those

relating to murder. The laws were inscribed on the wooden stands,

and set up in the King's Porch, and all swore to obey them; and the

nine Archons made oath upon the stone, declaring that they would

dedicate a golden statue if they should transgress any of them. This

is the origin of the oath to that effect which they take to the

present day. Solon ratified his laws for a hundred years; and the

following was the fashion in which he organized the constitution. He

divided the population according to property into four classes, just

as it had been divided before, namely, Pentacosiomedimni, Knights,

Zeugitae, and Thetes. The various magistracies, namely, the nine

Archons, the Treasurers, the Commissioners for Public Contracts

(Poletae), the Eleven, and Clerks (Colacretae), he assigned to the

Pentacosiomedimni, the Knights, and the Zeugitae, giving offices to

each class in proportion to the value of their rateable property. To

who ranked among the Thetes he gave nothing but a place in the

Assembly and in the juries. A man had to rank as a

Pentacosiomedimnus if he made, from his own land, five hundred

measures, whether liquid or solid. Those ranked as Knights who made

three hundred measures, or, as some say, those who were able to

maintain a horse. In support of the latter definition they adduce

the name of the class, which may be supposed to be derived from this

fact, and also some votive offerings of early times; for in the

Acropolis there is a votive offering, a statue of Diphilus, bearing

this inscription:

The son of Diphilus, Athenion hight,

Raised from the Thetes and become a knight,

Did to the gods this sculptured charger bring,

For his promotion a thank-offering.

And a horse stands in evidence beside the man, implying that this

was what was meant by belonging to the rank of Knight. At the same

time it seems reasonable to suppose that this class, like the

Pentacosiomedimni, was defined by the possession of an income of a

certain number of measures. Those ranked as Zeugitae who made two

hundred measures, liquid or solid; and the rest ranked as Thetes,

and were not eligible for any office. Hence it is that even at the

present day, when a candidate for any office is asked to what class he

belongs, no one would think of saying that he belonged to the Thetes.

8

The elections to the various offices Solon enacted should be by lot,

out of candidates selected by each of the tribes. Each tribe

selected ten candidates for the nine archonships, and among these

the lot was cast. Hence it is still the custom for each tribe to

choose ten candidates by lot, and then the lot is again cast among

these. A proof that Solon regulated the elections to office

according to the property classes may be found in the law still in

force with regard to the Treasurers, which enacts that they shall be

chosen from the Pentacosiomedimni. Such was Solon's legislation with

respect to the nine Archons; whereas in early times the Council of

Areopagus summoned suitable persons according to its own judgement and

appointed them for the year to the several offices. There were four

tribes, as before, and four tribe-kings. Each tribe was divided into

three Trittyes [=Thirds], with twelve Naucraries in each; and the

Naucraries had officers of their own, called Naucrari, whose duty it

was to superintend the current receipts and expenditure. Hence,

among the laws of Solon now obsolete, it is repeatedly written that

the Naucrari are to receive and to spend out of the Naucraric fund.

Solon also appointed a Council of four hundred, a hundred from each

tribe; but he assigned to the Council of the Areopagus the duty of

superintending the laws, acting as before as the guardian of the

constitution in general. It kept watch over the affairs of the state

in most of the more important matters, and corrected offenders, with

full powers to inflict either fines or personal punishment. The

money received in fines it brought up into the Acropolis, without

assigning the reason for the mulct. It also tried those who

conspired for the overthrow of the state, Solon having enacted a

process of impeachment to deal with such offenders. Further, since

he saw the state often engaged in internal disputes, while many of the

citizens from sheer indifference accepted whatever might turn up, he

made a law with express reference to such persons, enacting that any

one who, in a time civil factions, did not take up arms with either

party, should lose his rights as a citizen and cease to have any

part in the state.

9

Such, then, was his legislation concerning the magistracies. There

are three points in the constitution of Solon which appear to be its

most democratic features: first and most important, the prohibition of

loans on the security of the debtor's person; secondly, the right of

every person who so willed to claim redress on behalf of any one to

whom wrong was being done; thirdly, the institution of the appeal to

the jurycourts; and it is to this last, they say, that the masses have

owed their strength most of all, since, when the democracy is master

of the voting-power, it is master of the constitution. Moreover, since

the laws were not drawn up in simple and explicit terms (but like

the one concerning inheritances and wards of state), disputes

inevitably occurred, and the courts had to decide in every matter,

whether public or private. Some persons in fact believe that Solon

deliberately made the laws indefinite, in order that the final

decision might be in the hands of the people. This, however, is not

probable, and the reason no doubt was that it is impossible to

attain ideal perfection when framing a law in general terms; for we

must judge of his intentions, not from the actual results in the

present day, but from the general tenor of the rest of his

legislation.

10

These seem to be the democratic features of his laws; but in

addition, before the period of his legislation, he carried through his

abolition of debts, and after it his increase in the standards of

weights and measures, and of the currency. During his administration

the measures were made larger than those of Pheidon, and the mina,

which previously had a standard of seventy drachmas, was raised to the

full hundred. The standard coin in earlier times was the two-drachma

piece. He also made weights corresponding with the coinage,

sixty-three minas going to the talent; and the odd three minas were

distributed among the staters and the other values.

11

When he had completed his organization of the constitution in the

manner that has been described, he found himself beset by people

coming to him and harassing him concerning his laws, criticizing

here and questioning there, till, as he wished neither to alter what

he had decided on nor yet to be an object of ill will to every one

by remaining in Athens, he set off on a journey to Egypt, with the

combined objects of trade and travel, giving out that he should not

return for ten years. He considered that there was no call for him

to expound the laws personally, but that every one should obey them

just as they were written. Moreover, his position at this time was

unpleasant. Many members of the upper class had been estranged from

him on account of his abolition of debts, and both parties were

alienated through their disappointment at the condition of things

which he had created. The mass of the people had expected him to

make a complete redistribution of all property, and the upper class

hoped he would restore everything to its former position, or, at any

rate, make but a small change. Solon, however, had resisted both

classes. He might have made himself a despot by attaching himself to

whichever party he chose, but he preferred, though at the cost of

incurring the enmity of both, to be the saviour of his country and the

ideal lawgiver.

12

The truth of this view of Solon's policy is established alike by

common consent, and by the mention he has himself made of the matter

in his poems. Thus:

I gave to the mass of the people such rank as befitted their need,

I took not away their honour, and I granted naught to their greed;

While those who were rich in power, who in wealth were glorious and

great,

I bethought me that naught should befall them unworthy their

splendour and state;

So I stood with my shield outstretched, and both were sale in its

sight,

And I would not that either should triumph, when the triumph was

not with right.

Again he declares how the mass of the people ought to be treated:

But thus will the people best the voice of their leaders obey,

When neither too slack is the rein, nor violence holdeth the sway;

For indulgence breedeth a child, the presumption that spurns control,

When riches too great are poured upon men of unbalanced soul.

And again elsewhere he speaks about the persons who wished to

redistribute the land:

So they came in search of plunder, and their cravings knew no hound,

Every one among them deeming endless wealth would here be found.

And that I with glozing smoothness hid a cruel mind within.

Fondly then and vainly dreamt they; now they raise an angry din,

And they glare askance in anger, and the light within their eyes

Burns with hostile flames upon me. Yet therein no justice lies.

All I promised, fully wrought I with the gods at hand to cheer,

Naught beyond in folly ventured. Never to my soul was dear

With a tyrant's force to govern, nor to see the good and base

Side by side in equal portion share the rich home of our race.

Once more he speaks of the abolition of debts and of those who

before were in servitude, but were released owing to the Seisachtheia:

Of all the aims for which I summoned forth

The people, was there one I compassed not?

Thou, when slow time brings justice in its train,

O mighty mother of the Olympian gods,

Dark Earth, thou best canst witness, from whose breast

I swept the pillars broadcast planted there,

And made thee free, who hadst been slave of yore.

And many a man whom fraud or law had sold

For from his god-built land, an outcast slave,

I brought again to Athens; yea, and some,

Exiles from home through debt's oppressive load,

Speaking no more the dear ATHENIAN tongue,

But wandering far and wide, I brought again;

And those that here in vilest slavery

Crouched 'neath a master's frown, I set them free.

Thus might and right were yoked in harmony,

Since by the force of law I won my ends

And kept my promise. Equal laws I gave

To evil and to good, with even hand

Drawing straight justice for the lot of each.

But had another held the goad as

One in whose heart was guile and greediness,

He had not kept the people back from strife.

For had I granted, now what pleased the one,

Then what their foes devised in counterpoise,

Of many a man this state had been bereft.

Therefore I showed my might on every side,

Turning at bay like wolf among the hounds.

And again he reviles both parties for their grumblings in the

times that followed:

Nay, if one must lay blame where blame is due,

Wer't not for me, the people ne'er had set

Their eyes upon these blessings e'en in dreams:-

While greater men, the men of wealthier life,

Should praise me and should court me as their friend.

For had any other man, he says, received this exalted post,

He had not kept the people hack, nor ceased

Til he had robbed the richness of the milk.

But I stood forth a landmark in the midst,

And barred the foes from battle.

13

Such then, were Solon's reasons for his departure from the

country. After his retirement the city was still torn by divisions.

For four years, indeed, they lived in peace; but in the fifth year

after Solon's government they were unable to elect an Archon on

account of their dissensions, and again four years later they

elected no Archon for the same reason. Subsequently, after a similar

period had elapsed, Damasias was elected Archon; and he governed for

two years and two months, until he was forcibly expelled from his

office. After this, it was agreed, as a compromise, to elect ten

Archons, five from the Eupatridae, three from the Agroeci, and two

from the Demiurgi, and they ruled for the year following Damasias.

It is clear from this that the Archon was at the time the magistrate

who possessed the greatest power, since it is always in connexion with

this office that conflicts are seen to arise. But altogether they were

in a continual state of internal disorder. Some found the cause and

justification of their discontent in the abolition of debts, because

thereby they had been reduced to poverty; others were dissatisfied

with the political constitution, because it had undergone a

revolutionary change; while with others the motive was found in

personal rivalries among themselves. The parties at this time were

three in number. First there was the party of the Shore, led by

Megacles the son of Alcmeon, which was considered to aim at a moderate

form of government; then there were the men of the Plain, who

desired an oligarchy and were led by Lycurgus; and thirdly there

were the men of the Highlands, at the head of whom was Pisistratus,

who was looked on as an extreme democrat. This latter party was

reinforced by those who had been deprived of the debts due to them,

from motives of poverty, and by those who were not of pure descent,

from motives of personal apprehension. A proof of this is seen in

the fact that after the tyranny was overthrown a revision was made

of the citizen-roll, on the ground that many persons were partaking in

the franchise without having a right to it. The names given to the

respective parties were derived from the districts in which they

held their lands.

14

Pisistratus had the reputation of being an extreme democrat, and

he also had distinguished himself greatly in the war with Megara.

Taking advantage of this, he wounded himself, and by representing that

his injuries had been inflicted on him by his political rivals, he

persuaded the people, through a motion proposed by Aristion, to

grant him a bodyguard. After he had got these 'club-bearers', as

they were called, he made an attack with them on the people and seized

the Acropolis. This happened in the archonship of Comeas, thirty-one

years after the legislation of Solon. It is related that, when

Pisistratus asked for his bodyguard, Solon opposed the request, and

declared that in so doing he proved himself wiser than half the people

and braver than the rest,-wiser than those who did not see that

Pisistratus designed to make himself tyrant, and braver than those who

saw it and kept silence. But when all his words availed nothing he

carried forth his armour and set it up in front of his house, saying

that he had helped his country so far as lay in his power (he was

already a very old man), and that he called on all others to do the

same. Solon's exhortations, however, proved fruitless, and Pisistratus

assumed the sovereignty. His administration was more like a

constitutional government than the rule of a tyrant; but before his

power was firmly established, the adherents of Megacles and Lycurgus

made a coalition and drove him out. This took place in the

archonship of Hegesias, five years after the first establishment of

his rule. Eleven years later Megacles, being in difficulties in a

party struggle, again opened-negotiations with Pisistratus,

proposing that the latter should marry his daughter; and on these

terms he brought him back to Athens, by a very primitive and

simple-minded device. He first spread abroad a rumour that Athena

was bringing back Pisistratus, and then, having found a woman of great

stature and beauty, named Phye (according to Herodotus, of the deme of

Paeania, but as others say a Thracian flower-seller of the deme of

Collytus), he dressed her in a garb resembling that of the goddess and

brought her into the city with Pisistratus. The latter drove in on a

chariot with the woman beside him, and the inhabitants of the city,

struck with awe, received him with adoration.

15

In this manner did his first return take place. He did not, however,

hold his power long, for about six years after his return he was again

expelled. He refused to treat the daughter of Megacles as his wife,

and being afraid, in consequence, of a combination of the two opposing

parties, he retired from the country. First he led a colony to a place

called Rhaicelus, in the region of the Thermaic gulf; and thence he

passed to the country in the neighbourhood of Mt. Pangaeus. Here he

acquired wealth and hired mercenaries; and not till ten years had

elapsed did he return to Eretria and make an attempt to recover the

government by force. In this he had the assistance of many allies,

notably the Thebans and Lygdamis of Naxos, and also the Knights who

held the supreme power in the constitution of Eretria. After his

victory in the battle at Pallene he captured Athens, and when he had

disarmed the people he at last had his tyranny securely established,

and was able to take Naxos and set up Lygdamis as ruler there. He

effected the disarmament of the people in the following manner. He

ordered a parade in full armour in the Theseum, and began to make a

speech to the people. He spoke for a short time, until the people

called out that they could not hear him, whereupon he bade them come

up to the entrance of the Acropolis, in order that his voice might

be better heard. Then, while he continued to speak to them at great

length, men whom he had appointed for the purpose collected the arms

and locked them up in the chambers of the Theseum hard by, and came

and made a signal to him that it was done. Pisistratus accordingly,

when he had finished the rest of what he had to say, told the people

also what had happened to their arms; adding that they were not to

be surprised or alarmed, but go home and attend to their private

affairs, while he would himself for the future manage all the business

of the state.

16

Such was the origin and such the vicissitudes of the tyranny of

Pisistratus. His administration was temperate, as has been said

before, and more like constitutional government than a tyranny. Not

only was he in every respect humane and mild and ready to forgive

those who offended, but, in addition, he advanced money to the

poorer people to help them in their labours, so that they might make

their living by agriculture. In this he had two objects, first that

they might not spend their time in the city but might be scattered

over all the face of the country, and secondly that, being

moderately well off and occupied with their own business, they might

have neither the wish nor the time to attend to public affairs. At the

same time his revenues were increased by the thorough cultivation of

the country, since he imposed a tax of one tenth on all the produce.

For the same reasons he instituted the local justices,' and often made

expeditions in person into the country to inspect it and to settle

disputes between individuals, that they might not come into the city

and neglect their farms. It was in one of these progresses that, as

the story goes, Pisistratus had his adventure with the man of

Hymettus, who was cultivating the spot afterwards known as 'Tax-free

Farm'. He saw a man digging and working at a very stony piece of

ground, and being surprised he sent his attendant to ask what he got

out of this plot of land. 'Aches and pains', said the man; 'and that's

what Pisistratus ought to have his tenth of'. The man spoke without

knowing who his questioner was; but Pisistratus was so leased with his

frank speech and his industry that he granted him exemption from all

taxes. And so in matters in general he burdened the people as little

as possible with his government, but always cultivated peace and

kept them in all quietness. Hence the tyranny of Pisistratus was often

spoken of proverbially as 'the age of gold'; for when his sons

succeeded him the government became much harsher. But most important

of all in this respect was his popular and kindly disposition. In

all things he was accustomed to observe the laws, without giving

himself any exceptional privileges. Once he was summoned on a charge

of homicide before the Areopagus, and he appeared in person to make

his defence; but the prosecutor was afraid to present himself and

abandoned the case. For these reasons he held power long, and whenever

he was expelled he regained his position easily. The majority alike of

the upper class and of the people were in his favour; the former he

won by his social intercourse with them, the latter by the

assistance which he gave to their private purses, and his nature

fitted him to win the hearts of both. Moreover, the laws in

reference to tyrants at that time in force at Athens were very mild,

especially the one which applies more particularly to the

establishment of a tyranny. The law ran as follows: 'These are the

ancestral statutes of the ATHENIANs; if any persons shall make an

attempt to establish a tyranny, or if any person shall join in setting

up a tyranny, he shall lose his civic rights, both himself and his

whole house.'

17

Thus did Pisistratus grow old in the possession of power, and he

died a natural death in the archonship of Philoneos, three and

thirty years from the time at which he first established himself as

tyrant, during nineteen of which he was in possession of power; the

rest he spent in exile. It is evident from this that the story is mere

gossip which states that Pisistratus was the youthful favourite of

Solon and commanded in the war against Megara for the recovery of

Salamis. It will not harmonize with their respective ages, as any

one may see who will reckon up the years of the life of each of

them, and the dates at which they died. After the death of Pisistratus

his sons took up the government, and conducted it on the same

system. He had two sons by his first and legitimate wife, Hippias

and Hipparchus, and two by his Argive consort, Iophon and

Hegesistratus, who was surnamed Thessalus. For Pisistratus took a wife

from Argos, Timonassa, the daughter of a man of Argos, named Gorgilus;

she had previously been the wife of Archinus of Ambracia, one of the

descendants of Cypselus. This was the origin of his friendship with

the Argives, on account of which a thousand of them were brought

over by Hegesistratus and fought on his side in the battle at Pallene.

Some authorities say that this marriage took place after his first

expulsion from Athens, others while he was in possession of the

government.

18

Hippias and Hipparchus assumed the control of affairs on grounds

alike of standing and of age; but Hippias, as being also naturally

of a statesmanlike and shrewd disposition, was really the head of

the government. Hipparchus was youthful in disposition, amorous, and

fond of literature (it was he who invited to Athens Anacreon,

Simonides, and the other poets), while Thessalus was much junior in

age, and was violent and headstrong in his behaviour. It was from

his character that all the evils arose which befell the house. He

became enamoured of Harmodius, and, since he failed to win his

affection, he lost all restraint upon his passion, and in addition

to other exhibitions of rage he finally prevented the sister of

Harmodius from taking the part of a basket-bearer in the Panathenaic

procession, alleging as his reason that Harmodius was a person of

loose life. Thereupon, in a frenzy of wrath, Harmodius and

Aristogeiton did their celebrated deed, in conjunction with a number

of confederates. But while they were lying in wait for Hippias in

the Acropolis at the time of the Panathenaea (Hippias, at this moment,

was awaiting the arrival of the procession, while Hipparchus was

organizing its dispatch) they saw one of the persons privy to the plot

talking familiarly with him. Thinking that he was betraying them,

and desiring to do something before they were arrested, they rushed

down and made their attempt without waiting for the rest of their

confederates. They succeeded in killing Hipparchus near the

Leocoreum while he was engaged in arranging the procession, but ruined

the design as a whole; of the two leaders, Harmodius was killed on the

spot by the guards, while Aristogeiton was arrested, and perished

later after suffering long tortures. While under the torture he

accused many persons who belonged by birth to the most distinguished

families and were also personal friends of the tyrants. At first the

government could find no clue to the conspiracy; for the current

story, that Hippias made all who were taking part in the procession

leave their arms, and then detected those who were carrying secret

daggers, cannot be true, since at that time they did not bear arms

in the processions, this being a custom instituted at a later period

by the democracy. According to the story of the popular party,

Aristogeiton accused the friends of the tyrants with the deliberate

intention that the latter might commit an impious act, and at the same

time weaken themselves, by putting to death innocent men who were

their own friends; others say that he told no falsehood, but was

betraying the actual accomplices. At last, when for all his efforts he

could not obtain release by death, he promised to give further

information against a number of other persons; and, having induced

Hippias to give him his hand to confirm his word, as soon as he had

hold of it he reviled him for giving his hand to the murderer of his

brother, till Hippias, in a frenzy of rage, lost control of himself

and snatched out his dagger and dispatched him.

19

After this event the tyranny became much harsher. In consequence

of his vengeance for his brother, and of the execution and

banishment of a large number of persons, Hippias became a distrusted

and an embittered man. About three years after the death of

Hipparchus, finding his position in the city insecure, he set about

fortifying Munichia, with the intention of establishing himself there.

While he was still engaged on this work, however, he was expelled by

Cleomenes, king of Lacedaemon, in consequence of the Spartans being

continually incited by oracles to overthrow the tyranny. These oracles

were obtained in the following way. The Athenian exiles, headed by the

Alcmeonidae, could not by their own power effect their return, but

failed continually in their attempts. Among their other failures, they

fortified a post in Attica, Lipsydrium, above Mt. Parnes, and were

there joined by some partisans from the city; but they were besieged

by the tyrants and reduced to surrender. After this disaster the

following became a popular drinking song:

Ah! Lipsydrium, faithless friend!

Lo, what heroes to death didst send,

Nobly born and great in deed!

Well did they prove themselves at need

Of noble sires a noble seed.

Having failed, then, in very other method, they took the contract

for rebuilding the temple at Delphi, thereby obtaining ample funds,

which they employed to secure the help of the Lacedaemonians. All this

time the Pythia kept continually enjoining on the Lacedaemonians who

came to consult the oracle, that they must free Athens; till finally

she succeeded in impelling the Spartans to that step, although the

house of Pisistratus was connected with them by ties of hospitality.

The resolution of the Lacedaemonians was, however, at least equally

due to the friendship which had been formed between the house of

Pisistratus and Argos. Accordingly they first sent Anchimolus by sea

at the head of an army; but he was defeated and killed, through the

arrival of Cineas of Thessaly to support the sons of Pisistratus

with a force of a thousand horsemen. Then, being roused to anger by

this disaster, they sent their king, Cleomenes, by land at the head of

a larger force; and he, after defeating the Thessalian cavalry when

they attempted to intercept his march into Attica, shut up Hippias

within what was known as the Pelargic wall and blockaded him there

with the assistance of the Athenians. While he was sitting down before

the place, it so happened that the sons of the Pisistratidae were

captured in an attempt to slip out; upon which the tyrants capitulated

on condition of the safety of their children, and surrendered the

Acropolis to the Athenians, five days being first allowed them to

remove their effects. This took place in the archonship of

Harpactides, after they had held the tyranny for about seventeen years

since their father's death, or in all, including the period of their

father's rule, for nine-and-forty years.

20

After the overthrow of the tyranny, the rival leaders in the state

were Isagoras son of Tisander, a partisan of the tyrants, and

Cleisthenes, who belonged to the family of the Alcmeonidae.

Cleisthenes, being beaten in the political clubs, called in the people

by giving the franchise to the masses. Thereupon Isagoras, finding

himself left inferior in power, invited Cleomenes, who was united to

him by ties of hospitality, to return to Athens, and persuaded him

to 'drive out the pollution', a plea derived from the fact that the

Alcmeonidae were suppposed to be under the curse of pollution. On this

Cleisthenes retired from the country, and Cleomenes, entering Attica

with a small force, expelled, as polluted, seven hundred Athenian

families. Having effected this, he next attempted to dissolve the

Council, and to set up Isagoras and three hundred of his partisans

as the supreme power in the state. The Council, however, resisted, the

populace flocked together, and Cleomenes and Isagoras, with their

adherents, took refuge in the Acropolis. Here the people sat down

and besieged them for two days; and on the third they agreed to let

Cleomenes and all his followers de art, while they summoned

Cleisthenes and the other exiles back to Athens. When the people had

thus obtained the command of affairs, Cleisthenes was their chief

and popular leader. And this was natural; for the Alcmeonidae were

perhaps the chief cause of the expulsion of the tyrants, and for the

greater part of their rule were at perpetual war with them. But even

earlier than the attempts of the Alcmeonidae, one Cedon made an attack

on the tyrants; when there came another popular drinking song,

addressed to him:

Pour a health yet again, boy, to Cedon; forget not this duty to do,

If a health is an honour befitting the name of a good man and true.

21

The people, therefore, had good reason to place confidence in

Cleisthenes. Accordingly, now that he was the popular leader, three

years after the expulsion of the tyrants, in the archonship of

Isagoras, his first step was to distribute the whole population into

ten tribes in place of the existing four, with the object of

intermixing the members of the different tribes, and so securing

that more persons might have a share in the franchise. From this arose

the saying 'Do not look at the tribes', addressed to those who

wished to scrutinize the lists of the old families. Next he made the

Council to consist of five hundred members instead of four hundred,

each tribe now contributing fifty, whereas formerly each had sent a

hundred. The reason why he did not organize the people into twelve

tribes was that he might not have to use the existing division into

trittyes; for the four tribes had twelve trittyes, so that he would

not have achieved his object of redistributing the population in fresh

combinations. Further, he divided the country into thirty groups of

demes, ten from the districts about the city, ten from the coast,

and ten from the interior. These he called trittyes; and he assigned

three of them by lot to each tribe, in such a way that each should

have one portion in each of these three localities. All who lived in

any given deme he declared fellow-demesmen, to the end that the new

citizens might not be exposed by the habitual use of family names, but

that men might be officially described by the names of their demes;

and accordingly it is by the names of their demes that the Athenians

speak of one another. He also instituted Demarchs, who had the same

duties as the previously existing Naucrari,-the demes being made to

take the place of the naucraries. He gave names to the demes, some

from the localities to which they belonged, some from the persons

who founded them, since some of the areas no longer corresponded to

localities possessing names. On the other hand he allowed every one to

retain his family and clan and religious rites according to

ancestral custom. The names given to the tribes were the ten which the

Pythia appointed out of the hundred selected national heroes.

22

By these reforms the constitution became much more democratic than

that of Solon. The laws of Solon had been obliterated by disuse during

the period of the tyranny, while Cleisthenes substituted new ones with

the object of securing the goodwill of the masses. Among these was the

law concerning ostracism. Four year after the establishment of this

system, in the archonship of Hermocreon, they first imposed upon the

Council of Five Hundred the oath which they take to the present day.

Next they began to elect the generals by tribes, one from each

tribe, while the Polemarch was the commander of the whole army.

Then, eleven years later, in the archonship of Phaenippus they won the

battle of Marathon; and two years after this victory, when the

people had now gained self-confidence, they for the first time made

use of the law of ostracism. This had originally been passed as a

precaution against men in high office, because Pisistratus took

advantage of his position as a popular leader and general to make

himself tyrant; and the first person ostracized was one of his

relatives, Hipparchus son of Charmus, of the deme of Collytus, the

very person on whose account especially Cleisthenes had enacted the

law, as he wished to get rid of him. Hitherto, however, he had

escaped; for the Athenians, with the usual leniency of the

democracy, allowed all the partisans of the tyrants, who had not

joined in their evil deeds in the time of the troubles to remain in

the city; and the chief and leader of these was Hipparchus. Then in

the very next year, in the archonship of Telesinus, they for the first

time since the tyranny elected, tribe by tribe, the nine Archons by

lot out of the five hundred candidates selected by the demes, all

the earlier ones having been elected by vote; and in the same year

Megacles son of Hippocrates, of the deme of Alopece, was ostracized.

Thus for three years they continued to ostracize the friends of the

tyrants, on whose account the law had been passed; but in the

following year they began to remove others as well, including any

one who seemed to be more powerful than was expedient. The first

person unconnected with the tyrants who was ostracized was

Xanthippus son of Ariphron. Two years later, in the archonship of

Nicodemus, the mines of Maroneia were discovered, and the state made a

profit of a hundred talents from the working of them. Some persons

advised the people to make a distribution of the money among

themselves, but this was prevented by Themistocles. He refused to

say on what he proposed to spend the money, but he bade them lend it

to the hundred richest men in Athens, one talent to each, and then, if

the manner in which it was employed pleased the people, the

expenditure should be charged to the state, but otherwise the state

should receive the sum back from those to whom it was lent. On these

terms he received the money and with it he had a hundred triremes

built, each of the hundred individuals building one; and it was with

these ships that they fought the battle of Salamis against the

barbarians. About this time Aristides the son of Lysimachus was

ostracized. Three years later, however, in the archonship of

Hypsichides, all the ostracized persons were recalled, on account of

the advance of the army of Xerxes; and it was laid down for the future

that persons under sentence of ostracism must live between Geraestus

and Scyllaeum, on pain of losing their civic rights irrevocably.

23

So far, then, had the city progressed by this time, growing

gradually with the growth of the democracy; but after the Persian wars

the Council of Areopagus once more developed strength and assumed

the control of the state. It did not acquire this supremacy by

virtue of any formal decree, but because it had been the cause of

the battle of Salamis being fought. When the generals were utterly

at a loss how to meet the crisis and made proclamation that every

one should see to his own safety, the Areopagus provided a donation of

money, distributing eight drachmas to each member of the ships' crews,

and so prevailed on them to go on board. On these grounds people bowed

to its prestige; and during this period Athens was well

administered. At this time they devoted themselves to the

prosecution of the war and were in high repute among the Greeks, so

that the command by sea was conferred upon them, in spite of the

opposition of the Lacedaemonians. The leaders of the people during

this period were Aristides, of Lysimachus, and Themistocles, son of

Lysimachus, and Themistocles, son of Neocles, of whom the latter

appeared to devote himself to the conduct of war, while the former had

the reputation of being a clever statesman and the most upright man of

his time. Accordingly the one was usually employed as general, the

other as political adviser. The rebuilding of the fortifications

they conducted in combination, although they were political opponents;

but it was Aristides who, seizing the opportunity afforded by the

discredit brought upon the Lacedaemonians by Pausanias, guided the

public policy in the matter of the defection of the Ionian states from

the alliance with Sparta. It follows that it was he who made the first

assessment of tribute from the various allied states, two years

after the battle of Salamis, in the archonship of Timosthenes; and

it was he who took the oath of offensive and defensive alliance with

the Ionians, on which occasion they cast the masses of iron into the

sea.

24

After this, seeing the state growing in confidence and much wealth

accumulated, he advised the people to lay hold of the leadership of

the league, and to quit the country districts and settle in the

city. He pointed out to them that all would be able to gain a living

there, some by service in the army, others in the garrisons, others by

taking a part in public affairs; and in this way they would secure the

leadership. This advice was taken; and when the people had assumed the

supreme control they proceeded to treat their allies in a more

imperious fashion, with the exception of the Chians, Lesbians, and

Samians. These they maintained to protect their empire, leaving

their constitutions untouched, and allowing them to retain whatever

dominion they then possessed. They also secured an ample maintenance

for the mass of the population in the way which Aristides had

pointed out to them. Out of the proceeds of the tributes and the taxes

and the contributions of the allies more than twenty thousand

persons were maintained. There were 6,000 jurymen, 1,600 bowmen, 1,200

Knights, 500 members of the Council, 500 guards of the dockyards,

besides fifty guards in the Acropolis. There were some 700 magistrates

at home, and some 700 abroad. Further, when they subsequently went

to war, there were in addition 2,500 heavy-armed troops, twenty

guard-ships, and other ships which collected the tributes, with

crews amounting to 2,000 men, selected by lot; and besides these there

were the persons maintained at the Prytaneum, and orphans, and

gaolers, since all these were supported by the state.

25

Such was the way in which the people earned their livelihood. The

supremacy of the Areopagus lasted for about seventeen years after

the Persian wars, although gradually declining. But as the strength of

the masses increased, Ephialtes, son of Sophonides, a man with a

reputation for incorruptibility and public virtue, who had become

the leader of the people, made an attack upon that Council. First of

all he ruined many of its members by bringing actions against them

with reference to their administration. Then, in the archonship of

Conon, he stripped the Council of all the acquired prerogatives from

which it derived its guardianship of the constitution, and assigned

some of them to the Council of Five Hundred, and others to the

Assembly and the law-courts. In this revolution he was assisted by

Themistocles, who was himself a member of the Areopagus, but was

expecting to be tried before it on a charge of treasonable dealings

with Persia. This made him anxious that it should be overthrown, and

accordingly he warned Ephialtes that the Council intended to arrest

him, while at the same time he informed the Areopagites that he

would reveal to them certain persons who were conspiring to subvert

the constitution. He then conducted the representatives delegated by

the Council to the residence of Ephialtes, promising to show them

the conspirators who assembled there, and proceeded to converse with

them in an earnest manner. Ephialtes, seeing this, was seized with

alarm and took refuge in suppliant guise at the altar. Every one was

astounded at the occurrence, and presently, when the Council of Five

Hundred met, Ephialtes and Themistocles together proceeded to denounce

the Areopagus to them. This they repeated in similar fashion in the

Assembly, until they succeeded in depriving it of its power. Not

long afterwards, however, Ephialtes was assassinated by Aristodicus of

Tanagra. In this way was the Council of Areopagus deprived of its

guardianship of the state.

26

After this revolution the administration of the state became more

and more lax, in consequence of the eager rivalry of candidates for

popular favour. During this period the moderate party, as it happened,

had no real chief, their leader being Cimon son of Miltiades, who

was a comparatively young man, and had been late in entering public

life; and at the same time the general populace suffered great

losses by war. The soldiers for active service were selected at that

time from the roll of citizens, and as the generals were men of no

military experience, who owed their position solely to their family

standing, it continually happened that some two or three thousand of

the troops perished on an expedition; and in this way the best men

alike of the lower and the upper classes were exhausted.

Consequently in most matters of administration less heed was paid to

the laws than had formerly been the case. No alteration, however,

was made in the method of election of the nine Archons, except that

five years after the death of Ephialtes it was decided that the

candidates to be submitted to the lot for that office might be

selected from the Zeugitae as well as from the higher classes. The

first Archon from that class was Mnesitheides. Up to this time all the

Archons had been taken from the Pentacosiomedimni and Knights, while

the Zeugitae were confined to the ordinary magistracies, save where an

evasion of the law was overlooked. Four years later, in the archonship

of Lysicrates, thirty 'local justices', as they as they were called,

were re-established; and two years afterwards, in the archonship of

Antidotus, consequence of the great increase in the number of

citizens, it was resolved, on the motion of Pericles, that no one

should admitted to the franchise who was not of citizen birth by

both parents.

27

After this Pericles came forward as popular leader, having first

distinguished himself while still a young man by prosecuting Cimon

on the audit of his official accounts as general. Under his auspices

the constitution became still more democratic. He took away some of

the privileges of the Areopagus, and, above all, he turned the

policy of the state in the direction of sea power, which caused the

masses to acquire confidence in themselves and consequently to take

the conduct of affairs more and more into their own hands. Moreover,

forty-eight years after the battle of Salamis, in the archonship of

Pythodorus, the Peloponnesian war broke out, during which the populace

was shut up in the city and became accustomed to gain its livelihood

by military service, and so, partly voluntarily and partly

involuntarily, determined to assume the administration of the state

itself. Pericles was also the first to institute pay for service in

the law-courts, as a bid for popular favour to counterbalance the

wealth of Cimon. The latter, having private possessions on a regal

scale, not only performed the regular public services magnificently,

but also maintained a large number of his fellow-demesmen. Any

member of the deme of Laciadae could go every day to Cimon's house and

there receive a reasonable provision; while his estate was guarded

by no fences, so that any one who liked might help himself to the

fruit from it. Pericles' private property was quite unequal to this

magnificence and accordingly he took the advice of Damonides of Oia

(who was commonly supposed to be the person who prompted Pericles in

most of his measures, and was therefore subsequently ostracized),

which was that, as he was beaten in the matter of private possessions,

he should make gifts to the people from their own property; and

accordingly he instituted pay for the members of the juries. Some

critics accuse him of thereby causing a deterioration in the character

of the juries, since it was always the common people who put

themselves forward for selection as jurors, rather than the men of

better position. Moreover, bribery came into existence after this, the

first person to introduce it being Anytus, after his command at Pylos.

He was prosecuted by certain individuals on account of his loss of

Pylos, but escaped by bribing the jury.

28

So long, however, as Pericles was leader of the people, things

went tolerably well with the state; but when he was dead there was a

great change for the worse. Then for the first time did the people

choose a leader who was of no reputation among men of good standing,

whereas up to this time such men had always been found as leaders of

the democracy. The first leader of the people, in the very beginning

of things, was Solon, and the second was Pisistratus, both of them men

of birth and position. After the overthrow of the tyrants there was

Cleisthenes, a member of the house of the Alcmeonidae; and he had no

rival opposed to him after the expulsion of the party of Isagoras.

After this Xanthippus was the leader of the people, and Miltiades of

the upper class. Then came Themistocles and Aristides, and after

them Ephialtes as leader of the people, and Cimon son of Miltiades

of the wealthier class. Pericles followed as leader of the people, and

Thucydides, who was connected by marriage with Cimon, of the

opposition. After the death of Pericles, Nicias, who subsequently fell

in Sicily, appeared as leader of the aristocracy, and Cleon son of

Cleaenetus of the people. The latter seems, more than any one else, to

have been the cause of the corruption of the democracy by his wild

undertakings; and he was the first to use unseemly shouting and coarse

abuse on the Bema, and to harangue the people with his cloak girt up

short about him, whereas all his predecessors had spoken decently

and in order. These were succeeded by Theramenes son of Hagnon as

leader of the one party, and the lyre-maker Cleophon of the people. It

was Cleophon who first granted the twoobol donation for the theatrical

performances, and for some time it continued to be given; but then

Callicrates of Paeania ousted him by promising to add a third obol

to the sum. Both of these persons were subsequently condemned to

death; for the people, even if they are deceived for a time, in the

end generally come to detest those who have beguiled them into any

unworthy action. After Cleophon the popular leadership was occupied

successively by the men who chose to talk the biggest and pander the

most to the tastes of the majority, with their eyes fixed only on

the interests of the moment. The best statesmen at Athens, after those

of early times, seem to have been Nicias, Thucydides, and

Theramenes. As to Nicias and Thucydides, nearly every one agrees

that they were not merely men of birth and character, but also

statesmen, and that they ruled the state with paternal care. On the

merits of Theramenes opinion is divided, because it so happened that

in his time public affairs were in a very stormy state. But those

who give their opinion deliberately find him, not, as his critics

falsely assert, overthrowing every kind of constitution, but

supporting every kind so long as it did not transgress laws; thus

showing that he was able, as every good citizen should be, to live

under any form of constitution, while he refused to countenance

illegality and was its constant enemy.

29

So long as the fortune of the war continued even, the Athenians

preserved the democracy; but after the disaster in Sicily, when the

Lacedaemonians had gained the upper hand through their alliance with

the king of Persia, they were compelled to abolish the democracy and

establish in its place the constitution of the Four Hundred. The

speech recommending this course before the vote was made by

Melobius, and the motion was proposed by Pythodorus of Anaphlystus;

but the real argument which persuaded the majority was the belief that

the king of Persia was more likely to form an alliance with them if

the constitution were on an oligarchical basis. The motion of

Pythodorus was to the following effect. The popular Assembly was to

elect twenty persons, over forty years of age, who, in conjunction

with the existing ten members of the Committee of Public Safety, after

taking an oath that they would frame such measures as they thought

best for the state, should then prepare proposals for the public.

safety. In addition, any other person might make proposals, so that of

all the schemes before them the people might choose the best.

Cleitophon concurred with the motion of Pythodorus, but moved that the

committee should also investigate the ancient laws enacted by

Cleisthenes when he created the democracy, in order that they might

have these too before them and so be in a position to decide wisely;

his suggestion being that the constitution of Cleisthenes was not

really democratic, but closely akin to that of Solon. When the

committee was elected, their first proposal was that the Prytanes

should be compelled to put to the vote any motion that was offered

on behalf of the public safety. Next they abolished all indictments

for illegal proposals, all impeachments and pubic prosecutions, in

order that every Athenian should be free to give his counsel on the

situation, if he chose; and they decreed that if any person imposed

a fine on any other for his acts in this respect, or prosecuted him or

summoned him before the courts, he should, on an information being

laid against him, be summarily arrested and brought before the

generals, who should deliver him to the Eleven to be put to death.

After these preliminary measures, they drew up the constitution in the

following manner. The revenues of the state were not to be spent on

any purpose except the war. All magistrates should serve without

remuneration for the period of the war, except the nine Archons and

the Prytanes for the time being, who should each receive three obols a

day. The whole of the rest of the administration was to be

committed, for the period of the war, to those Athenians who were most

capable of serving the state personally or pecuniarily, to the

number of not less than five thousand. This body was to have full

powers, to the extent even of making treaties with whomsoever they

willed; and ten representatives, over forty years of age, were to be

elected from each tribe to draw up the list of the Five Thousand,

after taking an oath on a full and perfect sacrifice.

30

These were the recommendations of the committee; and when they had

been ratified the Five Thousand elected from their own number a

hundred commissioners to draw up the constitution. They, on their

appointment, drew up and produced the following recommendations. There

should be a Council, holding office for a year, consisting of men over

thirty years of age, serving without pay. To this body should belong

the Generals, the nine Archons, the Amphictyonic Registrar

(Hieromnemon), the Taxiarchs, the Hipparchs, the Phylarch, the

commanders of garrisons, the Treasurers of Athena and the other

gods, ten in number, the Hellenic Treasurers (Hellenotamiae), the

Treasurers of the other non-sacred moneys, to the number of twenty,

the ten Commissioners of Sacrifices (Hieropoei), and the ten

Superintendents of the mysteries. All these were to be appointed by

the Council from a larger number of selected candidates, chosen from

its members for the time being. The other offices were all to be

filled by lot, and not from the members of the Council. The Hellenic

Treasurers who actually administered the funds should not sit with the

Council. As regards the future, four Councils were to be created, of

men of the age already mentioned, and one of these was to be chosen by

lot to take office at once, while the others were to receive it in

turn, in the order decided by the lot. For this purpose the hundred

commissioners were to distribute themselves and all the rest as

equally as possible into four parts, and cast lots for precedence, and

the selected body should hold office for a year. They were to

administer that office as seemed to them best, both with reference

to the safe custody and due expenditure of the finances, and generally

with regard to all other matters to the best of their ability. If they

desired to take a larger number of persons into counsel, each member

might call in one assistant of his own choice, subject to the same

qualification of age. The Council was to sit once every five days,

unless there was any special need for more frequent sittings. The

casting of the lot for the Council was to be held by the nine Archons;

votes on divisions were to be counted by five tellers chosen by lot

from the members of the Council, and of these one was to be selected

by lot every day to act as president. These five persons were to

cast lots for precedence between the parties wishing to appear

before the Council, giving the first place to sacred matters, the

second to heralds, the third to embassies, and the fourth to all other

subjects; but matters concerning the war might be dealt with, on the

motion of the generals, whenever there was need, without balloting.

Any member of the Council who did not enter the Council-house at the

time named should be fined a drachma for each day, unless he was

away on leave of absence from the Council.

31

Such was the constitution which they drew up for the time to come,

but for the immediate present they devised the following scheme. There

should be a Council of Four Hundred, as in the ancient constitution,

forty from each tribe, chosen out of candidates of more than thirty

years of age, selected by the members of the tribes. This Council

should appoint the magistrates and draw up the form of oath which they

were to take; and in all that concerned the laws, in the examination

of official accounts, and in other matters generally, they might act

according to their discretion. They must, however, observe the laws

that might be enacted with reference to the constitution of the state,

and had no power to alter them nor to pass others. The generals should

be provisionally elected from the whole body of the Five Thousand, but

so soon as the Council came into existence it was to hold an

examination of military equipments, and thereon elect ten persons,

together with a secretary, and the persons thus elected should hold

office during the coming year with full powers, and should have the

right, whenever they desired it, of joining in the deliberations of

the Council. The Five thousand was also to elect a single Hipparch and

ten Phylarchs; but for the future the Council was to elect these

officers according to the regulations above laid down. No office,

except those of member of the Council and of general, might be held

more than once, either by the first occupants or by their

successors. With reference to the future distribution of the Four

Hundred into the four successive sections, the hundred commissioners

must divide them whenever the time comes for the citizens to join in

the Council along with the rest.

32

The hundred commissioners appointed by the Five Thousand drew up the

constitution as just stated; and after it had been ratified by the

people, under the presidency of Aristomachus, the existing Council,

that of the year of Callias, was dissolved before it had completed its

term of office. It was dissolved on the fourteenth day of the month

Thargelion, and the Four Hundred entered into office on the

twenty-first; whereas the regular Council, elected by lot, ought to

have entered into office on the fourteenth of Scirophorion. Thus was

the oligarchy established, in the archonship of Callias, just about

a hundred years after the expulsion of the tyrants. The chief

promoters of the revolution were Pisander, Antiphon, and Theramenes,

all of them men of good birth and with high reputations for ability

and judgement. When, however, this constitution had been

established, the Five Thousand were only nominally selected, and the

Four Hundred, together with the ten officers on whom full powers had

been conferred, occupied the Council-house and really administered the

government. They began by sending ambassadors to the Lacedaemonians

proposing a cessation of the war on the basis of the existing

Position; but as the Lacedaemonians refused to listen to them unless

they would also abandon the command of the sea, they broke off the

negotiations.

33

For about four months the constitution of the Four Hundred lasted,

and Mnasilochus held office as Archon of their nomination for two

months of the year of Theopompus, who was Archon for the remaining

ten. On the loss of the naval battle of Eretria, however, and the

revolt of the whole of Euboea except Oreum, the indignation of the

people was greater than at any of the earlier disasters, since they

drew far more supplies at this time from Euboea than from Attica

itself. Accordingly they deposed the Four Hundred and committed the

management of affairs to the Five Thousand, consisting of persons

Possessing a military equipment. At the same time they voted that

pay should not be given for any public office. The persons chiefly

responsible for the revolution were Aristocrates and Theramenes, who

disapproved of the action of the Four Hundred in retaining the

direction of affairs entirely in their own hands, and referring

nothing to the Five Thousand. During this period the constitution of

the state seems to have been admirable, since it was a time of war and

the franchise was in the hands of those who possessed a military

equipment.

34

The people, however, in a very short time deprived the Five Thousand

of their monopoly of the government. Then, six years after the

overthrow of the Four Hundred, in the archonship of Callias of Angele,

battle of Arginusae took place, of which the results were, first, that

the ten generals who had gained the victory were all condemned by a

single decision, owing to the people being led astray by persons who

aroused their indignation; though, as a matter of fact, some of the

generals had actually taken no part in the battle, and others were

themselves picked up by other vessels. Secondly, when the

Lacedaemonians proposed to evacuate Decelea and make peace on the

basis of the existing position, although some of the Athenians

supported this proposal, the majority refused to listen to them. In

this they were led astray by Cleophon, who appeared in the Assembly

drunk and wearing his breastplate, and prevented peace being made,

declaring that he would never accept peace unless the Lacedaemonians

abandoned their claims on all the cities allied with them. They

mismanaged their opportunity then, and in a very short time they

learnt their mistake. The next year, in the archonship of Alexias,

they suffered the disaster of Aegospotami, the consequence of which

was that Lysander became master of the city, and set up the Thirty

as its governors. He did so in the following manner. One of the

terms of peace stipulated that the state should be governed

according to 'the ancient constitution'. Accordingly the popular party

tried to preserve the democracy, while that part of the upper class

which belonged to the political clubs, together with the exiles who

had returned since the peace, aimed at an oligarchy, and those who

were not members of any club, though in other respects they considered

themselves as good as any other citizens, were anxious to restore

the ancient constitution. The latter class included Archinus,

Anytus, Cleitophon, Phormisius, and many others, but their most

prominent leader was Theramenes. Lysander, however, threw his

influence on the side of the oligarchical party, and the popular

Assembly was compelled by sheer intimidation to pass a vote

establishing the oligarchy. The motion to this effect was proposed

by Dracontides of Aphidna.

35

In this way were the Thirty established in power, in the

archonship of Pythodorus. As soon, however, as they were masters of

the city, they ignored all the resolutions which had been passed

relating to the organization of the constitution, but after appointing

a Council of Five Hundred and the other magistrates out of a

thousand selected candidates, and associating with themselves ten

Archons in Piraeus, eleven superintendents of the prison, and three

hundred 'lash-bearers' as attendants, with the help of these they kept

the city under their own control. At first, indeed, they behaved

with moderation towards the citizens and pretended to administer the

state according to the ancient constitution. In pursuance of this

policy they took down from the hill of Areopagus the laws of Ephialtes

and Archestratus relating to the Areopagite Council; they also

repealed such of the statutes of Solon as were obscure, and

abolished the supreme power of the law-courts. In this they claimed to

be restoring the constitution and freeing it from obscurities; as, for

instance, by making the testator free once for all to leave his

property as he pleased, and abolishing the existing limitations in

cases of insanity, old age, and undue female influence, in order

that no opening might be left for professional accusers. In other

matters also their conduct was similar. At first, then, they acted

on these lines, and they destroyed the professional accusers and those

mischievous and evil-minded persons who, to the great detriment of the

democracy, had attached themselves to it in order to curry favour with

it. With all of this the city was much pleased, and thought that the

Thirty were doing it with the best of motives. But so soon as they had

got a firmer hold on the city, they spared no class of citizens, but

put to death any persons who were eminent for wealth or birth or

character. Herein they aimed at removing all whom they had reason to

fear, while they also wished to lay hands on their possessions; and in

a short time they put to death not less than fifteen hundred persons.

36

Theramenes, however, seeing the city thus falling into ruin, was

displeased with their proceedings, and counselled them to cease such

unprincipled conduct and let the better classes have a share in the

government. At first they resisted his advice, but when his

proposals came to be known abroad, and the masses began to associate

themselves with him, they were seized with alarm lest he should make

himself the leader of the people and destroy their despotic power.

Accordingly they drew up a list of three thousand citizens, to whom

they announced that they would give a share in the constitution.

Theramenes, however, criticized this scheme also, first on the

ground that, while proposing to give all respectable citizens a

share in the constitution, they were actually giving it only to

three thousand persons, as though all merit were confined within

that number; and secondly because they were doing two inconsistent

things, since they made the government rest on the basis of force, and

yet made the governors inferior in strength to the governed.

However, they took no notice of his criticisms, and for a long time

put off the publication of the list of the Three Thousand and kept

to themselves the names of those who had been placed upon it; and

every time they did decide to publish it they proceeded to strike

out some of those who had been included in it, and insert others who

had been omitted.

37

Now when winter had set in, Thrasybulus and the exiles occupied

Phyle, and the force which the Thirty led out to attack them met

with a reverse. Thereupon the Thirty decided to disarm the bulk of the

population and to get rid of Theramenes; which they did in the

following way. They introduced two laws into the Council, which they

commanded it to pass; the first of them gave the Thirty absolute power

to put to death any citizen who was not included in the list of the

Three Thousand, while the second disqualified all persons from

participation in the franchise who should have assisted in the

demolition of the fort of Eetioneia, or have acted in any way

against the Four Hundred who had organized the previous oligarchy.

Theramenes had done both, and accordingly, when these laws were

ratified, he became excluded from the franchise and the Thirty had

full power to put him to death. Theramenes having been thus removed,

they disarmed all the people except the Three Thousand, and in every

respect showed a great advance in cruelty and crime. They also sent

ambassadors to Lacedaemonian to blacken the character of Theramenes

and to ask for help; and the Lacedaemonians, in answer to their

appeal, sent Callibius as military governor with about seven hundred

troops, who came and occupied the Acropolis.

38

These events were followed by the occupation of Munichia by the

exiles from Phyle, and their victory over the Thirty and their

partisans. After the fight the party of the city retreated, and next

day they held a meeting in the marketplace and deposed the Thirty, and

elected ten citizens with full powers to bring the war to a

termination. When, however, the Ten had taken over the government they

did nothing towards the object for which they were elected, but sent

envoys to Lacedaemonian to ask for help and to borrow money.

Further, finding that the citizens who possessed the franchise were

displeased at their proceedings, they were afraid lest they should

be deposed, and consequently, in order to strike terror into them

(in which design they succeeded), they arrested Demaretus, one of

the most eminent citizens, and put him to death. This gave them a firm

hold on the government, and they also had the support of Callibius and

his Peloponnesians, together with several of the Knights; for some

of the members of this class were the most zealous among the

citizens to prevent the return of the exiles from Phyle. When,

however, the party in Piraeus and Munichia began to gain the upper

hand in the war, through the defection of the whole populace to

them, the party in the city deposed the original Ten, and elected

another Ten, consisting of men of the highest repute. Under their

administration, and with their active and zealous cooperation, the

treaty of reconciliation was made and the populace returned to the

city. The most prominent members of this board were Rhinon of

Paeania and Phayllus of Acherdus, who, even before the arrival of

Pausanias, opened negotiations with the party in Piraeus, and after

his arrival seconded his efforts to bring about the return of the

exiles. For it was Pausanias, the king of the Lacedaemonians, who

brought the peace and reconciliation to a fulfillment, in

conjunction with the ten commissioners of arbitration who arrived

later from Lacedaemonian, at his own earnest request. Rhinon and his

colleagues received a vote of thanks for the goodwill shown by them to

the people, and though they received their charge under an oligarchy

and handed in their accounts under a democracy, no one, either of

the party that had stayed in the city or of the exiles that had

returned from the Piraeus, brought any complaint against them. On

the contrary, Rhinon was immediately elected general on account of his

conduct in this office.

39

This reconciliation was effected in the archonship of Eucleides,

on the following terms. All persons who, having remained in the city

during the troubles, were now anxious to leave it, were to be free

to settle at Eleusis, retaining their civil rights and possessing full

and independent powers of self-government, and with the free enjoyment

of their own personal property. The temple at Eleusis should be common

ground for both parties, and should be under the superintendence of

the Ceryces, and the Eumolpidae, according to primitive custom. The

settlers at Eleusis should not be allowed to enter Athens, nor the

people of Athens to enter Eleusis, except at the season of the

mysteries, when both parties should be free from these restrictions.

The secessionists should pay their share to the fund for the common

defence out of their revenues, just like all the other Athenians. If

any of the seceding party wished to take a house in Eleusis, the

people would help them to obtain the consent of the owner; but if they

could not come to terms, they should appoint three valuers on either

side, and the owner should receive whatever price they should appoint.

Of the inhabitants of Eleusis, those whom the secessionists wished

to remain should be allowed to do so. The list of those who desired to

secede should be made up within ten days after the taking of the oaths

in the case of persons already in the country, and their actual

departure should take place within twenty days; persons at present out

of the country should have the same terms allowed to them after

their return. No one who settled at Eleusis should be capable of

holding any office in Athens until he should again register himself on

the roll as a resident in the city. Trials for homicide, including all

cases in which one party had either killed or wounded another,

should be conducted according to ancestral practice. There should be a

general amnesty concerning past events towards all persons except

the Thirty, the Ten, the Eleven, and the magistrates in Piraeus; and

these too should be included if they should submit their accounts in

the usual way. Such accounts should be given by the magistrates in

Piraeus before a court of citizens rated in Piraeus, and by the

magistrates in the city before a court of those rated in the city.

On these terms those who wished to do so might secede. Each party

was to repay separately the money which it had borrowed for the war.

40

When the reconciliation had taken place on these terms, those who

had fought on the side of the Thirty felt considerable

apprehensions, and a large number intended to secede. But as they

put off entering their names till the last moment, as people will

do, Archinus, observing their numbers, and being anxious to retain

them as citizens, cut off the remaining days during which the list

should have remained open; and in this way many persons were compelled

to remain, though they did so very unwillingly until they recovered

confidence. This is one point in which Archinus appears to have

acted in a most statesmanlike manner, and another was his subsequent

prosecution of Thrasybulus on the charge of illegality, for a motion

by which he proposed to confer the franchise on all who had taken part

in the return from Piraeus, although some of them were notoriously

slaves. And yet a third such action was when one of the returned

exiles began to violate the amnesty, whereupon Archinus haled him to

the Council and persuaded them to execute him without trial, telling

them that now they would have to show whether they wished to

preserve the democracy and abide by the oaths they had taken; for if

they let this man escape they would encourage others to imitate him,

while if they executed him they would make an example for all to learn

by. And this was exactly what happened; for after this man had been

put to death no one ever again broke the amnesty. On the contrary, the

Athenians seem, both in public and in private, to have behaved in

the most unprecedentedly admirable and public-spirited way with

reference to the preceding troubles. Not only did they blot out all

memory of former offences, but they even repaid to the

Lacedaemonians out of the public purse the money which the Thirty

had borrowed for the war, although the treaty required each party, the

party of the city and the party of Piraeus, to pay its own debts

separately. This they did because they thought it was a necessary

first step in the direction of restoring harmony; but in other states,

so far from the democratic parties making advances from their own

possessions, they are rather in the habit of making a general

redistribution of the land. A final reconciliation was made with the

secessionists at Eleusis two years after the secession, in the

archonship of Xenaenetus.

41

This, however, took place at a later date; at the time of which we

are speaking the people, having secured the control of the state,

established the constitution which exists at the present day.

Pythodorus was Archon at the time, but the democracy seems to have

assumed the supreme power with perfect justice, since it had

effected its own return by its own exertions. This was the eleventh

change which had taken place in the constitution of Athens. The

first modification of the primaeval condition of things was when Ion

and his companions brought the people together into a community, for

then the people was first divided into the four tribes, and the

tribe-kings were created. Next, and first after this, having now

some semblance of a constitution, was that which took place in the

reign of Theseus, consisting in a slight deviation from absolute

monarchy. After this came the constitution formed under Draco, when

the first code of laws was drawn up. The third was that which followed

the civil war, in the time of Solon; from this the democracy took

its rise. The fourth was the tyranny of Pisistratus; the fifth the

constitution of Cleisthenes, after the overthrow of the tyrants, of

a more democratic character than that of Solon. The sixth was that

which followed on the Persian wars, when the Council of Areopagus

had the direction of the state. The seventh, succeeding this, was

the constitution which Aristides sketched out, and which Ephialtes

brought to completion by overthrowing the Areopagite Council; under

this the nation, misled by the demagogues, made the most serious

mistakes in the interest of its maritime empire. The eighth was the

establishment of the Four Hundred, followed by the ninth, the restored

democracy. The tenth was the tyranny of the Thirty and the Ten. The

eleventh was that which followed the return from Phyle and Piraeus;

and this has continued from that day to this, with continual

accretions of power to the masses. The democracy has made itself

master of everything and administers everything by its votes in the

Assembly and by the law-courts, in which it holds the supreme power.

Even the jurisdiction of the Council has passed into the hands of

the people at large; and this appears to be a judicious change,

since small bodies are more open to corruption, whether by actual

money or influence, than large ones. At first they refused to allow

payment for attendance at the Assembly; but the result was that people

did not attend. Consequently, after the Prytanes had tried many

devices in vain in order to induce the populace to come and ratify the

votes, Agyrrhius, in the first instance, made a provision of one

obol a day, which Heracleides of Clazomenae, nicknamed 'the king',

increased to two obols, and Agyrrhius again to three.

42

The present state of the constitution is as follows. The franchise

is open to all who are of citizen birth by both parents. They are

enrolled among the demesmen at the age of eighteen. On the occasion of

their enrollment the demesmen give their votes on oath, first

whether the candidates appear to be of the age prescribed by the law

(if not, they are dismissed back into the ranks of the boys), and

secondly whether the candidate is free born and of such parentage as

the laws require. Then if they decide that he is not a free man, he

appeals to the law-courts, and the demesmen appoint five of their

own number to act as accusers; if the court decides that he has no

right to be enrolled, he is sold by the state as a slave, but if he

wins his case he has a right to be enrolled among the demesmen without

further question. After this the Council examines those who have

been enrolled, and if it comes to the conclusion that any of them is

less than eighteen years of age, it fines the demesmen who enrolled

him. When the youths (Ephebi) have passed this examination, their

fathers meet by their tribes, and appoint on oath three of their

fellow tribesmen, over forty years of age, who, in their opinion,

are the best and most suitable persons to have charge of the youths;

and of these the Assembly elects one from each tribe as guardian,

together with a director, chosen from the general body of Athenians,

to control the while. Under the charge of these persons the youths

first of all make the circuit of the temples; then they proceed to

Piraeus, and some of them garrison Munichia and some the south

shore. The Assembly also elects two trainers, with subordinate

instructors, who teach them to fight in heavy armour, to use the bow

and javelin, and to discharge a catapult. The guardians receive from

the state a drachma apiece for their keep, and the youths four obols

apiece. Each guardian receives the allowance for all the members of

his tribe and buys the necessary provisions for the common stock (they

mess together by tribes), and generally superintends everything. In

this way they spend the first year. The next year, after giving a

public display of their military evolutions, on the occasion when

the Assembly meets in the theatre, they receive a shield and spear

from the state; after which they patrol the country and spend their

time in the forts. For these two years they are on garrison duty,

and wear the military cloak, and during this time they are exempt from

all taxes. They also can neither bring an action at law, nor have

one brought against them, in order that they may have no excuse for

requiring leave of absence; though exception is made in cases of

actions concerning inheritances and wards of state, or of any

sacrificial ceremony connected with the family. When the two years

have elapsed they thereupon take their position among the other

citizens. Such is the manner of the enrollment of the citizens and the

training of the youths.

43

All the magistrates that are concerned with the ordinary routine

of administration are elected by lot, except the Military Treasurer,

the Commissioners of the Theoric fund, and the Superintendent of

Springs. These are elected by vote, and hold office from one

Panathenaic festival to the next. All military officers are also

elected by vote.

The Council of Five Hundred is elected by lot, fifty from each

tribe. Each tribe holds the office of Prytanes in turn, the order

being determined by lot; the first four serve for thirty-six days

each, the last six for thirty-five, since the reckoning is by lunar

years. The Prytanes for the time being, in the first place, mess

together in the Tholus, and receive a sum of money from the state

for their maintenance; and, secondly, they convene the meetings of the

Council and the Assembly. The Council they convene every day, unless

it is a holiday, the Assembly four times in each prytany. It is also

their duty to draw up the programme of the business of the Council and

to decide what subjects are to be dealt with on each particular da,

and where the sitting is to be held. They also draw up the programme

for the meetings of the Assembly. One of these in each prytany is

called the 'sovereign' Assembly; in this the people have to ratify the

continuance of the magistrates in office, if they are performing their

duties properly, and to consider the supply of corn and the defence of

the country. On this day, too, impeachments are introduced by those

who wish to do so, the lists of property confiscated by the state

are read, and also applications for inheritances and wards of state,

so that nothing may pass unclaimed without the cognizance of any

person concerned. In the sixth prytany, in addition to the business

already stated, the question is put to the vote whether it is

desirable to hold a vote of ostracism or not; and complaints against

professional accusers, whether Athenian or aliens domiciled in Athens,

are received, to the number of not more than three of either class,

together with cases in which an individual has made some promise to

the people and has not performed it. Another Assembly in each

prytany is assigned to the hearing of petitions, and at this meeting

any one is free, on depositing the petitioner's olive-branch, to speak

to the people concerning any matter, public or private. The two

remaining meetings are devoted to all other subjects, and the laws

require them to deal with three questions connected with religion,

three connected with heralds and embassies, and three on secular

subjects. Sometimes questions are brought forward without a

preliminary vote of the Assembly to take them into consideration.

Heralds and envoys appear first before the Prytanes, and the bearers

of dispatches also deliver them to the same officials.

44

There is a single President of the Prytanes, elected by lot, who

presides for a night and a day; he may not hold the office for more

than that time, nor may the same individual hold it twice. He keeps

the keys of the sanctuaries in which the treasures and public

records of the state are preserved, and also the public seal; and he

is bound to remain in the Tholus, together with one-third of the

Prytanes, named by himself. Whenever the Prytanes convene a meeting of

the Council or Assembly, he appoints by lot nine Proedri, one from

each tribe except that which holds the office of Prytanes for the time

being; and out of these nine he similarly appoints one as President,

and hands over the programme for the meeting to them. They take it and

see to the preservation of order, put forward the various subjects

which are to be considered, decide the results of the votings, and

direct the proceedings generally. They also have power to dismiss

the meeting. No one may act as President more than once in the year,

but he may be a Proedrus once in each prytany.

Elections to the offices of General and Hipparch and all other

military commands are held in the Assembly, in such manner as the

people decide; they are held after the sixth prytany by the first

board of Prytanes in whose term of office the omens are favourable.

There has, however, to be a preliminary consideration by the Council

in this case also.

45

In former times the Council had full powers to inflict fines and

imprisonment and death; but when it had consigned Lysimachus to the

executioner, and he was sitting in the immediate expectation of death,

Eumelides of Alopece rescued him from its hands, maintaining that no

citizen ought to be put to death except on the decision of a court

of law. Accordingly a trial was held in a law-court, and Lysimachus

was acquitted, receiving henceforth the nickname of 'the man from

the drum-head'; and the people deprived the Council thenceforward of

the power to inflict death or imprisonment or fine, passing a law that

if the Council condemn any person for an offence or inflict a fine,

the Thesmothetae shall bring the sentence or fine before the

law-court, and the decision of the jurors shall be the final judgement

in the matter.

The Council passes judgement on nearly all magistrates, especially

those who have the control of money; its judgement, however, is not

final, but is subject to an appeal to the lawcourts. Private

individuals, also, may lay an information against any magistrate

they please for not obeying the laws, but here too there is an

appeal to the law-courts if the Council declare the charge proved. The

Council also examines those who are to be its members for the

ensuing year, and likewise the nine Archons. Formerly the Council

had full power to reject candidates for office as unsuitable, but

now they have an appeal to the law-courts. In all these matters,

therefore, the Council has no final jurisdiction. It takes, however,

preliminary cognizance of all matters brought before the Assembly, and

the Assembly cannot vote on any question unless it has first been

considered by the Council and placed on the programme by the Prytanes;

since a person who carries a motion in the Assembly is liable to an

action for illegal proposal on these grounds.

46

The Council also superintends the triremes that are already in

existence, with their tackle and sheds, and builds new triremes or

quadriremes, whichever the Assembly votes, with tackle and sheds to

match. The Assembly appoints master-builders for the ships by vote;

and if they do not hand them over completed to the next Council, the

old Council cannot receive the customary donation-that being

normally given to it during its successor's term of office. For the

building of the triremes it appoints ten commissioners, chosen from

its own members. The Council also inspects all public buildings, and

if it is of opinion that the state is being defrauded, it reports

the culprit to the Assembly, and on condemnation hands him over to the

law-courts.

47

The Council also co-operates with other magistrates in most of their

duties. First there are the treasurers of Athena, ten in number,

elected by lot, one from each tribe. According to the law of

Solon-which is still in force-they must be Pentacosiomedimni, but in

point of fact the person on whom the lot falls holds the office even

though he be quite a poor man. These officers take over charge of

the statue of Athena, the figures of Victory, and all the other

ornaments of the temple, together with the money, in the presence of

the Council. Then there are the Commissioners for Public Contracts

(Poletae), ten in number, one chosen by lot from each tribe, who

farm out the public contracts. They lease the mines and taxes, in

conjunction with the Military Treasurer and the Commissioners of the

Theoric fund, in the presence of the Council, and grant, to the

persons indicated by the vote of the Council, the mines which are

let out by the state, including both the workable ones, which are

let for three years, and those which are let under special

agreements years. They also sell, in the presence of the Council,

the property of those who have gone into exile from the court of the

Areopagus, and of others whose goods have been confiscated, and the

nine Archons ratify the contracts. They also hand over to the

Council lists of the taxes which are farmed out for the year, entering

on whitened tablets the name of the lessee and the amount paid. They

make separate lists, first of those who have to pay their

instalments in each prytany, on ten several tablets, next of those who

pay thrice in the year, with a separate tablet for each instalment,

and finally of those who pay in the ninth prytany. They also draw up a

list of farms and dwellings which have been confiscated and sold by

order of the courts; for these too come within their province. In

the case of dwellings the value must be paid up in five years, and

in that of farms, in ten. The instalments are paid in the ninth

prytany. Further, the King-archon brings before the Council the leases

of the sacred enclosures, written on whitened tablets. These too are

leased for ten years, and the instalments are paid in the prytany;

consequently it is in this prytany that the greatest amount of money

is collected. The tablets containing the lists of the instalments

are carried into the Council, and the public clerk takes charge of

them. Whenever a payment of instalments is to be made he takes from

the pigeon-holes the precise list of the sums which are to be paid and

struck off on that day, and delivers it to the Receivers-General.

The rest are kept apart, in order that no sum may be struck off before

it is paid.

48

There are ten Receivers-General (Apodectae), elected by lot, one

from each tribe. These officers receive the tablets, and strike off

the instalments as they are paid, in the presence of the Council in

the Council-chamber, and give the tablets back to the public clerk. If

any one fails to pay his instalment, a note is made of it on the

tablet; and he is bound to pay double the amount of the deficiency,

or, in default, to be imprisoned. The Council has full power by the

laws to exact these payments and to inflict this imprisonment. They

receive all the instalments, therefore, on one day, and portion the

money out among the magistrates; and on the next day they bring up the

report of the apportionment, written on a wooden notice-board, and

read it out in the Council-chamber, after which they ask publicly in

the Council whether any one knows of any malpractice in reference to

the apportionment, on the part of either a magistrate or a private

individual, and if any one is charged with malpractice they take a

vote on it.

The Council also elects ten Auditors (Logistae) by lot from its

own members, to audit the accounts of the magistrates for each

prytany. They also elect one Examiner of Accounts (Euthunus) by lot

from each tribe, with two assessors (Paredri) for each examiner, whose

duty it is to sit at the ordinary market hours, each opposite the

statue of the eponymous hero of his tribe; and if any one wishes to

prefer a charge, on either public or private grounds, against any

magistrate who has passed his audit before the law-courts, within

three days of his having so passed, he enters on a whitened tablet his

own name and that of the magistrate prosecuted, together with the

malpractice that is alleged against him. He also appends his claim for

a penalty of such amount as seems to him fitting, and gives in the

record to the Examiner. The latter takes it, and if after reading it

he considers it proved he hands it over, if a private case, to the

local justices who introduce cases for the tribe concerned, while if

it is a public case he enters it on the register of the

Thesmothetae. Then, if the Thesmothetae accept it, they bring the

accounts of this magistrate once more before the law-court, and the

decision of the jury stands as the final judgement.

49

The Council also inspects the horses belonging to the state. If a

man who has a good horse is found to keep it in bad condition, he is

mulcted in his allowance of corn; while those which cannot keep up

or which shy and will not stand steady, it brands with a wheel on

the jaw, and the horse so marked is disqualified for service. It

also inspects those who appear to be fit for service as scouts, and

any one whom it rejects is deprived of his horse. It also examines the

infantry who serve among the cavalry, and any one whom it rejects

ceases to receive his pay. The roll of the cavalry is drawn up by

the Commissioners of Enrolment (Catalogeis), ten in number, elected by

the Assembly by open vote. They hand over to the Hipparchs and

Phylarchs the list of those whom they have enrolled, and these

officers take it and bring it up before the Council, and there open

the sealed tablet containing the names of the cavalry. If any of those

who have been on the roll previously make affidavit that they are

physically incapable of cavalry service, they strike them out; then

they call up the persons newly enrolled, and if any one makes

affidavit that he is either physically or pecuniarily incapable of

cavalry service they dismiss him, but if no such affidavit is made the

Council vote whether the individual in question is suitable for the

purpose or not. If they vote in the affirmative his name is entered on

the tablet; if not, he is dismissed with the others.

Formerly the Council used to decide on the plans for public

buildings and the contract for making the robe of Athena; but now this

work is done by a jury in the law-courts appointed by lot, since the

Council was considered to have shown favouritism in its decisions. The

Council also shares with the Military Treasurer the superintendence of

the manufacture of the images of Victory and the prizes at the

Panathenaic festival.

The Council also examines infirm paupers; for there is a law which

provides that persons possessing less than three minas, who are so

crippled as to be unable to do any work, are, after examination by the

Council, to receive two obols a day from the state for their

support. A treasurer is appointed by lot to attend to them.

The Council also, speaking broadly, cooperates in most of the duties

of all the other magistrates; and this ends the list of the

functions of that body.

50

There are ten Commissioners for Repairs of Temples, elected by

lot, who receive a sum of thirty minas from the Receivers-General, and

therewith carry out the most necessary repairs in the temples.

There are also ten City Commissioners (Astynomi), of whom five

hold office in Piraeus and five in the city. Their duty is to see that

female flute-and harp-and lute-players are not hired at more than

two drachmas, and if more than one person is anxious to hire the

same girl, they cast lots and hire her out to the person to whom the

lot falls. They also provide that no collector of sewage shall shoot

any of his sewage within ten stradia of the walls; they prevent people

from blocking up the streets by building, or stretching barriers

across them, or making drain-pipes in mid-air with a discharge into

the street, or having doors which open outwards; they also remove

the corpses of those who die in the streets, for which purpose they

have a body of state slaves assigned to them.

51

Market Commissioners (Agoranomi) are elected by lot, five for

Piraeus, five for the city. Their statutory duty is to see that all

articles offered for sale in the market are pure and unadulterated.

Commissioners of Weights and Measures (Metronomi) are elected by

lot, five for the city, and five for Piraeus. They see that sellers

use fair weights and measures.

Formerly there were ten Corn Commissioners (Sitophylaces), elected

by lot, five for Piraeus, and five for the city; but now there are

twenty for the city and fifteen for Piraeus. Their duties are,

first, to see that the unprepared corn in the market is offered for

sale at reasonable prices, and secondly, to see that the millers

sell barley meal at a price proportionate to that of barley, and

that the bakers sell their loaves at a price proportionate to that

of wheat, and of such weight as the Commissioners may appoint; for the

law requires them to fix the standard weight.

There are ten Superintendents of the Mart, elected by lot, whose

duty is to superintend the Mart, and to compel merchants to bring up

into the city two-thirds of the corn which is brought by sea to the

Corn Mart.

52

The Eleven also are appointed by lot to take care of the prisoners

in the state gaol. Thieves, kidnappers, and pickpockets are brought to

them, and if they plead guilty they are executed, but if they deny the

charge the Eleven bring the case before the law-courts; if the

prisoners are acquitted, they release them, but if not, they then

execute them. They also bring up before the law-courts the list of

farms and houses claimed as state-property; and if it is decided

that they are so, they deliver them to the Commissioners for Public

Contracts. The Eleven also bring up informations laid against

magistrates alleged to be disqualified; this function comes within

their province, but some such cases are brought up by the

Thesmothetae.

There are also five Introducers of Cases (Eisagogeis), elected by

lot, one for each pair of tribes, who bring up the 'monthly' cases

to the law-courts. 'Monthly' cases are these: refusal to pay up a

dowry where a party is bound to do so, refusal to pay interest on

money borrowed at 12 per cent., or where a man desirous of setting

up business in the market has borrowed from another man capital to

start with; also cases of slander, cases arising out of friendly loans

or partnerships, and cases concerned with slaves, cattle, and the

office of trierarch, or with banks. These are brought up as

'monthly' cases and are introduced by these officers; but the

Receivers-General perform the same function in cases for or against

the farmers of taxes. Those in which the sum concerned is not more

than ten drachmas they can decide summarily, but all above that amount

they bring into the law-courts as 'monthly' cases.

53

The Forty are also elected by lot, four from each tribe, before whom

suitors bring all other cases. Formerly they were thirty in number,

and they went on circuit through the demes to hear causes; but after

the oligarchy of the Thirty they were increased to forty. They have

full powers to decide cases in which the amount at issue does not

exceed ten drachmas, but anything beyond that value they hand over

to the Arbitrators. The Arbitrators take up the case, and, if they

cannot bring the parties to an agreement, they give a decision. If

their decision satisfies both parties, and they abide by it, the

case is at an end; but if either of the parties appeals to the

law-courts, the Arbitrators enclose the evidence, the pleadings, and

the laws quoted in the case in two urns, those of the plaintiff in the

one, and those of the defendant in the other. These they seal up

and, having attached to them the decision of the arbitrator, written

out on a tablet, place them in the custody of the four justices

whose function it is to introduce cases on behalf of the tribe of

the defendant. These officers take them and bring up the case before

the law-court, to a jury of two hundred and one members in cases up to

the value of a thousand drachmas, or to one of four hundred and one in

cases above that value. No laws or pleadings or evidence may be used

except those which were adduced before the Arbitrator, and have been

enclosed in the urns.

The Arbitrators are persons in the sixtieth year of their age;

this appears from the schedule of the Archons and the Eponymi. There

are two classes of Eponymi, the ten who give their names to the

tribes, and the forty-two of the years of service. The youths, on

being enrolled among the citizens, were formerly registered upon

whitened tablets, and the names were appended of the Archon in whose

year they were enrolled, and of the Eponymus who had been in course in

the preceding year; at the present day they are written on a bronze

pillar, which stands in front of the Council-chamber, near the Eponymi

of the tribes. Then the Forty take the last of the Eponymi of the

years of service, and assign the arbitrations to the persons belonging

to that year, casting lots to determine which arbitrations each

shall undertake; and every one is compelled to carry through the

arbitrations which the lot assigns to him. The law enacts that any one

who does not serve as Arbitrator when he has arrived at the

necessary age shall lose his civil rights, unless he happens to be

holding some other office during that year, or to be out of the

country. These are the only persons who escape the duty. Any one who

suffers injustice at the hands of the Arbitrator may appeal to the

whole board of Arbitrators, and if they find the magistrate guilty,

the law enacts that he shall lose his civil rights. The persons thus

condemned have, however, in their turn an appeal. The Eponymi are also

used in reference to military expeditions; when the men of military

age are despatched on service, a notice is put up stating that the men

from such-and such an Archon and Eponymus to such-and such another

Archon and Eponymus are to go on the expedition.

54

The following magistrates also are elected by lot: Five

Commissioners of Roads (Hodopoei), who, with an assigned body of

public slaves, are required to keep the roads in order: and ten

Auditors, with ten assistants, to whom all persons who have held any

office must give in their accounts. These are the only officers who

audit the accounts of those who are subject to examination, and who

bring them up for examination before the law-courts. If they detect

any magistrate in embezzlement, the jury condemn him for theft, and he

is obliged to repay tenfold the sum he is declared to have

misappropriated. If they charge a magistrate with accepting bribes and

the jury convict him, they fine him for corruption, and this sum too

is repaid tenfold. Or if they convict him of unfair dealing, he is

fined on that charge, and the sum assessed is paid without increase,

if payment is made before the ninth prytany, but otherwise it is

doubled. A tenfold fine is not doubled.

The Clerk of the prytany, as he is called, is also elected by lot.

He has the charge of all public documents, and keeps the resolutions

which are passed by the Assembly, and checks the transcripts of all

other official papers and attends at the sessions of the Council.

Formerly he was elected by open vote, and the most distinguished and

trustworthy persons were elected to the post, as is known from the

fact that the name of this officer is appended on the pillars

recording treaties of alliance and grants of consulship and

citizenship. Now, however, he is elected by lot. There is, in

addition, a Clerk of the Laws, elected by lot, who attends at the

sessions of the Council; and he too checks the transcript of all the

laws. The Assembly also elects by open vote a clerk to read

documents to it and to the Council; but he has no other duty except

that of reading aloud.

The Assembly also elects by lot the Commissioners of Public

Worship (Hieropoei) known as the Commissioners for Sacrifices, who

offer the sacrifices appointed by oracle, and, in conjunction with the

seers, take the auspices whenever there is occasion. It also elects by

lot ten others, known as Annual Commissioners, who offer certain

sacrifices and administer all the quadrennial festivals except the

Panathenaea. There are the following quadrennial festivals: first that

of Delos (where there is also a sexennial festival), secondly the

Brauronia, thirdly the Heracleia, fourthly the Eleusinia, and

fifthly the Panathenaea; and no two of these are celebrated in the

same place. To these the Hephaestia has now been added, in the

archonship of Cephisophon.

An Archon is also elected by lot for Salamis, and a Demarch for

Piraeus. These officers celebrate the Dionysia in these two places,

and appoint Choregi. In Salamis, moreover, the name of the Archon is

publicly recorded.

55

All the foregoing magistrates are elected by lot, and their powers

are those which have been stated. To pass on to the nine Archons, as

they are called, the manner of their appointment from the earliest

times has been described already. At the present day six

Thesmothetae are elected by lot, together with their clerk, and in

addition to these an Archon, a King, and a Polemarch. One is elected

from each tribe. They are examined first of all by the Council of Five

Hundred, with the exception of the clerk. The latter is examined

only in the lawcourt, like other magistrates (for all magistrates,

whether elected by lot or by open vote, are examined before entering

on their offices); but the nine Archons are examined both in the

Council and again in the law-court. Formerly no one could hold the

office if the Council rejected him, but now there is an appeal to

the law-court, which is the final authority in the matter of the

examination. When they are examined, they are asked, first, 'Who is

your father, and of what deme? who is your father's father? who is

your mother? who is your mother's father, and of what deme?' Then

the candidate is asked whether he possesses an ancestral Apollo and

a household Zeus, and where their sanctuaries are; next if he

possesses a family tomb, and where; then if he treats his parents

well, and pays his taxes, and has served on the required military

expeditions. When the examiner has put these questions, he proceeds,

'Call the witnesses to these facts'; and when the candidate has

produced his witnesses, he next asks, 'Does any one wish to make any

accusation against this man?' If an accuser appears, he gives the

parties an opportunity of making their accusation and defence, and

then puts it to the Council to pass the candidate or not, and to the

law-court to give the final vote. If no one wishes to make an

accusation, he proceeds at once to the vote. Formerly a single

individual gave the vote, but now all the members are obliged to

vote on the candidates, so that if any unprincipled candidate has

managed to get rid of his accusers, it may still be possible for him

to be disqualified before the law-court. When the examination has been

thus completed, they proceed to the stone on which are the pieces of

the victims, and on which the Arbitrators take oath before declaring

their decisions, and witnesses swear to their testimony. On this stone

the Archons stand, and swear to execute their office uprightly and

according to the laws, and not to receive presents in respect of the

performance of their duties, or, if they do, to dedicate a golden

statue. When they have taken this oath they proceed to the

Acropolis, and there they repeat it; after this they enter upon

their office.

56

The Archon, the King, and the Polemarch have each two assessors,

nominated by themselves. These officers are examined in the lawcourt

before they begin to act, and give in accounts on each occasion of

their acting.

As soon as the Archon enters office, he begins by issuing a

proclamation that whatever any one possessed before he entered into

office, that he shall possess and hold until the end of his term. Next

he assigns Choregi to the tragic poets, choosing three of the

richest persons out of the whole body of Athenians. Formerly he used

also to assign five Choregi to the comic poets, but now the tribes

provide the Choregi for them. Then he receives the Choregi who have

been appointed by the tribes for the men's and boys' choruses and

the comic poets at the Dionysia, and for the men's and boys'

choruses at the Thargelia (at the Dionysia there is a chorus for

each tribe, but at the Thargelia one between two tribes, each tribe

bearing its share in providing it); he transacts the exchanges of

properties for them, and reports any excuses that are tendered, if any

one says that he has already borne this burden, or that he is exempt

because he has borne a similar burden and the period of his

exemption has not yet expired, or that he is not of the required

age; since the Choregus of a boys' chorus must be over forty years

of age. He also appoints Choregi for the festival at Delos, and a

chief of the mission for the thirty-oar boat which conveys the

youths thither. He also superintends sacred processions, both that

in honour of Asclepius, when the initiated keep house, and that of the

great Dionysia-the latter in conjunction with the Superintendents of

that festival. These officers, ten in number, were formerly elected by

open vote in the Assembly, and used to provide for the expenses of the

procession out of their private means; but now one is elected by lot

from each tribe, and the state contributes a hundred minas for the

expenses. The Archon also superintends the procession at the

Thargelia, and that in honour of Zeus the Saviour. He also manages the

contests at the Dionysia and the Thargelia.

These, then, are the festivals which he superintends. The suits

and indictments which come before him, and which he, after a

preliminary inquiry, brings up before the lawcourts, are as follows.

Injury to parents (for bringing these actions the prosecutor cannot

suffer any penalty); injury to orphans (these actions lie against

their guardians); injury to a ward of state (these lie against their

guardians or their husbands), injury to an orphan's estate (these

too lie against the guardians); mental derangement, where a party

charges another with destroying his own property through unsoundness

of mind; for appointment of liquidators, where a party refuses to

divide property in which others have a share; for constituting a

wardship; for determining between rival claims to a wardship; for

granting inspection of property to which another party lays claim; for

appointing oneself as guardian; and for determining disputes as to

inheritances and wards of state. The Archon also has the care of

orphans and wards of state, and of women who, on the death of their

husbands, declare themselves to be with child; and he has power to

inflict a fine on those who offend against the persons under his

charge, or to bring the case before the law-courts. He also leases the

houses of orphans and wards of state until they reach the age of

fourteen, and takes mortgages on them; and if the guardians fail to

provide the necessary food for the children under their charge, he

exacts it from them. Such are the duties of the Archon.

57

The King in the first place superintends the mysteries, in

conjunction with the Superintendents of Mysteries. The latter are

elected in the Assembly by open vote, two from the general body of

Athenians, one from the Eumolpidae, and one from the Ceryces. Next, he

superintends the Lenaean Dionysia, which consists of a procession

and a contest. The procession is ordered by the King and the

Superintendents in conjunction; but the contest is managed by the King

alone. He also manages all the contests of the torch-race; and to

speak broadly, he administers all the ancestral sacrifices.

Indictments for impiety come before him, or any disputes between

parties concerning priestly rites; and he also determines all

controversies concerning sacred rites for the ancient families and the

priests. All actions for homicide come before him, and it is he that

makes the proclamation requiring polluted persons to keep away from

sacred ceremonies. Actions for homicide and wounding are heard, if the

homicide or wounding be willful, in the Areopagus; so also in cases of

killing by poison, and of arson. These are the only cases heard by

that Council. Cases of unintentional homicide, or of intent to kill,

or of killing a slave or a resident alien or a foreigner, are heard by

the court of Palladium. When the homicide is acknowledged, but legal

justification is pleaded, as when a man takes an adulterer in the act,

or kills another by mistake in battle, or in an athletic contest,

the prisoner is tried in the court of Delphinium. If a man who is in

banishment for a homicide which admits of reconcilliation incurs a

further charge of killing or wounding, he is tried in Phreatto, and he

makes his defence from a boat moored near the shore. All these

cases, except those which are heard in the Areopagus, are tried by the

Ephetae on whom the lot falls. The King introduces them, and the

hearing is held within sacred precincts and in the open air.

Whenever the King hears a case he takes off his crown. The person

who is charged with homicide is at all other times excluded from the

temples, nor is it even lawful for him to enter the market-place;

but on the occasion of his trial he enters the temple and makes his

defence. If the actual offender is unknown, the writ runs against 'the

doer of the deed'. The King and the tribe-kings also hear the cases in

which the guilt rests on inanimate objects and the lower animal.

58

The Polemarch performs the sacrifices to Artemis the huntress and to

Enyalius, and arranges the contest at the funeral of those who have

fallen in war, and makes offerings to the memory of Harmodius and

Aristogeiton. Only private actions come before him, namely those in

which resident aliens, both ordinary and privileged, and agents of

foreign states are concerned. It is his duty to receive these cases

and divide them into ten groups, and assign to each tribe the group

which comes to it by lot; after which the magistrates who introduce

cases for the tribe hand them over to the Arbitrators. The

Polemarch, however, brings up in person cases in which an alien is

charged with deserting his patron or neglecting to provide himself

with one, and also of inheritances and wards of state where aliens are

concerned; and in fact, generally, whatever the Archon does for

citizens, the Polemarch does for aliens.

59

The Thesmothetae in the first place have the power of prescribing on

what days the lawcourts are to sit, and next of assigning them to

the several magistrates; for the latter must follow the arrangement

which the Thesmothetae assign. Moreover they introduce impeachments

before the Assembly, and bring up all votes for removal from office,

challenges of a magistrate's conduct before the Assembly,

indictments for illegal proposals, or for proposing a law which is

contrary to the interests of the state, complaints against Proedri

or their president for their conduct in office, and the accounts

presented by the generals. All indictments also come before them in

which a deposit has to be made by the prosecutor, namely,

indictments for concealment of foreign origin, for corrupt evasion

of foreign origin (when a man escapes the disqualification by

bribery), for blackmailing accusations, bribery, false entry of

another as a state debtor, false testimony to the service of a

summons, conspiracy to enter a man as a state debtor, corrupt

removal from the list of debtors, and adultery. They also bring up the

examinations of all magistrates, and the rejections by the demes and

the condemnations by the Council. Moreover they bring up certain

private suits in cases of merchandise and mines, or where a slave

has slandered a free man. It is they also who cast lots to assign

the courts to the various magistrates, whether for private or public

cases. They ratify commercial treaties, and bring up the cases which

arise out of such treaties; and they also bring up cases of perjury

from the Areopagus. The casting of lots for the jurors is conducted by

all the nine Archons, with the clerk to the Thesmothetae as the tenth,

each performing the duty for his own tribe. Such are the duties of the

nine Archons.

60

There are also ten Commissioners of Games (Athlothetae), elected

by lot, one from each tribe. These officers, after passing an

examination, serve for four years; and they manage the Panathenaic

procession, the contest in music and that in gymnastic, and the

horse-race; they also provide the robe of Athena and, in conjunction

with the Council, the vases, and they present the oil to the athletes.

This oil is collected from the sacred olives. The Archon

requisitions it from the owners of the farms on which the sacred

olives grow, at the rate of three-quarters of a pint from each

plant. Formerly the state used to sell the fruit itself, and if any

one dug up or broke down one of the sacred olives, he was tried by the

Council of Areopagus, and if he was condemned, the penalty was

death. Since, however, the oil has been paid by the owner of the farm,

the procedure has lapsed, though the law remains; and the oil is a

state charge upon the property instead of being taken from the

individual plants. When, then, the Archon has collected the oil for

his year of office, he hands it over to the Treasurers to preserve

in the Acropolis, and he may not take his seat in the Areopagus

until he has paid over to the Treasurers the full amount. The

Treasurers keep it in the Acropolis until the Panathenaea, when they

measure it out to the Commissioners of Games, and they again to the

victorious competitors. The prizes for the victors in the musical

contest consist of silver and gold, for the victors in manly vigour,

of shields, and for the victors in the gymnastic contest and the

horse-race, of oil.

61

All officers connected with military service are elected by open

vote. In the first place, ten Generals (Strategi), who were formerly

elected one from each tribe, but now are chosen from the whole mass of

citizens. Their duties are assigned to them by open vote; one is

appointed to command the heavy infantry, and leads them if they go out

to war; one to the defence of the country, who remains on the

defensive, and fights if there is war within the borders of the

country; two to Piraeus, one of whom is assigned to Munichia, and

one to the south shore, and these have charge of the defence of the

Piraeus; and one to superintend the symmories, who nominates the

trierarchs arranges exchanges of properties for them, and brings up

actions to decide on rival claims in connexion with them. The rest are

dispatched to whatever business may be on hand at the moment. The

appointment of these officers is submitted for confirmation in each

prytany, when the question is put whether they are considered to be

doing their duty. If any officer is rejected on this vote, he is tried

in the lawcourt, and if he is found guilty the people decide what

punishment or fine shall be inflicted on him; but if he is acquitted

he resumes his office. The Generals have full power, when on active

service, to arrest any one for insubordination, or to cashier him

publicly, or to inflict a fine; the latter is, however, unusual.

There are also ten Taxiarchs, one from each tribe, elected by open

vote; and each commands his own tribesmen and appoints captains of

companies (Lochagi). There are also two Hipparchs, elected by open

vote from the whole mass of the citizens, who command the cavalry,

each taking five tribes. They have the same powers as the Generals

have in respect of the infantry, and their appointments are also

subject to confirmation. There are also ten Phylarchs, elected by open

vote, one from each tribe, to command the cavalry, as the Taxiarchs do

the infantry. There is also a Hipparch for Lemnos, elected by open

vote, who has charge of the cavalry in Lemnos. There is also a

treasurer of the Paralus, and another of the Ammonias, similarly

elected.

62

Of the magistrates elected by lot, in former times some including

the nine Archons, were elected out of the tribe as a whole, while

others, namely those who are now elected in the Theseum, were

apportioned among the demes; but since the demes used to sell the

elections, these magistrates too are now elected from the whole tribe,

except the members of the Council and the guards of the dockyards, who

are still left to the demes.

Pay is received for the following services. First the members of the

Assembly receive a drachma for the ordinary meetings, and nine obols

for the 'sovereign' meeting. Then the jurors at the law-courts receive

three obols; and the members of the Council five obols. They

Prytanes receive an allowance of an obol for their maintenance. The

nine Archons receive four obols apiece for maintenance, and also

keep a herald and a flute-player; and the Archon for Salamis

receives a drachma a day. The Commissioners for Games dine in the

Prytaneum during the month of Hecatombaeon in which the Panathenaic

festival takes place, from the fourteenth day onwards. The

Amphictyonic deputies to Delos receive a drachma a day from the

exchequer of Delos. Also all magistrates sent to Samos, Scyros,

Lemnos, or Imbros receive an allowance for their maintenance. The

military offices may be held any number of times, but none of the

others more than once, except the membership of the Council, which may

be held twice.

63

The juries for the law-courts are chosen by lot by the nine Archons,

each for their own tribe, and by the clerk to the Thesmothetae for the

tenth. There are ten entrances into the courts, one for each tribe;

twenty rooms in which the lots are drawn, two for each tribe; a

hundred chests, ten for each tribe; other chests, in which are

placed the tickets of the jurors on whom the lot falls; and two vases.

Further, staves, equal in number to the jurors required, are placed by

the side of each entrance; and counters are put into one vase, equal

in number to the staves. These are inscribed with letters of the

alphabet beginning with the eleventh (lambda), equal in number to

the courts which require to be filled. All persons above thirty

years of age are qualified to serve as jurors, provided they are not

debtors to the state and have not lost their civil rights. If any

unqualified person serves as juror, an information is laid against

him, and he is brought before the court; and, if he is convicted,

the jurors assess the punishment or fine which they consider him to

deserve. If he is condemned to a money fine, he must be imprisoned

until he has paid up both the original debt, on account of which the

information was laid against him, and also the fine which the court as

imposed upon him. Each juror has his ticket of boxwood, on which is

inscribed his name, with the name of his father and his deme, and

one of the letters of the alphabet up to kappa; for the jurors in

their several tribes are divided into ten sections, with approximately

an equal number in each letter. When the Thesmothetes has decided by

lot which letters are required to attend at the courts, the servant

puts up above each court the letter which has been assigned to it by

the lot.

64

The ten chests above mentioned are placed in front of the entrance

used by each tribe, and are inscribed with the letters of the alphabet

from alpha to kappa. The jurors cast in their tickets, each into the

chest on which is inscribed the letter which is on his ticket; then

the servant shakes them all up, and the Archon draws one ticket from

each chest. The individual so selected is called the Ticket-hanger

(Empectes), and his function is to hang up the tickets out of his

chest on the bar which bears the same letter as that on the chest.

He is chosen by lot, lest, if the Ticket-hanger were always the same

person, he might tamper with the results. There are five of these bars

in each of the rooms assigned for the lot-drawing. Then the Archon

casts in the dice and thereby chooses the jurors from each tribe, room

by room. The dice are made of brass, coloured black or white; and

according to the number of jurors required, so many white dice are put

in, one for each five tickets, while the remainder are black, in the

same proportion. As the Archon draws out the dice, the crier calls out

the names of the individuals chosen. The Ticket-hanger is included

among those selected. Each juror, as he is chosen and answers to his

name, draws a counter from the vase, and holding it out with the

letter uppermost shows it first to the presiding Archon; and he,

when he has seen it, throws the ticket of the juror into the chest

on which is inscribed the letter which is on the counter, so that

the juror must go into the court assigned to him by lot, and not

into one chosen by himself, and that it may be impossible for any

one to collect the jurors of his choice into any particular court. For

this purpose chests are placed near the Archon, as many in number as

there are courts to be filled that day, bearing the letters of the

courts on which the lot has fallen.

65

The juror thereupon, after showing his counter again to the

attendant, passes through the barrier into the court. The attendant

gives him a staff of the same colour as the court bearing the letter

which is on his counter, so as to ensure his going into the court

assigned to him by lot; since, if he were to go into any other, he

would be betrayed by the colour of his staff. Each court has a certain

colour painted on the lintel of the entrance. Accordingly the juror,

bearing his staff, enters the court which has the same colour as his

staff, and the same letter as his counter. As he enters, he receives a

voucher from the official to whom this duty has been assigned by

lot. So with their counters and their staves the selected jurors

take their seats in the court, having thus completed the process of

admission. The unsuccessful candidates receive back their tickets from

the Ticket-hangers. The public servants carry the chests from each

tribe, one to each court, containing the names of the members of the

tribe who are in that court, and hand them over to the officials

assigned to the duty of giving back their tickets to the jurors in

each court, so that these officials may call them up by name and pay

them their fee.

66

When all the courts are full, two ballot boxes are placed in the

first court, and a number of brazen dice, bearing the colours of the

several courts, and other dice inscribed with the names of the

presiding magistrates. Then two of the Thesmothetae, selected by

lot, severally throw the dice with the colours into one box, and those

with the magistrates' names into the other. The magistrate whose

name is first drawn is thereupon proclaimed by the crier as assigned

for duty in the court which is first drawn, and the second in the

second, and similarly with the rest. The object of this procedure is

that no one may know which court he will have, but that each may

take the court assigned to him by lot.

When the jurors have come in, and have been assigned to their

respective courts, the presiding magistrate in each court draws one

ticket out of each chest (making ten in all, one out of each tribe),

and throws them into another empty chest. He then draws out five of

them, and assigns one to the superintendence of the water-clock, and

the other four to the telling of the votes. This is to prevent any

tampering beforehand with either the superintendent of the clock or

the tellers of the votes, and to secure that there is no malpractice

in these respects. The five who have not been selected for these

duties receive from them a statement of the order in which the

jurors shall receive their fees, and of the places where the several

tribes shall respectively gather in the court for this purpose when

their duties are completed; the object being that the jurors may be

broken up into small groups for the reception of their pay, and not

all crowd together and impede one another.

67

These preliminaries being concluded, the cases are called on. If

it is a day for private cases, the private litigants are called.

Four cases are taken in each of the categories defined in the law, and

the litigants swear to confine their speeches to the point at issue.

If it is a day for public causes, the public litigants are called, and

only one case is tried. Water-clocks are provided, having small

supply-tubes, into which the water is poured by which the length of

the pleadings is regulated. Ten gallons are allowed for a case in

which an amount of more than five thousand drachmas is involved, and

three for the second speech on each side. When the amount is between

one and five thousand drachmas, seven gallons are allowed for the

first speech and two for the second; when it is less than one

thousand, five and two. Six gallons are allowed for arbitrations

between rival claimants, in which there is no second speech. The

official chosen by lot to superintend the water-clock places his

hand on the supply tube whenever the clerk is about to read a

resolution or law or affidavit or treaty. When, however, a case is

conducted according to a set measurement of the day, he does not

stop the supply, but each party receives an equal allowance of

water. The standard of measurement is the length of the days in the

month Poseideon.... The measured day is employed in cases when

imprisonment, death, exile, loss of civil rights, or confiscation of

goods is assigned as the penalty.

68

Most of the courts consist of 500 members...; and when it is

necessary to bring public cases before a jury of 1,000 members, two

courts combine for the purpose, the most important cases of all are

brought 1,500 jurors, or three courts. The ballot balls are made of

brass with stems running through the centre, half of them having the

stem pierced and the other half solid. When the speeches are

concluded, the officials assigned to the taking of the votes give each

juror two ballot balls, one pierced and one solid. This is done in

full view of the rival litigants, to secure that no one shall

receive two pierced or two solid balls. Then the official designated

for the purpose takes away the jurors staves, in return for which each

one as he records his vote receives a brass voucher market with the

numeral 3 (because he gets three obols when he gives it up). This is

to ensure that all shall vote; since no one can get a voucher unless

he votes. Two urns, one of brass and the other of wood, stand in the

court, in distinct spots so that no one may surreptitiously insert

ballot balls; in these the jurors record their votes. The brazen urn

is for effective votes, the wooden for unused votes; and the brazen

urn has a lid pierced so as to take only one ballot ball, in order

that no one may put in two at a time.

When the jurors are about to vote, the crier demands first whether

the litigants enter a protest against any of the evidence; for no

protest can be received after the voting has begun. Then he

proclaims again, 'The pierced ballot for the plaintiff, the solid

for the defendant'; and the juror, taking his two ballot balls from

the stand, with his hand closed over the stem so as not to show either

the pierced or the solid ballot to the litigants, casts the one

which is to count into the brazen urn, and the other into the wooden

urn.

69

When all the jurors have voted, the attendants take the urn

containing the effective votes and discharge them on to a reckoning

board having as many cavities as there are ballot balls, so that the

effective votes, whether pierced or solid, may be plainly displayed

and easily counted. Then the officials assigned to the taking of the

votes tell them off on the board, the solid in one place and the

pierced in another, and the crier announces the numbers of the

votes, the pierced ballots being for the prosecutor and the solid

for the defendant. Whichever has the majority is victorious; but if

the votes are equal the verdict is for the defendant. Each juror

receives two ballots, and uses one to record his vote, and throws

the other away.

Then, if damages have to be awarded, they vote again in the same

way, first returning their pay-vouchers and receiving back their

staves. Half a gallon of water is allowed to each party for the

discussion of the damages. Finally, when all has been completed in

accordance with the law, the jurors receive their pay in the order

assigned by the lot.