Constitution of the Athenians

Translated by Thothica

2 hr 5 min

. . . on the accusation of Myron, having sworn over sacred victims, they were chosen by merit. When the curse had been adjudged, the men themselves were cast out of their tombs, and their family was condemned to perpetual exile. And Epimenides the Cretan, after these events, purified the city.
After this it happened that the notables and the common people were at strife with one another for a long time.
For their constitution was in all respects oligarchical, and in particular the poor were enslaved to the rich—themselves, their children, and their wives. They were called dependants and sixth-part men; for it was at this rate of rent that they worked the fields of the rich (and the whole land was in the hands of a few), and if they did not pay their rents, both they and their children were liable to seizure. And all loans were made on the security of the person, down to the time of Solon; he was the first to become champion of the people.
The harshest and bitterest thing for the many in the constitution was their state of slavery; though indeed they were discontented with everything else as well, for they had, so to speak, no share in anything.
The order of the ancient constitution, the one before Draco, was as follows. They appointed the magistrates by birth and by wealth. At first men held office for life, and afterwards for ten years.
The greatest and earliest of the offices were the king, the polemarch, and the archon. Of these the first was that of the king, for this was ancestral; second was added the office of polemarch, because some of the kings proved weak in matters of war—which is also why they sent for Ion when need overtook them.
Last was the office of archon. Most authorities say it arose in the time of Medon, some in the time of Acastus; and they bring as proof that the nine archons swear to perform their oaths just as in the time of Acastus, on the ground that in his reign the descendants of Codrus gave up the kingship in exchange for the privileges granted to the archon. But however this may be, it would make little difference in point of time. That this was the latest of these offices is shown also by the fact that the archon administers none of the ancestral rites, as the king and the polemarch do, but only the duties added later; which is why the office became important only recently, having been enlarged by these additions.
The thesmothetae were chosen many years afterward, when the offices were already being filled annually, in order that they might record the ordinances and preserve them for the trial of disputes; and for this reason it was the only one of the offices that did not last longer than a year.
By so much, then, do these offices precede one another in time. And the nine archons were not all together; rather the king occupied what is now called the Boucolion, near the Prytaneion (a proof of this: even now the union and marriage of the king's wife with Dionysus takes place there); the archon held the Prytaneion, the polemarch the Epilyceion (which was formerly called the Polemarcheion, but since Epilycus, when he was polemarch, rebuilt and fitted it out, it was called the Epilyceion); and the thesmothetae held the Thesmotheteion. In Solon's time all of them came together into the Thesmotheteion. They had power to decide cases finally on their own authority, and not, as now, only to conduct the preliminary inquiry. Such, then, was the arrangement concerning the offices.
The Council of the Areopagus had the function of watching over the laws, but it administered most of the affairs of the city, and the greatest, having full authority to punish and fine all who behaved disorderly. For the appointment of the archons was by birth and wealth, and it was from these that the members of the Areopagus were drawn. Which is why this alone of the offices has remained held for life, as it is even now.
The first constitution, then, had this outline. Not much time afterward, in the archonship of Aristaechmus, Draco laid down his ordinances; and his arrangement was of the following kind.
The franchise was given to those who provided arms for themselves. They chose the nine archons and the treasurers from men possessing unencumbered property of not less than ten minae, and the other lesser offices from those who provided arms; the generals and cavalry-commanders from men who declared unencumbered property of not less than a hundred minae and had legitimate sons over ten years old by a wedded wife. These men the prytanes had to hold under surety, along with the generals and cavalry-commanders of the previous year, until their audit, accepting four sureties of the same property-class as that to which the generals and cavalry-commanders belonged.
The Council was to consist of four hundred and one members chosen by lot from the citizen body. Both this and the other offices were to be allotted to those over thirty years of age, and the same man was not to hold office twice before all had had their turn; then they were to draw lots afresh from the beginning. If any of the councillors failed to attend a session when there was a sitting of the Council or Assembly, he paid a fine—three drachmas if he was of the five-hundred-bushel class, two if a knight, one if a teamster.
The Council of the Areopagus was guardian of the laws and watched over the magistrates, that they might govern according to the laws. A man who was wronged might lay information before the Council of the Areopagus, declaring the law contrary to which he was wronged.
But, as has been said, the loans were made on the security of the person, and the land was in the hands of a few.
Such being the arrangement in the constitution, and the many being enslaved to the few, the people rose against the notables.
The strife being violent, and the two parties opposing each other for a long time, they chose by common consent Solon as arbitrator and archon, and entrusted the constitution to him, after he had composed the elegy of which the beginning is:

I mark, and grief lies deep within my heart, as I behold the eldest land of Ionia sinking down;

in which he contends and disputes on behalf of each party against the other, and then exhorts them in common to put an end to the rivalry that had arisen.

Solon was by birth and reputation among the foremost, but in property and condition among the middling—as is agreed by others, and as he himself bears witness in these verses, exhorting the rich not to be grasping:

But you, who have driven on to a surfeit of many good things, calm the strong heart within your breasts, and set your proud minds upon moderate things. For neither shall we submit, nor will these things be fitting for you.

And in general he always lays the blame for the strife upon the rich; which is why at the beginning of the elegy he says he fears their love of money and their arrogance, as it was through these that the enmity had arisen.

Having become master of affairs, Solon freed the people both for the present and for the future, by forbidding loans on the security of the person; and he laid down laws and made a cancellation of debts, both private and public, which they call the Seisachtheia—the shaking-off of the burden.
In this matter some try to slander him. For it happened that, when Solon was about to make the Seisachtheia, he told some of the notables of it beforehand; and then, as the popular party say, he was outmaneuvered by his friends, while those who wish to malign him say that he too shared in the gain. For these men, having borrowed money, bought up much land, and not long afterward, when the cancellation of debts took place, they grew rich. This, they say, is how those who afterward were thought to be of ancient wealth came to be.
Nevertheless the account of the popular party is the more credible. For it is not likely that a man so moderate and public-spirited in all else—when it was in his power, by attaching one of the parties to himself, to become tyrant of the city—should make himself hated by both, and prize the honourable course and the safety of the city above his own advantage, and yet defile himself in matters so small and unworthy.
That he had this power is attested by the diseased state of affairs; he himself mentions it in many places in his poems, and all the others agree. This charge, therefore, must be reckoned false.
He established a constitution and laid down other laws, and they ceased to use Draco's ordinances except those concerning homicide. They wrote up the laws on the kurbeis and set them in the Royal Colonnade, and all swore to observe them. The nine archons, taking their oath at the stone, declared they would dedicate a golden statue if they transgressed any of the laws; which is why they still take their oath in this way even now.
He fixed the laws to remain in force for a hundred years, and arranged the constitution in the following manner.
He divided the people by property assessment into four classes, just as they had been divided before: the five-hundred-bushel man, the knight, the teamster, and the labourer. The other offices he assigned to be held from among the five-hundred-bushel men, the knights, and the teamsters—the nine archons, the treasurers, the sellers of state contracts, the Eleven, and the receivers—giving to each class an office proportioned to the size of its assessment. To those who paid the labourer's class he gave a share only in the Assembly and the law-courts.
A man had to be assessed in the five-hundred-bushel class who produced from his own land five hundred measures, dry and liquid together; in the knight class those producing three hundred—or, as some say, those able to keep a horse; and they bring as proof the name of the class, as though derived from the fact, and the dedications of the ancients. For there stands on the Acropolis a statue of Diphilus, on which is inscribed:

Anthemion son of Diphilus dedicated this to the gods, having exchanged the labourer's class for the knight's.

And a horse stands beside it as witness, on the ground that the word means the knight's class. Nevertheless it is more reasonable that the classes were divided by measures, like the five-hundred-bushel men. In the teamster class were assessed those producing two hundred measures, dry and liquid together. The rest paid in the labourer's class, having no share in any office; which is why even now, when one asks a man about to be allotted some office what class he pays, no one whatever would say the labourer's.

He made the offices allotted from among men chosen beforehand, whom each of the tribes chose. For the nine archons each tribe chose ten, and from these they cast lots; which is why it still remains the custom for each tribe to allot ten and then to choose by bean among these. A proof that he made the offices allotted from among the property-classes is the law concerning the treasurers, which they continue to use even now; for it orders the treasurers to be allotted from the five-hundred-bushel men.
Solon, then, legislated thus concerning the nine archons. For in old times the Council of the Areopagus, after summoning candidates and judging by itself, used to appoint the suitable man for each office for a year and send him forth.
There were four tribes, as before, and four tribe-kings. From each tribe there were divided three thirds and twelve naucraries to each; and over the naucraries there was an established office of naucrari, ordained for the levies and the expenditures that arose. Which is why in Solon's laws, which are no longer in use, it is written in many places that the naucrari are to collect and to spend from the naucraric fund.
He made the Council four hundred, a hundred from each tribe, but he set the Council of the Areopagus to the guarding of the laws, just as before it had been overseer of the constitution; and it watched over most of the public affairs, and the greatest, and corrected wrongdoers, having full authority to fine and punish, and it carried the fines up to the Acropolis without recording the reason for which the payment was exacted, and it tried those who conspired for the overthrow of the democracy, Solon having laid down a law of impeachment concerning them.
Seeing the city often in strife, and some of the citizens through indolence content to let things take their course, he laid down a special law against them: that whoever, when the city was in strife, did not take up arms with one side or the other should be without civic rights and have no share in the city.
The matters concerning the offices, then, were of this kind. There seem to be these three most democratic features of Solon's constitution: first and greatest, the forbidding of loans on the security of the person; next, that any who wished might seek redress on behalf of those who were wronged; and third—that by which they say the multitude has been most strengthened—the right of appeal to the law-court. For the people, being master of the vote, becomes master of the constitution.
Moreover, because the laws were not written simply or clearly, but like the law concerning estates and heiresses, of necessity many disputes arose, and the law-court decides all things, both public and private. Now some think he made the laws unclear on purpose, so that the people should be master of the decision. But this is not likely; rather it was through his inability to embrace the best in a general formula. For it is not just to judge his intention from what happens now, but from the rest of his constitution.
These, then, are the things he seems to have made democratic in his laws; but before the legislation he had made the cancellation of debts, and afterward the increase of the measures and weights and of the coinage.
For in his time the measures became larger than the Pheidonian, and the mina, which previously had a weight of seventy drachmas, was filled out to a hundred. The old type of coin was the two-drachma piece. He also made weights to correspond to the coinage, the talent weighing sixty-three minae, and the three minae were distributed proportionally among the stater and the other weights.
Having arranged the constitution in the manner described, since people kept coming to him and pestering him about the laws, criticizing some points and questioning others, and wishing neither to disturb these things nor to incur enmity by remaining, he made a journey abroad, for trade and at the same time for sightseeing, to Egypt, saying that he would not return for ten years. For he did not think it just to expound the laws in person, but that each man should do what was written.
At the same time it also happened that many of the notables had become hostile to him on account of the cancellation of debts, and that both parties had changed their minds because the settlement had turned out contrary to their expectation. For the people thought he would make a complete redistribution, while the notables thought he would restore them to the same condition, or alter it but little. But Solon set himself against both, and, when it was in his power, by joining with whichever side he chose, to become tyrant, he chose to incur the hatred of both, having saved his country and legislated for the best.
That this is how it was, all the others agree, and he himself in his poetry makes mention of it in these verses:

To the people I gave such privilege as is sufficient, neither taking from their honour nor reaching out for more; and as for those who had power and were admired for their wealth, for these too I took thought that they should suffer nothing unseemly. I stood casting my strong shield about both, and allowed neither to win an unjust victory.

Again, declaring how the multitude should be treated:

The people would best follow its leaders thus, if it were neither too much relaxed nor constrained by force. For surfeit breeds insolence, whenever great prosperity follows upon men whose minds are not sound.

And again, somewhere else, he speaks of those who wished to redistribute the land:

Those who came for plunder had abundant hope, and each of them supposed he would find great wealth, and that I, though speaking smoothly, would reveal a harsh purpose. Vain were their imaginings then; and now, angry with me, they all look askance at me, as at an enemy. Yet without cause; for what I said, with the gods I accomplished, and the rest I did not work in vain, nor does it please me to do anything by the violence of tyranny, nor that the noble should have an equal share with the base of the rich land of the fatherland.

And again concerning the cancellation of debts and those who were formerly enslaved but freed through the Seisachtheia:

But I—of the things for which I gathered the people together, which of them did I cease from before I had achieved? To this, in the court of Time, might bear me witness the greatest mother of the Olympian gods, the best, the black Earth, from whom I once tore up the boundary-stones fixed in many places; before enslaved, she is now free. And to Athens, their god-built fatherland, I brought back many who had been sold, one unjustly, another justly, and those who through forced necessity had fled, no longer speaking the Attic tongue, as men who had wandered far and wide; and those who here at home endured a shameful slavery, trembling at their masters' moods, I set free. These things by the power of law, fitting together force and justice, I wrought, and carried through as I had promised. Ordinances alike for the base and the noble, fitting a straight justice to each man, I wrote. Had another taken the goad as I, a man ill-counseled and greedy of gain, he would not have restrained the people. For had I been willing to do what then pleased the opposing side, and again whatever the others devised for them, this city would have been bereft of many men. For these reasons, drawing strength from every side, I turned about like a wolf among many hounds.

And again, reproaching the later complaints of both parties:

If I must openly reproach the people, what they now have they never could have seen, even in their dreams. And those who are greater and stronger in power would praise me and make me their friend. For if any other, he says, had gained this honour, he would not have restrained the people, nor ceased until he had stirred up the milk and taken out the cream. But I stood, as it were in the no-man's-land between them, a boundary-stone.

For these reasons, then, he made his journey abroad. After Solon had left, while the city was still disturbed, for four years they continued in quiet; but in the fifth year after Solon's archonship they did not appoint an archon because of the strife, and again in the fifth year after that, for the same cause, they had an anarchy.
After this, within the same period, Damasias, having been chosen archon, held office for two years and two months, until he was driven from office by force. Then, because of the strife, they resolved to choose ten archons—five of the eupatrids, three of the farmers, and two of the craftsmen—and these held office for the year after Damasias. Which makes it clear that the archon had the greatest power; for they are seen always to be at strife over this office.
In general they continued to be diseased in their relations with one another, some having as their starting-point and pretext the cancellation of debts (for it had happened that they had become poor), others discontented with the constitution because a great change had taken place, and some out of rivalry with one another.
The factions were three: one of the men of the coast, of whom Megacles son of Alcmeon was the leader, who seemed especially to pursue the middle constitution; another of the men of the plain, who sought oligarchy, whose leader was Lycurgus; and the third that of the men of the hills, over which Pisistratus was set, who seemed to be the most democratic.
To these were attached, in addition, those who had been deprived of their debts through poverty, and those not pure in descent through fear; a proof of which is that after the overthrow of the tyrants they made a revision of the citizen-rolls, on the ground that many shared in the citizenship who had no right. And each faction had its name from the districts in which they farmed.
Pisistratus, seeming to be the most democratic and having won great repute in the war against the Megarians, wounded himself and persuaded the people, on the pretext that he had suffered this at the hands of his opponents, to grant him a guard for his person—Aristion having moved the proposal. Having got the so-called club-bearers, he rose with them against the people and seized the Acropolis, in the thirty-second year after the laying-down of the laws, in the archonship of Comeas.
It is said that when Pisistratus asked for the guard, Solon spoke against it and said that he was wiser than some and braver than others: for those who did not perceive that Pisistratus was aiming at tyranny, he was wiser than these; and those who knew it but kept silent, he was braver than. When he failed to persuade them by speaking, he set out his arms before his doors and said that he himself had aided his country as far as he was able (for he was already very old), and that he expected the others to do the same.
Solon, then, accomplished nothing by his exhortations at that time. Pisistratus, having taken power, administered public affairs in a manner more constitutional than tyrannical. But before his rule had taken root, the party of Megacles and Lycurgus, being of one mind, expelled him in the sixth year after his first establishment, in the archonship of Hegesias.
In the twelfth year after this, Megacles, being hard pressed by faction, again made overtures to Pisistratus, on condition that he should marry his daughter, and brought him back in an old-fashioned and exceedingly simple way. For having first spread a report that Athena was bringing Pisistratus back, and having found a tall and beautiful woman—as Herodotus says, from the deme of the Paeanians, but as some say, a Thracian garland-seller from Collytus, whose name was Phye—he had her imitate the goddess in her adornment and brought her in along with him; and Pisistratus drove in on a chariot, with the woman standing beside him, while those in the city made obeisance and received them in wonder.
The first return, then, took place in this way. After this, when he was expelled the second time, about the seventh year after his return (for he did not hold power long, but, because he was unwilling to consort with the daughter of Megacles, fearing both factions, he withdrew),
first he settled a place near the Thermaic Gulf called Rhaecelus, and from there he passed to the region around Pangaeus, whence, having gathered money and hired soldiers, he came to Eretria, and in the eleventh year then for the first time attempted to recover his power by force, with many others helping him eagerly, especially the Thebans and Lygdamis of Naxos, and besides these the knights who held power in Eretria.
Having won the battle at Pallenis, and having taken the city and stripped the people of their arms, he now held the tyranny securely; and having taken Naxos, he set up Lygdamis as ruler.
He stripped the people of their arms in the following way. Holding a review under arms at the Theseion, he set about addressing the assembly, and spoke for a little while; and when they said they could not hear, he bade them go up to the gateway of the Acropolis, that he might be heard better. While he spent the time in speaking, the men appointed for the task took up the arms and shut them away in the buildings near the Theseion, and came and signaled to Pisistratus. He, when he had finished the rest of his speech, told them also what had been done about the arms, saying they should not wonder or be dismayed, but go away and attend to their private affairs, while he himself would take charge of all public matters.
The tyranny of Pisistratus, then, was established in this way from the beginning, and underwent so many changes.
Pisistratus administered the affairs of the city, as has been said, with moderation and more constitutionally than tyrannically. For in other respects he was humane and gentle and forgiving to wrongdoers, and besides he advanced money to the poor for their work, so that they could support themselves by farming.
This he did for two reasons: that they might not spend their time in the town but be scattered through the countryside, and that, having a modest competence and being occupied with their private affairs, they might neither desire nor have leisure to attend to public matters.
At the same time it also happened that his revenues became greater, the land being worked; for he exacted a tenth from the produce.
For this reason too he set up the judges by demes, and he himself often went out into the country, inspecting and settling disputes, so that men might not neglect their work by coming down to the town.
For it was on some such progress of Pisistratus that the affair of the man farming on Hymettus, the place afterward called the Tax-free Farm, is said to have happened. For seeing a man digging and working ground that was wholly rock, he was astonished and bade his servant ask what came from the land. "All the aches and pains there are," the man said, "and of these aches and pains Pisistratus must take the tenth." The man answered thus not knowing who he was; but Pisistratus, pleased by his frankness and his industry, made him free of all taxes.
He gave no trouble to the multitude in other matters during his rule either, but always provided peace and maintained quiet; which is why men often used to repeat that the tyranny of Pisistratus was the life of the age of Cronus. For it came about later, when his sons succeeded, that the rule became much harsher.
Greatest of all the things mentioned was that he was democratic and humane in character. For in all matters he wished to administer everything according to the laws, giving himself no advantage; and once, when summoned on a charge of homicide to the Areopagus, he himself appeared to make his defence, but the man who had summoned him took fright and withdrew.
For this reason too he remained long in power, and whenever he was expelled he recovered it easily. For most both of the notables and of the popular party wished it. The former he won over by his company, the latter by his help in their private affairs, and he was naturally well disposed toward both.
The Athenian laws concerning tyrants were mild in those times, and in particular the one most relevant to the establishment of tyranny. For this was a law of theirs: "These are the ordinances and ancestral usages of the Athenians: if any rise up to be tyrants, or help to establish the tyranny, both he and his family shall be without civic rights."
Pisistratus, then, grew old in office, and died of sickness in the archonship of Philoneus, having lived thirty-three years from the time he first became tyrant, and of these having remained in office nineteen, all but one; for the rest he was in exile.
For this reason those who say that Pisistratus was the beloved of Solon, and that he was general in the war against the Megarians over Salamis, are plainly talking nonsense; for it does not accord with their ages, if one reckons up the life of each and the archonship in which he died.
When Pisistratus died, his sons held power, conducting affairs in the same way. There were two by his wedded wife, Hippias and Hipparchus, and two by his Argive wife, Iophon and Hegesistratus, whose nickname was Thettalus.
For Pisistratus had taken a second wife from Argos, the daughter of an Argive named Gorgilus, Timonassa, whom Archinus of Ambracia, of the Cypselid house, had previously had as his wife. From this arose his friendship with the Argives, and a thousand of them fought beside him in the battle at Pallenis, Hegesistratus having brought them. Some say he married the Argive woman after his first expulsion, others while he held power.
Masters of affairs, by reason of their standing and their ages, were Hipparchus and Hippias; but Hippias, being the elder and by nature a statesman and prudent, was at the head of the government. Hipparchus was playful, amorous, and a lover of the Muses (and it was he who sent for Anacreon and Simonides and the other poets).
Thettalus was much younger and bold and insolent in his life, and from him it came about that the whole of their misfortunes arose. For having fallen in love with Harmodius, and failing of his friendship, he could not restrain his anger, but showed his bitterness on other occasions, and at last, when the sister of Harmodius was about to carry a basket in the Panathenaea, he prevented her, abusing Harmodius as effeminate; whence it came about that Harmodius and Aristogeiton, provoked, carried out their deed, with many sharing in it.
They were already watching for Hippias on the Acropolis during the Panathenaea (for it happened that Hippias was receiving the procession, while Hipparchus was dispatching it); and seeing one of those who shared in the deed conversing in a friendly way with Hippias, and supposing he was giving information, and wishing to do something before they were arrested, they went down, and starting before the others, killed Hipparchus while he was marshalling the procession near the Leocorion, and ruined the whole enterprise.
Of the two, Harmodius died at once at the hands of the bodyguards; Aristogeiton later, having been seized and tortured for a long time. Under compulsion he accused many men who were by nature of the distinguished families and friends of the tyrants. For they could not at the moment find any trace of the deed; but the story commonly told, that Hippias made those in the procession lay down their arms and searched out those with daggers, is not true. For they did not then march with arms, but the people instituted this later.
He accused the friends of the tyrant—as the popular party say, on purpose, that they might at once commit impiety and become weak, by destroying men who were innocent and their own friends; but as some say, not inventing, but informing on those who shared the secret.
And at last, since he could not, do what he might, contrive to die, he promised to inform on many others, and persuaded Hippias to give him his right hand as a pledge of faith; and when he had received it, reproaching him that he had given his right hand to his brother's murderer, he so provoked Hippias that, in his anger, he could not restrain himself, but drew his dagger and slew him.
After this it came about that the tyranny was much harsher. For both because he was avenging his brother and because he had slain and banished many, he was distrustful of all and bitter.
About the fourth year after the death of Hipparchus, since things in the town were going badly, he set about fortifying Munichia, intending to remove his seat there. While he was engaged in this, he was driven out by Cleomenes the king of the Lacedaemonians, oracles being continually given to the Spartans to overthrow the tyranny, for the following reason.
The exiles, whom the Alcmeonidae led, could not by themselves accomplish their return, but were always failing. For in their other attempts they came to grief, and when they had fortified Leipsydrion above Parnes—into which some from the town came out to join them—they were besieged out by the tyrants; whence afterward, after this disaster, they always sang in their drinking-songs:

Alas, Leipsydrion, betrayer of comrades, what manner of men you destroyed, good fighters and of noble birth, who then showed of what fathers they were sprung.

Failing, then, in everything else, they took the contract to build the temple at Delphi, from which they came by abundant funds for the help of the Lacedaemonians. The Pythia kept urging the Lacedaemonians, when they consulted her, to free Athens, until she prevailed upon the Spartans, although the Pisistratidae were their guest-friends; and a part no smaller in the impulse of the Lacedaemonians was the friendship that subsisted between the Pisistratidae and the Argives.
First, then, they sent Anchimolus by sea with an army; but when he was defeated and killed, because Cineas the Thessalian came to the aid with a thousand horsemen, the Lacedaemonians, angered at what had happened, sent out their king Cleomenes with a larger force by land. He, when he had defeated the Thessalian horsemen who were trying to prevent his passing into Attica, shut up Hippias in the so-called Pelargic wall and besieged him, together with the Athenians.
While he was sitting before it, it chanced that the sons of the Pisistratidae were captured as they were slipping out. When these had been taken, they made an agreement for the safety of the children, and within five days, having removed their possessions, surrendered the Acropolis to the Athenians in the archonship of Harpactides, having held the tyranny after their father's death about seventeen years, and altogether, with the years their father ruled, forty-nine all but one.
When the tyranny had been overthrown, Isagoras son of Tisander, a friend of the tyrants, and Cleisthenes, of the family of the Alcmeonidae, were at strife with one another. Being worsted in the matter of the political clubs, Cleisthenes won over the people, giving the constitution to the multitude.
Isagoras, falling short in power, again called in Cleomenes, who was his guest-friend, and persuaded him to drive out the curse, since the Alcmeonidae were thought to be among the accursed.
When Cleisthenes had withdrawn, Cleomenes came with a few men and put under the ban seven hundred households of the Athenians. Having done this, he tried to dissolve the Council, and to make Isagoras and three hundred of his friends masters of the city with himself. But when the Council resisted and the multitude gathered, Cleomenes and Isagoras and all their party fled for refuge to the Acropolis, and the people, sitting before it for two days, besieged them, and on the third let Cleomenes and all with him go under truce, and sent for Cleisthenes and the other exiles. When the people had taken control of affairs,
Cleisthenes was leader and champion of the people. For the Alcmeonidae were pretty nearly most responsible for the expulsion of the tyrants, and they continued to be at strife for the most part.
Even before the Alcmeonidae, Cedon had attacked the tyrants; for which reason they sang of him too in their drinking-songs:

Pour for Cedon too, servant, and do not forget, if one must pour wine for good men.

For these reasons, then, the people trusted Cleisthenes. And being at that time champion of the multitude, in the fourth year after the overthrow of the tyrants,
in the archonship of Isagoras, first he distributed all into ten tribes instead of the four, wishing to mix them up, so that more might share in the constitution; whence came the saying "do not distinguish by tribes," directed at those who wished to examine descent.
Next he made the Council five hundred instead of four hundred, fifty from each tribe—for at that time there were a hundred. He did not arrange them into twelve tribes, so that he might not have to divide them according to the pre-existing thirds; for there were twelve thirds in the four tribes, so that it would not have worked out to mix up the multitude.
He also divided the land by demes into thirty parts—ten of those around the town, ten of the coast, and ten of the inland—and naming these thirds, he allotted three to each tribe, so that each tribe should have a share in all the regions. And he made fellow-demesmen of those dwelling in each of the demes, that they might not, by addressing men by their fathers' names, expose the new citizens, but might name them by their demes; whence the Athenians call themselves by their demes.
He also established demarchs, having the same charge as the former naucrari; for he made the demes in place of the naucraries. He named some of the demes from their places, others from their founders; for not all corresponded to the places.
The clans and brotherhoods and priesthoods he allowed each to keep according to ancestral usage. To the tribes he gave eponymous heroes, from a hundred founders chosen beforehand, of whom the Pythia selected ten.
When these things had been done, the constitution became much more democratic than that of Solon. For it happened that the tyranny had effaced the laws of Solon through disuse, and Cleisthenes laid down other new ones aiming at the multitude, among which was enacted the law concerning ostracism.
First, then, in the fifth year after this settlement, in the archonship of Hermocreon, they made for the Council of Five Hundred the oath which they still swear even now. Next they chose the generals by tribes, one from each tribe, but the leader of the whole army was the polemarch.
In the twelfth year after this, having won the battle at Marathon, in the archonship of Phaenippus, after letting two years pass after the victory, the people being now confident, they used for the first time the law concerning ostracism, which had been enacted out of suspicion of those in positions of power, because Pisistratus, being a popular leader and general, had become tyrant.
And the first to be ostracized was one of his kinsmen, Hipparchus son of Charmus of Collytus, on whose account especially Cleisthenes had laid down the law, wishing to drive him out. For the Athenians allowed the friends of the tyrants who had not joined in the wrongs during the troubles to dwell in the city, using the customary mildness of the people; and of these the leader and champion was Hipparchus.
Immediately in the following year, in the archonship of Telesinus, they chose by bean the nine archons by tribes from the five hundred chosen beforehand by the demes—then for the first time after the tyranny. All the earlier ones had been elected. And Megacles son of Hippocrates of Alopece was ostracized.
For three years, then, they ostracized the friends of the tyrants, on whose account the law had been laid down; but after this, in the fourth year, they began to remove also any of the others who seemed to be too powerful; and the first to be ostracized of those unconnected with the tyranny was Xanthippus son of Ariphron.
In the third year after this, in the archonship of Nicodemus, when the mines at Maroneia had been discovered, and the city had a surplus of a hundred talents from the workings, some advised the people to distribute the money; but Themistocles prevented it, not saying what use he would make of the money, but bidding them lend a talent each to the hundred richest of the Athenians, and then, if the expenditure pleased them, the cost should be the city's, but if not, they should recover the money from the borrowers. Having got it on these terms, he built a hundred triremes, each of the hundred building one, with which they fought at sea at Salamis against the barbarians. And at this time Aristides son of Lysimachus was ostracized.
In the fourth year they recalled all the ostracized, in the archonship of Hypsechides, because of the expedition of Xerxes; and for the future they fixed for those ostracized to dwell within Geraestus and Scyllaeum, or to be utterly without civic rights.
At that time, then, the city advanced thus far, growing little by little along with the democracy. But after the Persian Wars the Council of the Areopagus again grew strong and administered the city, having taken the leadership by no formal decree, but because it had been the cause of the sea-battle at Salamis. For when the generals were at a loss what to do, and had proclaimed that each should save himself, the Areopagus provided eight drachmas to each man, distributed them, and got them aboard the ships.
For this reason men yielded to its prestige, and the Athenians were well governed during these times. For it happened that in this period they practised the arts of war, gained repute among the Greeks, and took the leadership of the sea against the will of the Lacedaemonians.
The champions of the people in these times were Aristides son of Lysimachus and Themistocles son of Neocles, the one thought skilled in war, the other in statecraft, and excelling those of his time in justice; which is why they used the one as general, the other as counsellor.
The rebuilding of the walls they administered jointly, although they were at variance with each other; but to the revolt of the Ionians from the alliance of the Lacedaemonians it was Aristides who urged them, watching for the moment when the Spartans were discredited because of Pausanias.
For which reason it was he who assessed the first tributes for the cities, in the third year after the sea-battle at Salamis, in the archonship of Timosthenes, and he swore the oaths to the Ionians, that they should have the same enemy and friend, on which terms they sank the lumps of iron in the sea.
After this, the city being now confident and much money having been collected, he advised them to lay hold of the leadership, and to come down from the fields and dwell in the town; for there would be maintenance for all, some on campaign, some on garrison duty, some managing public affairs; and thus they would hold the leadership.
Persuaded of this, and having taken the power, they treated the allies more despotically, except for the Chians, Lesbians, and Samians; these they kept as guardians of the empire, allowing them their own constitutions and to rule over whatever subjects they happened to rule.
They also established for the multitude an abundant maintenance, as Aristides had proposed. For it came about that from the tributes and the taxes and the allies more than twenty thousand men were maintained. For there were six thousand jurors, one thousand six hundred archers, and besides these one thousand two hundred horsemen, a Council of five hundred, five hundred guards of the dockyards, and besides these fifty guards in the city, magistrates at home to the number of about seven hundred, and abroad about seven hundred; and besides these, when they afterward set up the war, two thousand five hundred hoplites, twenty guard-ships, and other ships carrying the garrisons chosen by bean, two thousand men. And further the Prytaneion, the orphans, and the keepers of prisoners; for the maintenance of all these was from public funds.
The maintenance of the people, then, came about through these means. For about seventeen years after the Persian Wars the constitution remained under the leadership of the Areopagites, though declining little by little. But as the multitude grew, Ephialtes son of Sophonides, having become champion of the people, and reputed both incorruptible and just toward the constitution, attacked the Council.
And first he made away with many of the Areopagites, bringing actions concerning their administration. Then, in the archonship of Conon, he stripped from the Council all the added powers through which it had the guardianship of the constitution, and gave some to the Five Hundred, some to the people and the law-courts.
He did this with Themistocles as his accomplice, who was of the Areopagites but was about to be tried for Medism. Themistocles, wishing the Council to be dissolved, told Ephialtes that the Council was about to seize him, and told the Areopagites that he would show them certain men conspiring for the overthrow of the constitution. And bringing the chosen members of the Council to where Ephialtes was staying, that he might show them those who were gathering, he conversed with them earnestly.
Ephialtes, when he saw this, struck with alarm, sat down in his single tunic at the altar. All wondering at what had happened, and afterward the Council of Five Hundred having gathered, Ephialtes and Themistocles accused the Areopagites, and again in the same way before the people, until they stripped away their power. And Ephialtes too was made away with, treacherously murdered not long after by Aristodicus of Tanagra.
The Council of the Areopagus, then, was deprived of its oversight in this way. After this it came about that the constitution was relaxed still further, through those who eagerly courted the people. For in these times it chanced that the more respectable had no leader at all, but at their head was Cimon son of Miltiades, a younger man who had come late to the city; and besides, the many had been wasted in war. For since military service in those times was by levy, and generals inexperienced in war were set over them, honoured for the sake of their fathers' reputations, it always came about that of those who went out two or three thousand were lost, so that the respectable were used up, both of the people and of the well-to-do.
In all other matters, then, they administered things not paying so much heed to the laws as before, but the choice of the nine archons they did not disturb; only in the sixth year after the death of Ephialtes they resolved that the candidates for the lot for the nine archons should be chosen beforehand from the teamster class as well, and the first to hold office from among them was Mnesitheides. All before him had been from the knights and the five-hundred-bushel men, while the teamsters held the ordinary offices, unless something in the laws was overlooked.
In the fifth year after this, in the archonship of Lysicrates, the thirty judges called the deme-judges were re-established. And in the third year after him, in the archonship of Antidotus, because of the multitude of the citizens, on the proposal of Pericles, they resolved that no one should share in the city who was not born of citizen parents on both sides.
After this, when Pericles came forward to lead the people—having first won repute when, as a young man, he prosecuted the audit of Cimon's generalship—the constitution became still more democratic. For he took away some of the powers of the Areopagites, and above all he urged the city toward naval power, from which it came about that the many, grown confident, drew the whole constitution more into their own hands.
In the forty-ninth year after the sea-battle at Salamis, in the archonship of Pythodorus, the war against the Peloponnesians broke out, during which the people, shut up in the town and accustomed to earn pay on campaign, partly willingly and partly unwillingly chose to administer the constitution themselves.
Pericles also first made the law-courts paid, as a counter-measure to Cimon's wealth. For Cimon, having a tyrant's fortune, first performed the public services brilliantly, and then maintained many of his demesmen. For any of the Laciadae who wished could come to him each day and have his moderate needs supplied. Moreover all his estates were unfenced, so that any who wished might enjoy the fruit.
Pericles, falling short of this lavishness in his property, on the advice of Damonides of Oa (who was thought to be the prompter of most of Pericles' measures—which is also why they ostracized him later), since he was worsted in his private means, devised giving the many their own; and so he instituted pay for the law-courts. From this some bring the charge that the courts became worse, since it was always the ordinary men rather than the respectable who took pains to be allotted. And after this began also the practice of bribing juries,
Anytus having first shown the way, after his generalship at Pylos. For being tried by some men for the loss of Pylos, he bribed the court and got off.
So long, then, as Pericles was champion of the people, affairs of the constitution were better; but when Pericles died, much worse. For then for the first time the people took a champion not of good repute among the respectable; whereas in former times the respectable always continued to lead the people.
For from the beginning, the first to become champion of the people was Solon, the second Pisistratus, of the well-born and notable. When the tyranny had been overthrown, Cleisthenes, of the family of the Alcmeonidae; and to him there was no rival, when Isagoras' party had been driven out. After this, Xanthippus was at the head of the people, and Miltiades of the notables; then Themistocles and Aristides; and after them Ephialtes of the people, and Cimon son of Miltiades of the well-to-do; then Pericles of the people, and Thucydides of the others, who was a connection by marriage of Cimon.
When Pericles died, Nicias, who died in Sicily, was at the head of the distinguished, and of the people Cleon son of Cleaenetus, who seems above all to have corrupted the people by his impetuosity, and who was the first to shout on the platform and to use abuse, and to gird up his cloak and make a speech, while the others spoke decorously. After them, of the others, Theramenes son of Hagnon, and of the people Cleophon the lyre-maker, who first provided the two-obol dole; and for a time he distributed it, but afterward Callicrates of Paeania abolished it, being the first to promise to add another obol to the two. Both of these they afterward condemned to death; for the multitude is wont, even when it has been deceived, later to hate those who have led it to do anything not honourable.
From Cleophon onward the popular leadership was taken up in succession by those most willing to be bold and to gratify the many with an eye to the immediate present.
The best of those who have taken part in public life at Athens after the men of old seem to have been Nicias and Thucydides and Theramenes. About Nicias and Thucydides nearly all agree that they were not only fine and good men but also statesmen, and that they treated the whole city in a fatherly way; but about Theramenes, because the governments of his time were turbulent, the judgement is disputed. It seems, however, to those who pronounce not carelessly, that he did not, as those who malign him say, overthrow all the constitutions, but advanced them all so long as they did nothing unlawful, as one able to take part in public life under any of them—which is the work of a good citizen—but not yielding to those that acted unlawfully, rather incurring their hatred.
So long, then, as affairs in the war were evenly balanced, they preserved the democracy. But after the disaster in Sicily, when the affairs of the Lacedaemonians became stronger through the alliance with the King, they were compelled to alter the democracy and establish the constitution of the Four Hundred—Melobius having spoken the speech before the decree, and Pythodorus of Anaphlystus having drafted the proposal, the many being most readily persuaded because they thought the King would more likely fight on their side if they made the constitution rest on a few.
The decree of Pythodorus was of this kind: the people were to choose, in addition to the ten pre-existing commissioners, twenty others from those over forty years of age, who, after swearing that they would draft what they thought best for the city, should draft proposals concerning the safety of the state;
and it was to be open to any other who wished to make proposals, so that they might choose the best from all of them. Cleitophon proposed the rest just as Pythodorus said, but added that the chosen men should also search out the ancestral laws which Cleisthenes laid down when he established the democracy, so that, hearing these too, they might decide what was best, on the ground that the constitution of Cleisthenes was not democratic but akin to that of Solon.
The chosen men first proposed that it should be obligatory for the prytanes to put to the vote everything said concerning the safety of the state; next they abolished the indictments for illegal proposals and the impeachments and the summonses, so that any of the Athenians who wished might give counsel about the matters before them. And if anyone, for this cause, fined or summoned or brought another into court, there was to be information against him and arrest before the generals, and the generals were to hand him over to the Eleven to be punished with death.
After this they arranged the constitution in the following way. The incoming revenues were not to be spent on anything but the war; all the magistrates were to serve without pay so long as the war lasted, except for the nine archons and the prytanes for the time being, and these were each to receive three obols a day. The whole rest of the government was to be entrusted to those of the Athenians most able to serve with their persons and their property, not fewer than five thousand, so long as the war lasted. These were to have full authority, and to make treaties with whomever they wished. They were also to choose ten men from each tribe, over forty years of age, who should enroll the Five Thousand, after swearing over perfect victims.
The chosen men, then, drafted these things. When these had been ratified, the Five Thousand chose from among themselves a hundred men to draw up the constitution. The chosen men drew up and brought forward the following:
That those over thirty years of age should serve in the Council year by year without pay; that of these should be the generals, the nine archons, the recorder of sacred matters, the brigade-commanders, the cavalry-commanders, the tribal commanders, the commanders of the garrisons, ten treasurers of the sacred funds of the Goddess and the other gods, and twenty Hellenic treasurers who should manage all the other sacred funds, and ten commissioners of sacrifices and ten superintendents; that all these should be chosen from those previously selected, more being selected from the current councillors; that all the other offices should be allotted and not taken from the Council; and that the Hellenic treasurers who managed the funds should not take part in the Council.
They were to make four Councils from the age-group named, for the time to come, and the part of these that the lot fell on should serve in the Council, and the others should be distributed each to its allotted turn. The hundred men were to distribute themselves and the others into four parts as equal as possible, draw lots, and serve in the Council for a year.
They were to deliberate in whatever way might seem best to them concerning the funds, that they might be kept safe and spent on what was needful, and concerning the rest in the best way they could; and if they wished to deliberate with more, each was to call in as an additional member whomever he wished from the same age-group. They were to hold sittings of the Council every fifth day, unless they needed more. The nine archons were to fill up the Council. Five men chosen by lot from the Council were to judge the show of hands, and from these one was to be allotted each day to put matters to the vote.
The five allotted men were to allot the turns of those wishing to come before the Council—first sacred matters, second heralds, third embassies, fourth the rest; but matters of the war, when needed, the generals were to bring forward without allotment and transact.
Any of the councillors who did not come to the Council-house at the appointed hour was to owe a drachma for each day, unless he was absent having obtained leave of the Council.
This, then, was the constitution they drew up for the time to come; but for the present occasion the following: that four hundred should serve in the Council according to ancestral usage, forty from each tribe, from candidates whom the tribesmen should choose from those over thirty years of age. These were to establish the offices, and draft the oath that should be sworn, and act concerning the laws and the audits and the rest in whatever way they thought advantageous.
They were to use whatever laws might be enacted concerning public affairs, and it was not to be permitted to alter them or to enact others. The choice of the generals, for the present, was to be made from the whole body of the Five Thousand; but the Council, when it was established, after holding a review under arms, was to choose ten men and a secretary for them, and the chosen men were to hold office for the coming year with full powers, and to consult with the Council if they needed anything.
They were also to choose one cavalry-commander and ten tribal commanders; but for the future the Council was to make the choice of these according to what had been written. None of the other offices, except the Council and the generals, was to be permitted, either to these or to anyone else, to be held more than once. And for the rest of the time, that the Four Hundred might be distributed into the four allotments, whenever it should fall to the same men to serve in the Council along with the others, the hundred men were to distribute them.
The hundred men chosen by the Five Thousand, then, drew up this constitution. When these things had been ratified by the multitude, on the motion of Aristomachus, the Council in the archonship of Callias was dissolved before completing its term, on the fourteenth of the month Thargelion, and the Four Hundred entered office on the twenty-second of Thargelion; whereas the Council chosen by bean ought to have entered on the fourteenth of Scirophorion.
The oligarchy, then, was established in this way, in the archonship of Callias, about a hundred years after the expulsion of the tyrants, those chiefly responsible being Pisander, Antiphon, and Theramenes, men both of good birth and reputed to excel in understanding and judgement.
When this constitution had come into being, the Five Thousand were chosen in name only, and the Four Hundred, entering the Council-house with the ten plenipotentiaries, ruled the city; and they sent envoys to the Lacedaemonians and tried to end the war on the terms that each side should keep what it had. But when the Lacedaemonians would not listen, unless they also gave up the rule of the sea, they broke off the negotiations.
The constitution of the Four Hundred lasted perhaps four months, and Mnesilochus held office from among them for two months, in the archonship of Theopompus, who held office for the remaining ten months. But being defeated in the sea-battle off Eretria, and all Euboea having revolted except Oreus, they bore this misfortune harder than any that had gone before (for they got more benefit from Euboea than from Attica), and they dissolved the Four Hundred and handed over affairs to the Five Thousand from the hoplite class, having decreed that no office should be paid.
Those chiefly responsible for the overthrow were Aristocrates and Theramenes, who were not satisfied with what the Four Hundred were doing; for they did everything by themselves, referring nothing to the Five Thousand. They seem to have been well governed during these times, the war being on and the constitution resting on the hoplite class.
These men, then, the people deprived of the constitution quickly. In the sixth year after the overthrow of the Four Hundred, in the archonship of Callias of Angele, when the sea-battle at Arginusae had taken place, first it came about that the ten generals who had won the sea-battle were all condemned by a single show of hands—some who had not even taken part in the battle, others who had been saved on another's ship—the people being deceived by those who roused their anger; then, when the Lacedaemonians wished to withdraw from Deceleia and make peace on the terms that each should keep what it had, some were eager for it, but the multitude would not consent, deceived by Cleophon, who prevented the peace from being made, coming into the Assembly drunk and wearing a breastplate, saying he would not allow it unless the Lacedaemonians gave up all the cities.
Having managed affairs badly then, not long after they recognized their error. For in the following year, in the archonship of Alexias, they met with disaster in the sea-battle at Aegospotami, from which it came about that Lysander, having become master of the city, set up the Thirty in the following way.
The peace having been made for them on the terms that they should be governed by the ancestral constitution, the democratic party tried to preserve the democracy; but of the notables, those in the political clubs, and those of the exiles who had returned after the peace, desired oligarchy, while those who belonged to no club, but were otherwise thought to fall short of none of the citizens, sought the ancestral constitution. Among these were Archinus and Anytus and Cleitophon and Phormisius and many others, and the foremost was Theramenes. When Lysander joined the oligarchs, the people, struck with fear, were compelled to vote for the oligarchy. The decree was drafted by Dracontides of Aphidna.
The Thirty, then, were established in this way, in the archonship of Pythodorus. Having become masters of the city, they disregarded the other resolutions made concerning the constitution, but appointed five hundred councillors and the other magistrates from a thousand men chosen beforehand, and choosing for themselves ten commanders of the Piraeus, eleven guards of the prison, and three hundred attendants armed with whips, they held the city in their own power.
At first they were moderate toward the citizens and pretended to pursue the ancestral constitution, and they took down from the Areopagus the laws of Ephialtes and Archestratus concerning the Areopagites, and such of Solon's ordinances as gave rise to disputes, and abolished the authority that lay with the jurors, as though correcting and making the constitution beyond dispute—for instance, making absolute the right of a man to give his property to whomever he wished, and removing the attendant difficulties ("unless out of madness or old age or under a woman's influence"), so that there might be no opening for sycophants. And likewise they did in other matters.
At first, then, they did these things, and made away with the sycophants and those who associated with the people for favour contrary to the best, being mischievous and base; and the city rejoiced at these doings, thinking they did it for the best.
But when they had got the city more firmly in their grip, they spared none of the citizens, but killed those pre-eminent in property and family and standing, both to remove the fear and because they wished to plunder their estates; and in a short space of time they had made away with not fewer than fifteen hundred.
As the city was thus declining, Theramenes, indignant at what was happening, urged them to cease from their wantonness and to give a share in affairs to the best men. They at first opposed him, but when the talk spread among the multitude and the many were favorable to Theramenes, fearing lest, becoming champion of the people, he should overthrow their power, they enrolled three thousand of the citizens, as though about to give them a share in the constitution.
Theramenes again reproached even this, first because, while wishing to give the respectable a share, they gave it to three thousand only, as though virtue were confined to this number, and next because they were doing two most contradictory things, making the rule violent and yet weaker than the ruled. They disregarded these objections, and for a long time put off the list of the three thousand and kept those they had decided on to themselves; and whenever they did resolve to publish it, they erased some of those enrolled and wrote in others from outside.
Winter being now upon them, when Thrasybulus with the exiles had seized Phyle, and the expedition which the Thirty led out had returned badly, they resolved to strip the rest of their arms and to destroy Theramenes in the following way. They brought two laws into the Council, ordering them to vote on them: of which the one made the Thirty absolute to put to death any of the citizens not of the list of the three thousand, while the other forbade a share in the present constitution to all who had taken part in razing the wall at Eetioneia, or had done anything opposed to the Four Hundred or to those who had set up the former oligarchy—in both of which Theramenes had in fact taken part, so that it came about, when the laws were ratified, that he was outside the constitution and the Thirty had power to put him to death.
Theramenes having been made away with, they stripped the arms from all except the three thousand, and in other matters they advanced far toward cruelty and wickedness. Sending envoys to Lacedaemon, they accused Theramenes and asked them to help; and the Lacedaemonians, hearing them, sent Callibius as governor and about seven hundred soldiers, who came and garrisoned the Acropolis.
After this, when those from Phyle had seized Munichia and defeated in battle those who came to the aid with the Thirty, the men from the town, withdrawing after the danger and gathering in the Agora on the following day, deposed the Thirty and chose ten of the citizens with full powers to bring the war to an end. These, taking up the office, did not act in the matters for which they had been chosen, but sent to Lacedaemon asking for help and borrowing money.
The men in the government being indignant at this, and fearing lest they should be deposed from power, and wishing to terrify the rest—which they did—they seized Demaretus, a man second to none of the citizens, and put him to death, and held affairs firmly, with Callibius and the Peloponnesians present helping them, and besides them some of the cavalry; for some of these citizens were especially zealous that those from Phyle should not return.
But when those who held the Piraeus and Munichia, all the people having gone over to them, were prevailing in the war, then they deposed the ten who had first been chosen and chose ten others thought to be the best; under whom it came about that the reconciliation was made and the people returned, these helping and being eager for it. At their head were Rhinon of Paeania and Phaullus of Acherdus; for these, even before Pausanias arrived, kept up communication with those in the Piraeus, and when he arrived they zealously promoted the return.
For it was Pausanias the king of the Lacedaemonians who brought the peace and reconciliation to completion, together with the ten arbitrators who came afterward from Lacedaemon, whom he himself was eager to have come. The party of Rhinon were praised for their goodwill toward the people, and having taken up their charge under an oligarchy, they rendered their accounts under a democracy, and no one brought any charge against them, neither of those who had remained in the town nor of those who had returned from the Piraeus; rather, on account of this, Rhinon was at once chosen general.
The reconciliation took place in the archonship of Eucleides according to the following terms. Those of the Athenians who had remained in the town and wished to migrate were to have Eleusis, retaining their civic rights and being masters and plenipotentiaries of themselves, and enjoying the fruit of their own property.
The sanctuary was to be common to both, and the Heralds and Eumolpidae were to take charge of it according to ancestral usage. It was not to be permitted either for those from Eleusis to go to the town, or for those from the town to go to Eleusis, except for both at the Mysteries. They were to contribute from their revenues to the alliance just like the other Athenians.
If any of those who departed should take a house at Eleusis, they were to win the consent of the owner. If they could not come to terms with one another, each was to choose three valuers, and to accept whatever price these should fix. Of the Eleusinians, those whom these wished were to dwell with them.
The registration for those wishing to migrate was to be, for those at home, within ten days from the swearing of the oaths, and the migration within twenty; for those abroad, on the same terms, when they should return home.
No one dwelling at Eleusis was to be permitted to hold any office in the town until he should register again as dwelling in the town. Trials for homicide were to be according to ancestral usage, if anyone had killed or wounded another with his own hand.
As for past events, no one was to be permitted to bear malice against anyone, except against the Thirty and the Ten and the Eleven and those who had governed the Piraeus; and not even against these, if they rendered their accounts. Those who had governed in the Piraeus were to render accounts before those in the Piraeus, and those in the town before those who furnished property-assessments. Then, on these terms, those who wished might migrate. The money each side had borrowed for the war they were to repay separately.
The reconciliation having taken place on these terms, and those who had fought on the side of the Thirty being afraid, and many intending to migrate but putting off their registration to the last days—which everyone is wont to do—Archinus, observing their number and wishing to keep them, cut short the remaining days of the registration, so that many were compelled to stay against their will, until they took courage.
And Archinus seems to have acted well as a statesman both in this, and afterward in indicting the decree of Thrasybulus for illegality, in which he gave a share in the constitution to all who had come down together from the Piraeus, some of whom were plainly slaves; and thirdly, when one of those who had returned began to bear malice, he led him before the Council and persuaded them to put him to death without trial, saying that now they would show whether they wished to preserve the democracy and abide by the oaths: for if they released this man they would encourage the rest, but if they made away with him they would make an example for all. And this is what happened; for after the man was put to death no one ever afterward bore malice, but they seem to have used the misfortunes that had befallen them, both privately and publicly, more nobly and statesmanlike than any others.
For not only did they wipe out the charges concerning past events, but they even repaid in common to the Lacedaemonians the money the Thirty had taken for the war, although the agreement ordered each side to repay separately, those from the town and those from the Piraeus, thinking that this should be the first step toward concord. Whereas in other cities the popular parties, when they have prevailed, so far from adding from their own resources, even make a redistribution of the land.
They were also reconciled with those who had settled at Eleusis, in the third year after the migration, in the archonship of Xenaenetus.
These things, then, happened in later times; but at that time the people, having become master of affairs, established the constitution which now exists, in the archonship of Pythodorus, the people being thought to have justly taken the constitution, since it had effected its own return.
This was the eleventh of the changes in number. For the first change from the original order was that of Ion and those who settled with him; for then for the first time they were distributed into the four tribes, and they established the tribe-kings. Second, and the first after this to have anything of a constitutional arrangement, was that under Theseus, inclining a little from the kingly form. After this came the one under Draco, in which they first wrote up laws. Third was the one after the strife, under Solon, from which arose the beginning of democracy. Fourth was the tyranny under Pisistratus. Fifth, after the overthrow of the tyrants, was the constitution of Cleisthenes, more democratic than that of Solon. Sixth, after the Persian Wars, when the Council of the Areopagus presided. Seventh, after this, the one Aristides indicated and Ephialtes completed, by overthrowing the Council of the Areopagus; in which it came about that the city erred most through the popular leaders, on account of the rule of the sea. Eighth was the establishment of the Four Hundred, and after this, ninth, the democracy again. Tenth was the tyranny of the Thirty and of the Ten. Eleventh was the one after the return from Phyle and from the Piraeus, from which it has continued down to the present, ever taking on more power for the multitude. For the people has made itself master of everything, and all things are administered by decrees and by law-courts, in which the people is supreme. For even the judgements of the Council have come to the people. And in this they seem to act rightly; for a few are more easily corrupted than the many, both by gain and by favours.
At first they decided not to make the Assembly paid; but as people did not gather for the Assembly, and the prytanes devised many tricks to make the multitude attend for the ratification of the vote, first Agyrrhius provided an obol, and after him Heracleides of Clazomenae, the one called the King, two obols, and again Agyrrhius three obols.
The present arrangement of the constitution is of the following kind. Those born of citizen parents on both sides share in the constitution, and they are enrolled among the demesmen at eighteen years of age. When they are enrolled, the demesmen vote on them under oath: first, whether they seem to have reached the age fixed by law, and if they do not seem to, they go back among the boys; second, whether the candidate is free and born according to the laws. Then, if they vote that he is not free, he appeals to the law-court, and the demesmen choose five men from among themselves as accusers; and if it is decided that he had no right to be enrolled, the city sells him; but if he wins, the demesmen are obliged to enroll him.
After this the Council scrutinizes those enrolled, and if anyone seems to be younger than eighteen years, it fines the demesmen who enrolled him. When the ephebes have been scrutinized, their fathers, gathering by tribes, choose under oath three men from among the tribesmen over forty years of age, whom they think the best and most fit to take charge of the ephebes; and from these the people elects by show of hands one of each tribe as supervisor, and a director over them all from the other Athenians. These men take charge of the ephebes,
and first they go round the sanctuaries, then they proceed to the Piraeus, and some garrison Munichia, others the Acte. The people also elects for them two trainers and instructors, who teach them to fight in armour, to shoot, to throw the javelin, and to discharge the catapult. It gives also for maintenance a drachma each to the supervisors, and four obols each to the ephebes; and each supervisor, taking the allowance of his own tribesmen, buys provisions for all in common (for they mess by tribes) and takes care of everything else.
The first year, then, they pass thus; in the next, when an Assembly has been held in the theatre, they display their drill to the people, and receiving a shield and a spear from the city, they patrol the country and spend their time in the guard-posts.
They serve on garrison duty the two years, wearing the short cloak, and are exempt from all dues; and they neither give nor receive justice, that there may be no pretext for absenting themselves, except in matters of an estate or an heiress, or if anyone receives a priesthood by descent. When the two years have passed, they then take their place among the rest.
Such, then, is the matter of the enrollment of the citizens and of the ephebes. As for the offices concerned with the ordinary administration, they make all of them allotted, except the treasurer of military funds, those in charge of the theoric fund, and the superintendent of the fountains. These they elect by show of hands, and those elected hold office from one Panathenaea to the next. They also elect by show of hands all the offices concerned with war.
The Council is allotted, five hundred members, fifty from each tribe. Each tribe holds the presidency in turn, in whatever order the lot falls, the first four for thirty-six days each, the latter six for thirty-five days each; for they reckon the year by the moon.
Those of them who hold the presidency first mess together in the Tholos, receiving money from the city, then they convene both the Council and the Assembly: the Council every day, except when there is a holiday, and the Assembly four times in each presidency. And whatever the Council must transact, and what is to be done on each day, and where it is to sit, these men announce beforehand.
They also announce the Assemblies: one principal, in which the magistrates must be confirmed by show of hands if they seem to govern well, and matters concerning the corn-supply and the defence of the country must be transacted, and the impeachments must be made on this day by those who wish, and the inventories of confiscated property must be read out, and the claims to estates and heiresses read out, so that nothing may fall vacant without anyone's knowing.
In the sixth presidency, in addition to what has been said, they put to the vote the question of the holding of an ostracism, whether it seems good to hold one or not, and accusations of sycophants, both of Athenians and of metics, up to three of each, and any case where a man has promised something to the people and not performed it.
Another Assembly is for supplications, in which any who wishes may, having placed a suppliant-branch, speak to the people about whatever he wishes, both private and public. The other two are about the rest, in which the laws order three matters of religion to be transacted, three for heralds and embassies, and three of secular affairs. Sometimes they transact business even without a preliminary vote. The heralds and ambassadors come first to the prytanes, and those who bring letters deliver them to these.
There is one president of the prytanes, chosen by lot. This man presides for a night and a day, and it is not permitted to hold it for a longer time or for the same man to do so twice. He keeps the keys of the sanctuaries in which are the funds and documents of the city, and the public seal, and he must remain in the Tholos, he and a third of the prytanes whom he orders.
And whenever the prytanes convene the Council or the people, this man allots nine presiding officers, one from each tribe except the one in presidency, and again one chairman from among these, and hands over the agenda to them.
They, taking it over, attend to good order, put forward the matters that must be transacted, judge the show of hands, and administer everything else, and have authority to dismiss. And it is not permitted to preside more than once in the year, but it is permitted to be a presiding officer once in each presidency.
They also hold the elections of generals and cavalry-commanders and the other offices concerned with war in the Assembly, in whatever way the people decides; and these are held by the prytanes who come after the sixth, in whose term good omens may occur. A preliminary resolution must be passed concerning these matters too.
The Council formerly had authority to fine, imprison, and put to death. And once, when it had led Lysimachus to the executioner and he was sitting there already about to die, Eumelides of Alopece took him away, saying that no citizen ought to die without a verdict of a law-court; and when a trial took place in court, Lysimachus was acquitted, and got the nickname "the man from the drum"; and the people took away from the Council the power to put to death and to imprison and to fine, and laid down a law that if the Council should condemn anyone of wrongdoing or impose a fine, the thesmothetae should bring the condemnations and the fines into the law-court, and whatever the jurors should vote, this should be authoritative.
The Council tries most of the magistrates, especially those that handle money; but its judgement is not final, but subject to appeal to the law-court. It is permitted also for private persons to lay information against any office they wish for not using the laws; and for these too there is appeal to the law-court, if the Council condemns them.
It also scrutinizes the councillors who are to serve the next year, and the nine archons. Formerly it had authority to reject finally, but now there is appeal for these to the law-court.
In these matters, then, the Council is not final; but it draws up preliminary resolutions for the people, and it is not permitted for the people to vote on anything not previously resolved on, nor anything that the prytanes have not put on the agenda. For on these very grounds the man who carries a measure is liable to an indictment for illegal proposals.
It also takes charge of the triremes already built, and the tackle, and the ship-sheds, and it builds new triremes or quadriremes, whichever the people votes, and tackle for these and ship-sheds; and the people elects master-builders for the ships. If they do not hand these over completed to the new Council, they cannot receive the bounty; for they receive it under the following Council. It builds the triremes, having chosen ten men from among themselves as trireme-builders.
It also examines all the public buildings, and if anyone seems to it to be doing wrong, it reports him to the people, and on condemning him hands him over to a law-court.
It also helps administer most matters with the other offices. First, the treasurers of Athena are ten, one allotted from each tribe, from the five-hundred-bushel men according to the law of Solon (for the law is still in force), and the man allotted holds office even if he is very poor. They take over the statue of Athena and the Victories and the rest of the adornment and the funds in the presence of the Council.
Next the sellers, who are ten, one allotted from each tribe. They let out all the contracts, and sell the mines and the taxes, together with the treasurer of military funds and those chosen for the theoric fund, in the presence of the Council, and they confirm the sale for whomever the Council approves by show of hands, both the mines sold—the workable ones sold for three years, and those granted for working sold for ten—and they sell, in the presence of the Council, the property of those exiled from the Areopagus and of the others, and the nine archons ratify it. The taxes sold for the year they record on whitened tablets, the buyer and the price at which he bought, and hand them over to the Council.
They record separately those who must pay in each presidency, on ten tablets, and separately those who pay three times in the year, making a tablet for each payment, and separately those who pay in the ninth presidency. They also record the lands and houses registered and sold in the law-court; for these too these men sell. Of the houses the price must be paid within five years, of the lands within ten; and they pay these in the ninth presidency.
The king also brings in the leases of the sacred precincts, recorded on whitened tablets. Of these too the lease is for ten years, and payment is made in the ninth presidency; which is why the most money is collected in this presidency.
The tablets recorded according to the payments are brought into the Council, and the public slave keeps them; and whenever there is a payment of money, he takes down these very tablets from the shelves and hands them over to the receivers—those on which the money must be paid and erased on that day; the rest are stored apart, that they may not be erased prematurely.
There are ten receivers, allotted by tribes. These, taking the tablets, erase the money that is paid in, in the presence of the Council in the Council-house, and again hand the tablets back to the public slave. And if anyone falls short in a payment, it is recorded there, and he must pay double the amount deficient or be imprisoned; and the Council has authority to exact this and to imprison according to the laws.
On the first day, then, they receive all the money and apportion it to the offices; and on the next day they bring in the apportionment, written on a board, and read it out in the Council-house, and put before the Council the question whether anyone knows of any wrongdoing concerning the apportionment, by a magistrate or a private person, and they put proposals to the vote if anyone seems to be doing wrong.
The councillors also allot from among themselves ten auditors, who are to audit the offices in each presidency.
They also allot one examiner for each tribe, and two assessors for each of the examiners, who must sit in the markets beside the statue of the eponymous hero of each tribe, so that, if anyone wishes, within three days from the day on which a magistrate has rendered his accounts in the law-court, to bring against any of those who have rendered accounts an examination, whether private or public, he writes on a whitened tablet his own name and that of the defendant, and the wrong of which he accuses him, and adding whatever penalty he thinks fit, gives it to the examiner.
He, taking it and inquiring into it, if he condemns, hands over the private matters to the deme-judges who try cases for that tribe, and the public ones he records jointly with the thesmothetae. And the thesmothetae, if they take it up, bring this examination again into the law-court, and whatever the jurors decide, this is final.
The Council also examines the horses, and if anyone seems to be keeping a good horse badly, it punishes him with the loss of the fodder-allowance; and on those that cannot keep up, or will not stand still but are unruly, it brands a wheel on the jaw, and the horse that has suffered this is rejected. It also examines the scouts, whichever of them seem to it fit to act as scouts, and any whom it rejects by vote has dismounted. It also examines the mounted foot-soldiers, and any whom it rejects by vote ceases to draw pay.
The cavalry are enrolled by the enrolling officers, ten men whom the people elects; and whomever they enroll they hand over to the cavalry-commanders and tribal commanders, and these, taking them over, bring the list into the Council, and opening the tablet on which the names of the cavalry are sealed up, they erase those previously enrolled who swear they are not able in body to serve as cavalry, and call up those newly enrolled; and if anyone swears that he is not able in body to serve, or in property, they release him, but the one who does not swear off the councillors vote on, whether he is fit to serve as cavalry or not. And if they vote him fit, they write him in the tablet; if not, they release him too.
Formerly the Council also judged the models and the robe, but now the law-court chosen by lot does; for the councillors were thought to show favour in their judgement. And of the making of the Victories and the prizes for the Panathenaea it takes charge jointly with the treasurer of military funds.
The Council also examines the disabled; for there is a law that orders those possessing less than three minae and so maimed in body that they cannot do any work, to be examined by the Council, which gives them maintenance at the public expense, two obols a day each. And there is a treasurer for them, chosen by lot.
It also helps administer most of the affairs of the other offices, so to speak.
These, then, are the matters administered by the Council. Ten men are also allotted as repairers of sacred buildings, who, receiving thirty minae from the receivers, repair the sacred buildings most in need.
And ten city-controllers. Of these five hold office in the Piraeus and five in the town, and they oversee the flute-girls and the harp-girls and the lyre-girls, that they shall not be hired for more than two drachmas, and if more than one are eager to take the same girl, these men cast lots and let her out to the one who wins. They take care also that none of the dung-collectors deposits dung within ten stades of the wall. They prevent men from building over the roads, and from extending balconies over the roads, and from making overhead pipes with their outflow into the road, and from opening windows toward the road. And they remove those who die in the roads, having public slaves to do it.
Ten market-controllers are also allotted, five for the Piraeus, five for the town. To these it is enjoined by the laws to take charge of all goods for sale, that they may be sold pure and unadulterated.
Ten measure-controllers are also allotted, five for the town, five for the Piraeus. And these take charge of all the measures and weights, that the sellers may use just ones.
There were also corn-guardians, ten allotted, five for the Piraeus, five for the town, but now twenty for the town and fifteen for the Piraeus. These take care, first, that the unground corn in the market shall be sold justly, then that the millers shall sell barley-meal at prices corresponding to those of the barley, and the bread-sellers their loaves at prices corresponding to those of the wheat, and of the weight that these men fix; for the law orders them to fix it.
They allot ten superintendents of the trading-place; to these it is enjoined to take charge of the trading-places, and to compel the merchants to bring up to the town two-thirds of the corn that sails down into the corn-market.
They establish also by lot the Eleven, those who are to take charge of those in the prison, and to put to death the thieves, kidnappers, and clothes-stealers who are led off, if they confess, but if they dispute, to bring them into the law-court, and if they are acquitted, to release them, but if not, then to put them to death; and to bring into the law-court the lands and houses registered, and to hand over to the sellers what is decided to be public property, and to bring in the informations; for these too the Eleven bring in. Some of the informations the thesmothetae also bring in.
They allot also five introducers, who introduce the monthly suits, each for two tribes. The monthly suits are those concerning dowry, if a man owing it does not pay it, and if a man who has borrowed at the rate of a drachma defrauds, and if a man wishing to do business in the market borrows capital from someone; further, suits of assault, of contributions, of partnership, of slaves, of beasts of burden, of trierarchy, and of banking.
These men, then, judge these monthly suits introducing them; but the receivers judge the suits for and against the tax-farmers, having authority up to ten drachmas, and the rest they introduce into the law-court as monthly suits.
They allot also the Forty, four from each tribe, before whom men bring the other suits. Formerly they were thirty and went round the demes to try cases, but after the oligarchy of the Thirty they became forty. Cases up to ten drachmas they have authority to decide themselves, but those above this assessment they hand over to the arbitrators.
These, taking them over, if they cannot effect a settlement, give a decision; and if the decision pleases both parties and they abide by it, the suit is at an end. But if either of the litigants appeals to the law-court, they place the testimonies and the challenges and the laws in jars—separately those of the prosecutor, separately those of the defendant—and sealing these up, and attaching the arbitrator's decision written on a tablet, they hand them over to the four who try cases for the defendant's tribe.
These, taking them over, bring them into the law-court, those under a thousand drachmas before a panel of two hundred and one, those over a thousand before one of four hundred and one. It is not permitted to use either laws or challenges or testimonies except those that the arbitrator has placed in the jars.
The arbitrators are those who are in their sixtieth year. This is clear from the archons and the eponymous heroes. For there are ten eponymous heroes of the tribes, and forty-two of the age-classes; and the ephebes, when enrolled, were formerly recorded on whitened tablets, and there were inscribed beside them the archon in whose year they were enrolled, and the eponymous hero who had served as arbitrator in the previous year; but now they are recorded on a bronze pillar, and the pillar stands before the Council-house beside the eponymous heroes.
The Forty, taking the last of the eponymous heroes, distribute the arbitrations among them and allot which each shall arbitrate; and each man is obliged to carry through the arbitrations he is allotted. For the law orders that anyone who does not become an arbitrator when his age-class falls due shall be without civic rights, except if he happens to be holding some office in that year, or to be abroad; these alone are exempt.
It is permitted also to lay an information against the arbitrators, if anyone is wronged by an arbitrator; and if they condemn anyone, the laws order him to be deprived of civic rights. There is appeal also for these.
They use the eponymous heroes also for campaigns, and when they send out an age-class, they announce from which archon and eponymous hero to which they must serve.
They allot also the following offices: five road-makers, to whom it is enjoined to repair the roads, having public workmen;
and ten auditors and ten advocates for these, to whom all who have held office must render account. For these alone are the ones who audit those subject to account and bring the audits into the law-court. And if they convict anyone of theft, the jurors condemn for theft, and the amount adjudged is repaid tenfold. If they show that anyone has taken bribes and the jurors condemn, they assess for bribery, and this too is repaid tenfold. But if they condemn anyone of wrongdoing, they assess for wrongdoing, and this is repaid singly, if a man pays before the ninth presidency, but if not, it is doubled. The tenfold penalty is not doubled.
They allot also the secretary called by the presidency, who is in charge of the documents, and keeps the decrees that are passed, and countersigns everything else and sits beside the Council. Formerly this man was elected, and they used to elect the most distinguished and trustworthy; for on the pillars, beside the alliances and grants of proxeny and citizenship, this man is recorded. But now he has become allotted.
They allot also another for the laws, who sits beside the Council and countersigns all the laws too.
The people also elects a secretary to read out to it and to the Council, and this man has authority over nothing but the reading.
It allots also ten commissioners of sacrifices, those called the commissioners for expiatory offerings, who sacrifice the oracular sacrifices, and, if any favorable omens must be obtained, obtain them with the seers.
It allots also another ten, those called the yearly commissioners, who perform certain sacrifices and administer all the quadrennial festivals except the Panathenaea. The quadrennial festivals are: one, that to Delos (there is also a sexennial one there); second, the Brauronia; third, the Heracleia; fourth, the Eleusinia; fifth, the Panathenaea; and none of these falls in the same year. Now there has been added also the Hephaestia, in the archonship of Cephisophon.
They allot also an archon for Salamis, and a demarch for the Piraeus, who hold the Dionysia in each place and appoint the producers. In Salamis the name of the archon is also recorded.
These offices, then, are allotted and have authority over the matters described. As for the so-called nine archons, the way they were established at first has been told; but now they allot six thesmothetae and a secretary for them, and besides an archon, a king, and a polemarch, by turns from each tribe.
These are scrutinized first in the Council of Five Hundred, except the secretary; he is scrutinized only in the law-court, like the other magistrates (for all, both the allotted and the elected, hold office after being scrutinized), but the nine archons both in the Council and again in the law-court. Formerly a man whom the Council rejected did not hold office, but now there is appeal to the law-court, and this is authoritative for the scrutiny.
They ask, when they scrutinize, first: "Who is your father, and from what deme, and who is your father's father, and who your mother, and who your mother's father, and from what deme?" After this, whether he has an Apollo Patroös and a Zeus Herceios, and where these sanctuaries are; then whether he has family tombs, and where they are; then whether he treats his parents well, and pays his taxes, and has performed his military service. Having asked these things, "Call," he says, "the witnesses to these matters."
When he has provided the witnesses, he asks: "Does anyone wish to accuse this man?" And if there is an accuser, he gives accusation and defence, and so puts it, in the Council, to the show of hands, in the law-court to the vote. But if no one wishes to accuse, he puts it at once to the vote. And formerly one man cast the ballot, but now all must vote on them, so that, if some scoundrel has got rid of his accusers, it may be in the jurors' power to reject him.
Having been scrutinized in this way, they go to the stone on which are the pieces of the victims, on which the arbitrators too swear before declaring their decisions, and the witnesses swear off their testimonies. Going up onto this, they swear to rule justly and according to the laws, and not to take gifts on account of their office, and, if they take anything, to dedicate a golden statue. Having sworn from there, they go to the Acropolis and swear the same things again there, and after this they enter upon their office.
The archon and the king and the polemarch each take two assessors whom they wish, and these are scrutinized in the law-court before assessing, and render accounts when they have finished assessing.
The archon, as soon as he has entered office, first proclaims that whatever anyone held before his entering office, he shall hold and possess until the end of his term. Then he appoints three producers for the tragedies,
choosing from all the Athenians the richest; formerly he appointed five for the comedies too, but now the tribes furnish these. Then, taking over the producers furnished by the tribes for the Dionysia—for men, boys, and comedies—and for the Thargelia for men and boys (those for the Dionysia are by tribes, but for the Thargelia one for two tribes, and each tribe furnishes in turn)—he conducts the exchanges of property for these and brings in the exemptions, if anyone says he has performed this service before, or is exempt as having performed another service and the period of his exemption has not run out, or is not of age; for the producer for the boys must be over forty years of age. He appoints producers also for Delos, and a chief delegate for the thirty-oared ship that carries the youths.
He takes charge of the processions—that which is held for Asclepius, when the initiates keep house, and that of the Great Dionysia, together with the supervisors, whom formerly the people elected, ten in number, and they paid the expenses of the procession from their own means, but now it allots one from each tribe and gives a hundred minae for the equipment.
He takes charge also of the procession at the Thargelia and of that for Zeus the Saviour. He administers also the contest of the Dionysia and of the Thargelia. Of festivals, then, he takes charge of these.
Indictments and suits are brought before him, which, after examining, he brings into the law-court: for ill-treatment of parents (these are free from risk for any who wishes to prosecute), for ill-treatment of orphans (these are against the guardians), for ill-treatment of an heiress (these are against the guardians and those who dwell with her), for ill-treatment of an orphan's estate (these too are against the guardians), for insanity, if anyone accuses another of destroying his property in madness, for the choice of dividers, if anyone is unwilling to have common property divided, for the establishment of a guardianship, for the adjudication of a guardianship, for the production of property, for entering oneself as a guardian, and the adjudications of estates and heiresses.
He takes charge also of the orphans and the heiresses and the women who, when the husband has died, claim to be pregnant. And he has authority to fine wrongdoers or to bring them into the law-court. He lets out the estates of the orphans and the heiresses until one reaches fourteen years of age, and receives the securities, and from the guardians, if they do not give the children their maintenance, he exacts it.
The archon, then, takes charge of these things. The king first takes charge of the Mysteries, together with the supervisors whom the people elects, two from all the Athenians, one from the Eumolpidae, one from the Heralds. Then of the Dionysia at the Lenaeum; these are a procession and a contest. The procession the king and the supervisors send out in common, but the contest the king administers. He holds also all the torch-races; and, so to speak, he administers all the ancestral sacrifices.
Indictments for impiety are brought before him, and if anyone disputes a priesthood with another. He adjudicates also for the clans and the priests all the disputes concerning sacred matters. Before him too are brought all the suits of homicide, and it is he who proclaims that a man is excluded from the customary rites.
There are suits of homicide and of wounding: if a man kills or wounds with forethought, in the Areopagus; and of poisoning, if he kills by giving it; and of arson; for these alone the Council tries. For the involuntary, and for planning, and if anyone kills a slave or a metic or a foreigner, the court at the Palladion. If a man admits the killing but says it was according to the laws—for instance, having caught an adulterer, or in ignorance in war, or competing in a contest—for him they judge at the Delphinion; and if a man in exile, of those for whom there is the possibility of pardon, is charged with killing or wounding someone, for him they judge at Phreatto, and he makes his defence from a boat brought to anchor.
These cases the ephetae chosen by lot judge, except those that take place in the Areopagus, and the king introduces them, and they judge in a sanctuary and in the open air, and the king, when he judges, takes off his crown. The man accused is for the rest of the time excluded from the sanctuaries, and the law does not allow him even to enter the Agora; but then he enters the sanctuary and makes his defence. When the killer is not known, the suit is brought against "the doer," and the king and the tribe-kings judge it, and also the cases of inanimate things and the other animals.
The polemarch sacrifices to Artemis Agrotera and to Enyalius, and administers the funeral contest, and makes offerings to those who have died in war and to Harmodius and Aristogeiton.
Suits are brought before him, the private ones that arise concerning metics and the privileged aliens and the proxenoi; and he must take these and divide them into ten parts and assign to each tribe the part the lot falls on, and those who judge cases for the tribe must hand them over to the arbitrators.
He himself introduces suits of desertion of patron and of being without a patron, and of estates and heiresses for metics; and all the other matters that the archon handles for the citizens, the polemarch handles for the metics.
The thesmothetae first have authority over the proclaiming of the law-courts, on what days they must sit, then over the assigning of them to the offices; for as these men assign, so do they use them.
Further, they bring the impeachments before the people, and they introduce all the votes of condemnation and all the preliminary accusations, and indictments for illegal proposals, and for proposing an unsuitable law, and the cases against presidents and chairmen, and audits of generals.
There are also indictments before them for which a deposit is set down: of usurping citizenship, and of bribery to obtain citizenship, if anyone, by giving gifts, escapes a charge of being an alien, and of sycophancy, of bribery, of false entry, of false summons, of conspiracy, of non-registration, and of adultery.
They introduce also the scrutinies for all the offices, and the cases of those rejected by the demesmen, and the condemnations from the Council.
They introduce also private suits, commercial and mining, and suits of slaves, if anyone speaks ill of a free man. They also allot the law-courts to the offices, both private and public.
They ratify also the agreements with foreign cities, and bring in the suits arising from the agreements, and the cases of false witness from the Areopagus.
The jurors are allotted by all the nine archons, the tenth being the secretary of the thesmothetae, each allotting those of his own tribe.
The matters of the nine archons, then, are of this kind. They allot also ten games-directors, one from each tribe. These, after being scrutinized, hold office for four years, and administer the procession of the Panathenaea and the contest of music and the gymnastic contest and the horse-race, and they have the robe made, and have the amphorae made together with the Council, and give the oil to the athletes.
The oil is collected from the sacred olives; the archon exacts it from the owners of the lands in which the sacred olives are, three half-pints from each stump. Formerly the city sold the produce; and if anyone dug up or broke off a sacred olive, the Council of the Areopagus tried him, and if it condemned anyone, they punished him with death. But since the owner of the land pays the oil, the law remains but the trial is abolished. The oil to the city is from the property, not from the stumps.
The archon, then, collecting what is produced in his year, hands it over to the treasurers on the Acropolis, and he cannot go up to the Areopagus before he has handed over all to the treasurers. The treasurers keep it on the Acropolis the rest of the time, but at the Panathenaea measure it out to the games-directors, and the games-directors give it to the victorious competitors. For the prizes are, for those who win in music, money and gold objects; for those who win in manly excellence, shields; and for those in the gymnastic contest and the horse-race, oil.
They elect by show of hands also all the offices concerned with war: ten generals, formerly one from each tribe, but now from all; and these they arrange by the vote, one over the hoplites, who leads the hoplites if they go out; one over the country, who guards it, and if war arises in the country, this man fights; two over the Piraeus, one for Munichia, one for the Acte, who take charge of the defence and of matters in the Piraeus; one over the symmories, who enrolls the trierarchs and conducts the exchanges of property for them and brings in their adjudications; and the others they send out to deal with present affairs.
There is a confirmation-vote on them in each presidency, whether they seem to govern well; and if anyone is rejected by vote, they try him in the law-court, and if he is convicted they assess what he must suffer or pay, but if he is acquitted he holds office again. They have authority, when they are in command, to imprison the disorderly and to dismiss with proclamation and to impose a fine; but they are not in the habit of imposing fines.
They elect also ten brigade-commanders, one from each tribe; this man leads his tribesmen and appoints company-commanders.
They elect also two cavalry-commanders from all; these lead the cavalry, each dividing the tribes, five each; they have authority over the same matters as the generals over the hoplites. There is a confirmation-vote on these too.
They elect also ten tribal commanders, one from each tribe, to lead the cavalry as the brigade-commanders lead the hoplites.
They elect also a cavalry-commander for Lemnos, who takes charge of the cavalry in Lemnos.
They elect also a treasurer of the Paralus, and now of the Ammon.
The allotted offices were formerly some of them allotted from the whole tribe together with the nine archons, and some, allotted in the Theseion, were divided among the demes; but since the demes began to sell the offices, these too are allotted from the whole tribe, except councillors and guards; these they assign to the demes.
The people receives pay, first, for the ordinary Assemblies a drachma, but for the principal Assembly nine obols; then the law-courts three obols; then the Council five obols; and to those holding the presidency one obol is added for maintenance. The nine archons receive for maintenance four obols each, and they keep a herald and a flute-player; then the archon for Salamis a drachma a day. The games-directors dine in the Prytaneion in the month Hecatombaion, when the Panathenaea fall, beginning from the fourth of the month. The amphictyons for Delos receive a drachma each day from Delos. And all the offices that are sent out to Samos or Scyros or Lemnos or Imbros receive money for maintenance.
It is permitted to hold the offices concerned with war more than once, but none of the others, except to serve in the Council twice.
The law-courts the nine archons allot by tribes, and the secretary of the thesmothetae the tenth tribe.
There are ten entrances to the law-courts, one for each tribe, and twenty allotment-machines, two for each tribe, and a hundred boxes, ten for each tribe, and other boxes, into which are thrown the tickets of the jurors allotted, and two water-jars. And staves are set out at each entrance, as many as the jurors, and acorns are thrown into the water-jar equal in number to the staves, and on the acorns are inscribed letters of the alphabet from the eleventh, lambda, onward, as many as there are to be law-courts to be filled.
It is permitted to serve as juror to those over thirty years of age, all of them who do not owe money to the treasury or are without civic rights. If anyone serves who has no right, information is laid against him and he is brought into the law-court; and if he is convicted, the jurors impose on him in addition whatever he seems worthy to suffer or pay. If he is assessed in money, he must be imprisoned until he pays both the former debt for which he was informed against, and whatever the law-court imposes in addition.
Each juror has a boxwood ticket, inscribed with his own name, his father's, and that of his deme, and one letter of the alphabet up to kappa; for the jurors are distributed by tribes into ten parts, nearly equal in each letter.
When the thesmothete has allotted the letters that must be assigned to the law-courts, the attendant carries and sets on each law-court the letter allotted to it.
The ten boxes lie in front of the entrance for each tribe. On them are inscribed the letters up to kappa. When the jurors throw their tickets into the box on which is inscribed the same letter as is on their ticket, the attendant having shaken it, the thesmothete draws one ticket from each box.
This man is called the inserter, and he inserts the tickets from the box into the slot on which the same letter stands as on the box. He is chosen by lot, so that the same man inserting always may not work mischief. There are five slots in each of the allotment-machines.
When he has thrown in the dice, the archon allots the tribe by the allotment-machine. The dice are of bronze, black and white. As many jurors as must be allotted, so many white ones are thrown in, one for every five tickets, and the black ones in the same way. When he draws out the dice, the herald calls those allotted. The inserter too is in the number.
The man called and answering draws an acorn from the water-jar, and holding it out, showing the letter uppermost, he shows it first to the archon in charge. The archon, when he has seen it, throws his ticket into the box on which is inscribed the same letter as on the acorn, so that he may go into whichever court he is allotted to and not whichever he wishes, and so that it may not be possible to gather into a law-court whatever men one wishes.
There stand beside the archon as many boxes as there are to be law-courts to be filled, each having a letter, whichever is that allotted to each law-court.
He himself, having shown it again to the attendant, then goes inside the barrier. The attendant gives him a staff of the same colour as the law-court that has the same letter as is on the acorn, so that it shall be necessary for him to enter the law-court he is allotted to; for if he enters another, he is exposed by the colour of the staff.
For colours are inscribed on each of the law-courts on the lintel of the entrance. He, taking the staff, goes to the law-court of the same colour as the staff and having the same letter as is on the acorn. When he enters, he receives a token from the public official allotted to this office.
Then they who have entered in this way deposit the acorn and the staff in the law-court. To those who fail in the allotment the inserters give back their tickets.
The public attendants from each tribe hand over the boxes, one to each law-court, in which are the names of the tribe that are in each of the law-courts. They hand these over to those allotted to give back the tickets to the jurors in each law-court by number, so that from these, calling the men, they may give back the pay.
When all the law-courts are full, there are placed in the first of the law-courts two allotment-machines and bronze dice, on which are inscribed the colours of the law-courts, and other dice on which are inscribed the names of the offices. Two of the thesmothetae chosen by lot throw the dice in separately, one the colours into the one allotment-machine, the other the names of the offices into the other. Whichever office is allotted first is proclaimed by the herald to use the first allotted law-court, the second the second, and likewise the others, so that no office may know beforehand which it will use, but each shall use whichever it is allotted.
When the jurors have come and been assigned to each court, the official in charge in each law-court draws one ticket from each box, so that there may be ten, one from each tribe, and throws these tickets into another empty box; and of these he allots the first five, one for the water, the other four for the votes, so that no one may pack either the man over the water or those over the votes, and that there may be no mischief about these.
The other five who fail in the allotment receive from these men the notice telling where they shall receive their pay and where each tribe shall stand in the law-court itself, when they have judged, so that, separating into groups, they may receive it in small numbers and not, many being crowded into the same place, get in one another's way.
Having done these things, they call in the cases: when they try private cases, the private ones, four in number, one from each of the kinds of suit appointed by law, and the litigants swear to speak to the point itself; but when they try public ones, the public, and they try one only.
There are water-clocks having little tubes for outflow, into which they pour the water by which the speeches in the suits must be measured. Eleven measures are given for suits over five thousand drachmas, and three for the second speech; seven measures for those up to five thousand, and two; five for those within one thousand, and two; six measures for the adjudications, in which there is no second speech afterward.
The man allotted to the water stops up the tube whenever the secretary is about to read out a law or a testimony or some such thing. But when the suit is one for the day measured out, then he does not stop it for him, but equal water is given to the accuser and the defendant.
The measuring is done according to the days of the month Posideon . . . they use . . . the jurors . . . into which each . . . for they were eager . . . to thrust out the . . . taking water . . . there are, the one for the prosecutors, the other for the defendants.
In the . . . he separated by the vote . . . The day is divided according to the . . . of the suits to which is attached imprisonment or death or exile or loss of civic rights or confiscation of property . . . what one must suffer or pay.
Most of the law-courts are of . . . ; but when the public indictments must be brought before one, two law-courts come together in the Heliaea. The . . . into one of fifteen hundred and one, three law-courts.
The ballots are of bronze, having a tube in the middle, half of them pierced through, half of them solid. Those allotted to the ballots, when the speeches have been made, give to each of the jurors two ballots, one pierced and one solid, openly to be seen by the litigants, so that no one may take both solid or both pierced. The man allotted to this office takes away the tokens, in return for which each man casting his vote receives a bronze token marked with the figure three (for in giving it back he receives three), so that all may vote; for no one can get the token unless he votes.
There are two amphorae set in the law-court, one of bronze, the other of wood, divided so that no one may secretly slip in ballots, into which the jurors cast their votes; the bronze one is the valid one, the wooden the invalid, the bronze one having a lid pierced so that only the ballot itself can pass through, that the same man may not throw in two.
When the jurors are about to vote, the herald proclaims first, if the litigants object to the testimonies; for it is not possible to object once they have begun to vote. Then again he proclaims: "The pierced ballot for the one who spoke first, the solid for the one who spoke last." The juror, taking the ballots from the stand, pressing the tube of the ballot and not showing the litigants either the pierced or the solid, casts the valid one into the bronze amphora, the invalid into the wooden.
When all have voted, the attendants take the valid amphora and empty it onto a board having as many holes as there are ballots, so that these may lie out clearly and be easily counted, and the pierced and the solid be plain to the litigants. Those allotted to the ballots count them on the board, the solid separately, the pierced separately. And the herald proclaims the number of the ballots, the pierced for the prosecutor, the solid for the defendant; and whichever has the more, this man wins, but if they are equal, the defendant.
Then again they assess, if assessment is needed, voting in the same way, giving back the token and taking again a staff. The assessment is by half a measure of water for each side. When the matters required by the laws have been adjudged for them, they receive their pay in the portion allotted to each.
Epitome of Heraclides 1: (From the work of Heraclides on the Constitutions.) The Athenians at first used kingship. When Ion settled among them, then for the first time they were called Ionians. Pandion, having reigned after Erechtheus, divided the rule among his sons; and these continued at strife with one another.
Harpocration: Apollo Patroös, the Pythian. This is a title of the god, there being many others. The Athenians honour Apollo in common as Patroös, from Ion; for when this man settled in Attica, as Aristotle says, the Athenians were called Ionians, and Apollo was named Patroös to them.
Scholiast on Aristophanes, Birds 1537: The Athenians honour Apollo as Patroös, since Ion the polemarch of the Athenians was born of Apollo and Creusa, the wife of Xuthus. Cf. Bekker, Anecdota 291 = Scholiast on Plato, Euthydemus 302 C.
Plutarch, Theseus 25: Wishing still further to increase the city, Theseus invited all on equal terms, and the proclamation "Come hither, all you peoples" is said to have been Theseus's, when he was establishing a kind of commonwealth of all. Yet he did not allow the democracy to become disordered or confused by an indiscriminate multitude pouring in; rather he was the first to set apart separately the eupatrids and the farmers and the craftsmen, and assigning to the eupatrids the knowledge of divine things and the providing of the magistrates and the being teachers of the laws and expounders of sacred and holy things, he established the other citizens, as it were, on an equal footing—the eupatrids being thought to excel in reputation, the farmers in usefulness, the craftsmen in number. That he was the first to incline toward the masses, as Aristotle says, and gave up sole rule, Homer too seems to bear witness, in the catalogue of ships naming the Athenians alone "the people."
Scholiast on Plato, Axiochus 371 D (cf. Moeris, Atticist p. 193. 16) on the word "clansman": Aristotle says that, the whole multitude at Athens being divided into farmers and craftsmen, their tribes were four, and of each of the tribes there were three parts, which they call thirds and brotherhoods, and of each of these there were thirty clans, and each clan was composed of thirty men. These men, then, who were arranged into the clans, they call clansmen.
Patmos Lexicon p. 152 Sakkelion, on "clansman": In old times the multitude of the Athenians, before Cleisthenes arranged the matters concerning the tribes, was divided into farmers and craftsmen. And their tribes were four, and each of the tribes had three parts, which they called brotherhoods and thirds. And each of these was composed of thirty clans, and each clan had thirty men, those arranged into the clans, who were called clansmen, from whom the priesthoods belonging to each were allotted—for instance the Eumolpidae and the Heralds and the Eteobutadae—as Aristotle records in the Constitution of the Athenians, saying thus: "Their tribes were divided into four, in imitation of the seasons in the year, and each of the tribes was divided into three parts, so that there might be twelve parts in all, just as the months in the year, and they were called thirds and brotherhoods; and into the brotherhood thirty clans were arranged, just as the days into the month, and the clan was of thirty men."
Harpocration, on "third": A third is the third part of the tribe; for this is divided into three parts, thirds and races and brotherhoods, as Aristotle says in the Constitution of the Athenians.
Vatican Scholiast on Euripides, Hippolytus 11: Aristotle records that Theseus, having gone to Scyros on a reconnaissance—reasonably, because of his kinship with Aegeus—died, thrust down from the rocks, Lycomedes who was reigning there having taken fright . . . The Athenians after the Persian Wars, in accordance with an oracle, took up his bones from there and buried them.

in this chapter23 figures · 2 ideas · 2 places · 10 groups · 3 events

Figures

Solon · Apollo Patroös · Cleisthenes · Pisistratus · Themistocles · Xanthippus · Aegeus · Agyrrhius · Anacreon · Anthemion son of Diphilus · Antiphon · Anytus · Archinus · Aristides · Aristides son of Lysimachus · Aristocrates · Aristodicus of Tanagra · Aristogeiton · Aristomachus · Aristotle · Artemis · Asclepius · Athena

Ideas

Amnesty · Ancestral law against tyranny

Places

Salamis · Acropolis

Groups

Ionians · Spartans · The Council · The Thirty · Alcmeonidae · Arbitrators · Archons · Areopagus · Athenian People / Assembly · Athenians

Events

Assassination of Ephialtes · Assassination of Hipparchus · Assessment of tribute

Marked terms in the text are anchored by the harvest — select one for its entry. The atlas.