Areopagus

Paul, in the Acts of the Apostles, is recorded as saying to the Areopagites:

or of the thing he does, as Aeschylus, who, having uttered the mysteries on the stage, was judged in the Areopagus and so released, having shown himself not initiated;

and on the other hand, all the judicial archons who are disqualified for promotion to the Areopagus forbear to force their way in and submit humbly to your decision.

When they have thus openly laid a plot, and got up a charge against me before the Areopagus, do you suppose there is any poisoning or any other such villainy from which they would abstain?

but Boeotus, plotting against me with Menecles, who is the prime mover in all these schemes, having managed to get up a quarrel that from disputes and revilings should come to blows, cut his own head, and summoned me before the Areopagus on a charge of murderous assault, with the intention of driving me into exile from the city.

And if Euthydicus, the physician, to whom these men had gone in the first instance, asking him to make a cut on the head of Boeotus—had not told to the court of the Areopagus the whole truth, this man would have taken such vengeance upon me, who was guilty of no wrong toward him, as you would not try to inflict on those who were guilty of the greatest wrongs toward you.

He went around bewailing his brother’s fate and declaring that he was going to summon Demochares before the Areopagus, until he made terms with those charged with the crime.

Neither will you ever show that I received money from Harpalus, for neither was I tried and proved guilty nor did I take money, and if you are looking for excuse to the notorious decision of the Council or to the Areopagus, recall to mind the trial of Aristogeiton and hide your heads in shame;

You also must run your risk here, for murder.

And this law will be set for posterity, that the accused will always win his case if he has equal votes.

There is a hill of Ares, where the gods first sat over their votes to decide on bloodshed, when savage Ares killed Halirrothius, son of the ocean’s ruler, in anger for the unholy violation of his daughter, so that the tribunal is most sacred and secure in the eyes of the gods.

the gods will be arbitrators of your trial, and will take a most righteous vote on you at the hill of Ares, where you are to win your case.

In a city that held the Areopagus, the most august of tribunals, that had a senate and a people that resembled a senate, a grim college of executioners gathered daily, and the ill-starred senate house was too cramped for so many tyrants!