Aristotle · a new plain-English translation from the original language
1| [paragraph 1] I. — — of Myron's family, having sworn their oath over the sacred objects, chosen by merit. And when the pollution was declared proven, them[selves] were cast out even from their graves, and their line went into permanent exile. Ep[i]menides the Cretan then purified the city. [paragraph 2] II. After this it happened that the notable men and the mass of the people quarreled for a long time [regarding the common people]. For their constitution was, in every other respect too, oligarchic, and in particular the poor were enslaved to the rich — they themselves, their children, and their wives. They were called clients and sixth-part-men; for it was at this rate of payment that they work[ed] the fields of the rich. All the land was in the hands of a few, and if they failed to pay the rents, they themselves and their children were liable to seizure. Loans, for everyone, were secured on the person, right down to the time of Solon; he was the first to become champion of the people. The harshest and bitterest part of the constitution for the many, then, was their enslavement — though they were resentful on other counts as well, since they had a share in practically nothing, one might say.
2| [paragraph 3] III. The order of the ancient const[it]ution, the one before Dr[a]con, was as follows: the officials were appointed by birth and by wealth; and they held office at first for l[ife], and afterward for [ten] years. The greatest and first of the of[fi]ces were king, polemarch, and ar[ch]on. Of these the first was that of the king (for this was ancestral); second, established af[ter]ward, was the polemarchy, because s[om]e of the kings turned out soft in war — hence too they se[nt] for Ion when ne[ed] arose. Last was th[at] of the archon; m[os]t say it came about under Medon, though some say under Acastus. As ev[id]ence they bring forward the fact that the nine archons swear to perform their oaths as th[ou]gh it were still the time of Acastus, on the ground that it was in h[is] reign that the sons of Codrus yielded up the kingship in exchange for the gi[ft]s granted to the archon. Whi[ch]ever of these is true, it would make little difference [t]o the dating; but that this office came last of the three, a further small sign is [th]is: the archon administers n[on]e of the ancestral rites, as the king and the polemarch d[o], but simply the added duties. That is why the office has only recently grown large, bu[i]lt up by these additions. Thesmothetai were ch[os]en many years later, once offici[al]s were already being chosen annually, so that by writing down the ordinances they might keep them on hand for the judgment of disputes;
3| and that is why this office alone of the offices never lasted more than a year. In these points, then, the offices differ from one another in age. The nine archons did not all sit together, but the king had what is now called the Bucoleum, near the Prytaneum (a sign of this: even now the union of the king's wife with Dionysus, and her marriage, take place there); the archon had the Prytaneum; the polemarch had the Epilyceum (formerly called the Polemarcheum, but renamed Epilyceum after Epilycus rebuilt and furnished it during his term as polemar[c]h); the thesmothetai had the Thesmotheteum. Under Solon [al]l of them came together into the Thesmotheteum. They had authority to give final [j]udgment in cases themselves, rather than merely holding a preliminary hearing as is done now. Such, then, was the arrangement regarding the offices. The council of the Areopagus had the function of guarding the laws, and it administered most of the greatest affairs of the city, punishing and fining with full authority all who misbehaved; for the choosing of the archons was by merit and by wealth, and it was from these that the Areopagites were appointed. That is why this office alone has remained for life, even now.
4| [paragraph 4] IV. This, then, was the outline of the first constitution. Not long after this, in the archonship of Aristaichmus, Draco laid down his ordinances; and this arrangement was as follows. Citizenship was granted to those who furnished themselves with arms. They chose the nine archons and the treasurers from those possessing unencumbered property of not less than ten minas, and the other, lesser offices from those who furnished arms; generals and cavalry-commanders had to declare unencumbered property of not less than a hundred minas, and legitimate children over ten years old by a wedded wife; these men had to be gu[ar]anteed by the outgoing prytaneis, the generals, and the cavalry-commanders until their audit, taking sureties from the same property-class as the generals and cavalry-commanders themselves. The council was to consist of four hundred and one members, chosen by lot from among the citizens. Both this and the other offices were filled by lot from among those over thirty years old, and the same man could not hold office twice until everyone else had gone through it; then the lot began again from the start. If any councillor, when the council or the assembly was in session, failed to attend, he paid a fine — the five-hundred-bushel man three drachmas, the horseman two, the yoke-man one. The council of the Areopagus was guardian of the laws and watched over the officials, to see that they governed according to the laws. A wronged party could lay an information befo[re] the council of the Areopagus, stating [the] law under which he was wronged. Loans, as has been said, were secured on the pers[on], and the land was in the hands of a few.
5| [paragraph 5] V. With such an arrangement prevailing in the constitution, and the many enslaved to the few, the people rose up against the notables. Since the conflict was fierce and they sat opposed to one another for a long time, they jointly chose Solon as arbitrator and archon and entrusted the constitution to him, once he had composed the elegy whose opening is: I know it, and within my heart lie griefs, as I watch the oldest land of Ionia being struck down — in which he fights and disputes on both sides, on behalf of both parties, and afterward jointly urges an end to the rivalry then in progress. Solon was, by [b]irth and reputation, among the first men, but by property and station among the middling ones, as is agreed from other evidence and as he himself testifies in these verses, urging the rich not to be grasping: You who have calmed your strong hearts within your breasts, who have driven yourselves to excess amid so many good things, set your great mind on moderate measures; for neither shall we com[pl]y, nor will these things turn out fitting for you. And in general he always fastens the bl[am]e for the conflict on the rich; that is why, at the start of the el[eg]y, he says he fears both love of money and arrogance, as th[ou]gh it were through these that the hostility had arisen.
6| [paragraph 6] VI. Once he had bec[om]e master of affairs, Solon freed the people, both for the pres[en]t and for the fut[ur]e, by forbidding loans secured on the person; and he laid down laws, and made canc[el]lations of debts, both private and public, which they call the sh[ak]ing-off of burdens, since by them people shook the burden off themselves. In this connection s[om]e try to slander him; for it hap[pe]ned that, when Solon was about to enact the shaking-off of burdens, he t[ol]d certain notables of it beforehand, and afterward — as the pop[ul]ar party says — he was outman[oe]uvred by his friends, but as those who wish to speak [il]l of him say, he himself had a share in it. For th[es]e men borrowed money and bought up much la[nd], and not long after, when the cancellation of debts took place, they grew ri[ch]; and from this, they say, arose those who were later thought to be of long-standing wealth. All the same, the account given by the popular party is the more credible one; for it is not likely that a man so moderate and public-spirited in everything else — when it was open to him to sub[ju]gate one side and make himself tyrant of the city — would instead make enemies of both parties alike, and set what was fine and the safety of the city above his own ga[in], and yet befoul himself over things so small and so easily exposed. That he had this power, the diseased state of affairs itself attests, and he himself mentions it often in his poems, and everyone else agrees. This charge, then, must be judged false.
7| [paragraph 7] VII. He established a constitution and enacted other laws, and they stopped using Draco's ordinances, except those concerning homicide. They wrote the laws up on the boards and set them up in the Royal Stoa, and swore to abide by them and to dedicate a golden statue if anyone should transgress any of the laws; and that is why even now they still swear in that way. He bound the laws to remain in force for a hundred years, and arranged the constitution in the following manner. He divided the citizens by property assessment into four classes, just as they had been divided before, into pentacosiomedimni, [horsemen], zeugitai, and thetes. And he assigned the other offices — the nine archons, the treasurers, the sellers [of confiscated property], the Eleven, and the kolakretai — to be held by men from the pentacosiomedimni, the horsemen, and the zeugitai, giving each office in proportion to the size of the assessment. But to those rated in the thetic class he gave a share only in the assembly and the lawcourts. A man had to be rated as a pentacosiomedimnos if he produced from his own land five hundred measures, dry and wet combined; those producing three hundred were rated in the cavalry class, or, as some say, those able to keep a horse. As evidence for this they cite both the name of the class, as being derived from the fact itself, and the dedications made by men of old: for there stands on the Acropolis a statue dedicated by Diphilos, on which this is inscribed:
8| Anthemion, son of Diphilos, dedicated this to the gods, having exchanged the thetic class for the cavalry class. And a horse stands beside him bearing witness, showing that this signifies the cavalry class. Yet it is more plausible that the classes were divided by measures of produce, just as the pentacosiomedimni were. Those producing two hundred measures, dry and wet combined, were rated as zeugitai; the rest were rated as thetes, sharing in no office. That is why even now, when a man about to be chosen by lot for some office is asked what class he is rated in, no one would ever say 'thetic.' [paragraph 8] VIII. He made the offices filled by lot from men previously nominated, whom each of the tribes was to nominate beforehand. For the nine archons, each tribe nominated ten in advance, and the lot was drawn from these; hence the practice still remains for each tribe to put forward ten men, after which the lot is cast among them. A sign that he made the offices filled by lot from the property classes is the law concerning the treasurers, which they [continue] to use even now; for it directs that the treasurers be chosen by lot from the pentacosiomedimni. [Solon], then, legislated in this way concerning the nine archons. For in ancient times the Council on the [Areopagus], summoning [a man] forward and judging on its own authority who was suitable for each of the offices, would [appoint] him for [a year]. There were four tribes, as before, and four tribe-kings. [From] each of [the] [tribe]s there were apportioned three thirds, and twelve naukraries within each. Over the naukraries there was an office established, the naukraroi, appointed to deal with both the contributions levied and the [expenditures] that arose; that is why in Solon's laws, which are no longer in use, it is often
9| [written] in many places 'the naukraroi are to exact payment' and 'to spend from the naukraric [silver].' He made the [Council] [four] hundred strong, a hundred from each tribe, and assigned the Council of the Areopagos to [guard] the laws — for it had existed even before this as overseer of the constitution — and it watched over most of the greatest affairs of the city and corrected wrongdoers, having full authority to [fine] and punish, and it paid the [payments] exacted into the city treasury, without recording the [reason] for which anything was [exacted]; and it judged those who conspired to overthrow the democracy, Solon having [established] a law of [impeachment] concerning [them]. And seeing that the city was often torn by [faction], and that some of the citizens, through indifference, were [content] to let events take their own course, he made a special law aimed at them: that whoever, when the city was torn by faction, did not take up arms with one side or the other, should be disfranchised and have no share in the city. [paragraph 9] IX. Such, then, was the state of affairs [concerning] the offices. Three things are held to be [this] the most democratic features of Solon's constitution: first and greatest, the prohibition of loans secured on the person; next, that it was open to anyone who wished to seek [redress] on behalf of those who were wronged; and third, the thing by which the masses are said to have gained the most strength, the right of appeal to the [lawcourt]. For the people, being [masters] of the vote,
10| become sovereign over the constitution. Further, because the laws were not [written] simply or clearly, but like the law concerning inheritances and heiresses, it was inevitable that [many] disputes should arise, and that the lawcourt should decide both public and private matters. Some indeed think that he deliberately made the laws unclear, so that the [people] should be sovereign over the judgment. But that is not likely; rather it was because he was unable to grasp the best rule in general terms — for it is not [right] to judge his intention from what happens now, but from the character of his constitution as a whole. [paragraph 10] X. In his laws, then, these are held to be the democratic measures he laid down; but before the legislation he carried out the [cancellation] of [debts], and after that the increase in the [standards] of measures and weights and in the currency. For under him the measures were made [larger] than the Pheidonian ones, and the mina, which previously had a [weight] of seventy drachmas, was brought up to a hundred. The old standard [coin] was the didrachm. He also made weights to match the currency, sixty-three minas making the [talent], and the extra [three] minas were distributed over the stater and the other weights.
11| [paragraph 11] XI. Having organized the constitution in the way described, since people kept coming to him about the laws and pestering him, some finding fault, others cross-examining him, and since he wished neither to alter these provisions nor to remain and be hated, he made a journey abroad, for trade and sightseeing at once, to Egypt, [saying] that he would not return for ten years; for he did not think it right to interpret the laws himself while present, but that everyone should simply do what was written. At the same time it also happened that many of the notable men had become estranged from him because of the cancellation of debts, and that both factions had changed their attitude toward him, because the settlement had turned out contrary to what they expected. For the people had thought he would redistribute everything, while the notables thought he would restore things to [much] the [same] order as before, or [alter] them only a little. Solon opposed them both, and though it was open to him, by [joining] with whichever side he wished, to make himself tyrant, he chose instead to be hated by both, having saved his country and legislated the [best] laws he could. [paragraph 12] XII. That things happened in this way is agreed by everyone else, and Solon himself recalls it in his poetry, in these lines: 'To the people I gave as much privilege as is enough, neither taking away their honor nor granting them more; and those who held power and were admired for their wealth, for them too I took care that they should have nothing unseemly. I stood holding a strong shield over both, and I did not allow either side to win unjustly.'
12| Again, declaring his views about the multitude, how it should be treated: 'The people would best follow their leaders if neither given too free a rein nor forced too hard. For excess breeds insolence, whenever great prosperity attends men whose minds are not sound.' And again, elsewhere, he speaks about those who wanted to redistribute the land: 'They came intent on plunder, each of them holding rich hopes, expecting to find great wealth, and thinking that, though I spoke smoothly, I would reveal a harsh purpose. Vain were their thoughts then, and now, angry with me, they all look at me [askance], as at an enemy. They need not: for what I said, I accomplished with the gods' help, and I did not do the [rest] in [vain], nor does it please me to [act] with the violence of a tyrant, nor that in the [rich] soil of my fatherland the base should have an equal share with the good.' [Again] he speaks, too, concerning the [cancellation] of [debts] and of those who had formerly been enslaved but were freed through the shaking-off of burdens —
13| As for the things for which I [gathered] the people together, what of these did I leave off before achieving it? Let the mightiest witness in the judgment of time, the greatest mother of the Olympian gods, black Earth, would best bear me witness before the court of Time bear me out — whose boundary-markers, [fixed] in many places, I once tore up; she who was formerly enslaved, now free. And many I brought back to Athens, their ancestral, god-founded city, men who had been sold abroad, one unjustly, another justly, and others who had fled under the compulsion of need, no longer speaking the Attic tongue, as men who had wandered far and wide; and others who here at home endured shameful slavery, [trembling] before the tempers of their masters — these I made free. These things I did by the power of law, fitting force and justice together, and I carried it through as I had [promised]. And I wrote ordinances alike for the base man and the good, fitting a straight judgment to each case. If another man had taken up the goad as I did, one [evil-counseled] and grasping after possessions, he would not have held the people in check; for had I been willing to do what pleased their [opponents] at the time, and then in turn what the other side proposed to them, this city would have been robbed of many of its men. For this reason I made my stand for defense on every side, turning about like a wolf among many hounds. And again, rebuking both sides for the complaints they later made against each other: if I must openly reproach the people, they would never in their dreams have seen with their own eyes what they now possess. But those who are greater and superior in force would praise me and make me their friend —
14| for if anyone else, he says, had won this office, he would not have held the people in check, nor would he have stopped, before he had stirred up the milk and skimmed off the cream. But I stood as a boundary-marker in the no-man's-land between the two sides. [paragraph 13] XIII. He made his journey abroad, then, for these reasons. And when Solon had gone abroad, while the city was still in turmoil, they lived in peace for four years; but in the fifth year after Solon's archonship they did not appoint an archon, because of the factional [strife], and again in the fifth year, for the same reason, they made anarchy. After this, over the same span of time, Damasias was chosen archon and ruled for two years and two months, until he was driven out of office by force. Then they [decided], because of the factional strife, to choose ten archons,
15| five from the Eupatridae, three from the [farmers], and two from the craftsmen; and these ruled for the year after Damasias. This makes clear that the archonship carried the greatest power, for they can be seen constantly quarreling over this office. And in general they went on suffering in their relations with one another, some having as their basis and pretext the cancellation of debts (for it had come about that they were poor), others being discontented with the constitution because a great change had taken place in it, and some because of [rivalry with one another]. There were three factions: one of the men of the coast, led by Megacles son of Alcmeon, who were thought to aim above all at the middle constitution; another of the men of the plain, who sought oligarchy, led by Lycurgus; and a third, that of the men of the hill country, over which Pisistratus was set, who was thought to be [most democratic]. Attached to these were also those who had been [deprived] of their debts, out of [poverty], and those who were not pure in lineage, out of fear. A sign of this is that after the overthrow [of the tyrants] they held a scrutiny of the rolls, on the ground that many were sharing in the constitution who had no right to it. Each group took its name from the region in which it farmed. [paragraph 14] XIV. Pisistratus, who was thought to be the most democratic man and had won great repute in the war against the Megarians, wounded himself and persuaded the people that he had suffered this at the hands of his political opponents, and so got them, on a motion proposed by Aristion, to grant him a bodyguard for his person. Taking the men called club-bearers, he rose up with them against the people and seized the Acropolis, in the thirty-second year after the enactment of the laws,
16| under the archon Comeas. It is said that when Pisistratus asked for the guard, Solon spoke against it and said that in one respect he was wiser than some, in another [braver] than others: wiser than those who did not perceive that Pisistratus was aiming at [tyranny], braver than those who knew it but kept silent. And when speaking did not [persuade] them, he set his weapons out before his door and said that he himself had come to his country's aid so far as he was able (for he was already a very old man), and called on the others to do the same. Solon, then, [accomplished nothing] at the time by his appeal; but Pisistratus, once he had taken power, administered the city's affairs more as a citizen than as a tyrant. But before his rule had yet taken root, the partisans of Megacles and Lycurgus came to an agreement and drove him out, in the sixth year after his first establishment, under the archon Hegesias. And in the twelfth year after this, Megacles, being hard pressed by the factional strife, again sent word to Pisistratus offering to restore him on condition that he marry his daughter, and brought him back in an old-fashioned and altogether simple way. For having first spread abroad a story that Athena herself was bringing Pisistratus back, he found a tall and beautiful woman — according to Herodotus, from the deme of Paeania, but as some say, a Thracian garland-seller from Collytus, whose name was Phye — and dressing her up in the likeness of the goddess, he brought her into the city together with him; and Pisistratus rode in on a chariot with the woman standing beside him, while the people in the city received them with worship and astonishment.
17| [paragraph 15] XV. Such, then, was the manner of the first return. After this, when he was expelled the second time, about the seventh year after his return (for he did not hold power long; rather, because he was unwilling to have children by Megacles' daughter, and fearing both factions, he withdrew), he first settled a place near the Thermaic Gulf called Rhaecelus, and from there moved on to the region around Pangaeus. From there, having raised money and hired soldiers, he came to Eretria and in the eleventh year made his first attempt to recover his rule by force, with the eager support of many others, but especially of the Thebans and of Lygdamis of Naxos, and also of the knights who held the government in Eretria. And having won the battle at Pallenis and taken the [city], and having disarmed
18| the people, he now held the tyranny firmly; and after taking Naxos he set up Lygdamis as its ruler. He disarmed the people in the following manner. Holding a review of arms at the Theseum, he attempted to hold an assembly, and [spoke] for a little while; and when they said they could not hear him, he told them to come up closer to the gateway of the Acropolis, so that his voice would carry better. And while he kept them occupied with his speech, the men appointed for the purpose took up the [arms] and [locked] them away in the buildings near the Theseum, and came and told Pisistratus. And when he had finished the rest of his speech, he told them also what had happened about the arms — that they should not be amazed or discouraged, but should go away to their private affairs, while he [himself] would [take care] of everything public.
19| [paragraph 16] XVI. The tyranny of Pisistratus, then, was established from the start in this way, and underwent this many changes. Pisistratus administered the city's affairs, as has been said, with moderation, and more as a citizen than as a tyrant; for in other respects he was humane and mild, and forgiving toward wrongdoers, and in particular he lent money in advance to the [poor] for their work, so that they could support themselves by farming. He did this for two reasons: so that they would not spend their time in the city but would be scattered throughout the countryside, and so that, having a modest sufficiency and being occupied with their own affairs, they would neither desire nor have [leisure] to concern themselves with public business. At the same time it also happened that his revenues became greater, since the land was being thoroughly worked; for he exacted a tenth of what was produced. For this reason he also set up local judges in the demes, and he himself often went out into the country to inspect it and to settle disputes among those who were quarreling, so that they would not come down into the
20| ...the city and neglect their farming. They say that during one such outing of his, this happened to Pisistratus, concerning the man farming on [Hymettus], on the plot later called Tax-Exempt. Seeing someone digging and working ground that was [entirely] rock, he was astonished and had his attendant ask what came from the place. The man said, "As many troubles and pains as there are — and of these troubles and pains Pisistratus must have his tenth." The man answered without knowing who he was speaking to, but Pisistratus, pleased at his frankness and his [industriousness], made him exempt from all taxes. The people were [troubled] by him in nothing else during his rule either, but he was always [securing] peace and keeping things quiet. That is why people [kept] repeating [well-worn] sayings, that Pisistratus's tyranny was [the] life under [Cronus] — for that is what his [rule] turned out to be. But the greatest of all the things [said] of him was that he was [democratic] in character and humane. For in other matters too he wished to administer everything according to the [laws]
21| ...granting himself no [advantage] in his rule; and whenever he fell from power he recovered it again easily. For most of both the notable men and the common people wanted him back: he won some over by his company, others by help in their private affairs, and he was naturally good with both kinds. The Athenians also had laws about tyrants that were mild for those times, among them, in particular, the one bearing most directly on the [establishment] of a tyranny. For this was their law: "These are the ordinances and ancestral customs of the Athenians: if anyone rises up [aiming at tyranny] or joins in setting up a tyranny, he and his family are to be without civic rights." [paragraph 17] XVII. Pisistratus, then, grew old in office and died a natural death in the archonship of [Philoneus], having lived thirty-three years from when he first became tyrant, and having remained in power for nineteen of those years, since he spent the rest in exile. That is why those who claim
22| that [Pisistratus] was the beloved of Solon, and that he served as general in the war against the Megarians over Salamis, are plainly talking nonsense — for the dates do not allow it, if one works out each man's lifetime, nor do they fit with the archon under whom Solon died. When Pisistratus died, his sons held the rule, carrying on affairs in the same manner. There were two by his lawful wife, Hippias and Hipparchus, and two by his Argive wife, Iophon and Hegesistratus, who bore the nickname Thessalus. For Pisistratus had married, from Argos, the daughter of an Argive man named Gorgilus, Timonassa, whom Archinus of Ambracia, one of the Cypselids, had previously had as his wife. This was also the source of the friendship with the Argives, and a thousand of them fought on his side in the battle at Pallenis, brought over by Hegesistratus. As for his marrying the Argive woman, some say it was when he was first in exile, others say it was while he was already holding power.
23| [paragraph 18] XVIII. Because of their rank and their age, Hipparchus and Hippias were in control of affairs, but Hippias, being the elder, and naturally a statesman and sensible, presided over the government. Hipparchus was playful, erotic, and devoted to the arts — he was the one who summoned Anacreon and the other poets — while Thessalus was much younger, and reckless and violent in his way of life; from him, it turned out, came all the troubles of their rule. For he fell in love with Harmodius, and failing to win his friendship, he could not contain his anger: in other ways he showed his bitterness pointedly, and finally, when Harmodius's sister was about to carry the ceremonial basket at the Panathenaea, he stopped her, abusing Harmodius as unmanly. This so provoked Harmodius and Aristogeiton that they undertook their deed, with many others sharing in it. Already they were watching for Hippias on the Acropolis during the Panathenaea (for he happened to be [receiving] the procession, while Hipparchus was sending it off), and seeing one of their fellow conspirators in the [plot] speaking amiably with Hippias, and thinking he was informing on them, they wanted to do something before they could be arrested; so they came down and rushed ahead of
24| the [others], and killed Hipparchus, who was arranging the procession, by the Leocorium, ruining the whole plan. Of the two, Harmodius was killed on the spot by the [guards], while Aristogeiton was arrested later and tortured for a long time. Under torture he denounced many men who were both notable by birth and friends of the tyrants. For at first they could find no trace of the plot; and the story that goes around — that Hippias made the marchers lay down their weapons and so exposed those carrying daggers — is not true, since they were not marching armed at that time; the people invented this only later. He denounced the tyrant's friends — the democrats say it was deliberate, so that they would act impiously and at the same time weaken themselves by killing men who were innocent and their own friends; but some say he was not fabricating but was actually informing on his accomplices. In the end, when for all his efforts he could not manage to be put to death, he promised to inform on many others, and persuaded Hippias to give him his right hand as a pledge of good faith; and once he had it, he taunted him for giving his hand to his brother's murderer. This so provoked Hippias that, in his rage, he could not restrain himself, but drew his dagger and killed him.
25| [paragraph 19] XIX. After this the tyranny became much harsher. For because of avenging his brother, and because he had put many to death and driven many into exile, he was distrustful and bitter toward everyone. About four years after Hipparchus's death, since things in the city were going badly, he undertook to fortify Munichia, meaning to move his base there; but while occupied with this he was driven out by Cleomenes, king of the Lacedaemonians, since the oracles were constantly urging it. The exiles, led by the Alcmeonids, were unable to bring about their own return by their own efforts, but kept meeting with failure. In other undertakings too they were thwarted, and when they fortified Lipsydrium in the countryside above Parnes — where some men from the city itself came out to join them — they were besieged and driven out by the tyrants. That is why, afterward, following this disaster, people used to sing in their drinking-songs: "Alas, Lipsydrium, betrayer of friends — what men you destroyed, brave in battle and well-born, who then showed of what fathers they were."
26| Failing in everything else, they contracted to build the temple at Delphi, and from this they gained the funds to secure Spartan help. The Pythia kept urging the Lacedaemonians, whenever they came to consult the oracle, to free Athens, until she drove the Spartiates to it, even though the Pisistratids were bound to them as guests and friends; and no less a part in stirring the Spartans was played by the friendship the Pisistratids had with the Argives. First they sent Anchimolus by sea with an army. But he was defeated and killed, because Cineas the Thessalian came to help with a thousand cavalry; angered at what had happened, they sent out King Cleomenes with a larger force by land, who, once he had defeated the Thessalian cavalry when they tried to stop him from entering Attica, shut Hippias up in the so-called Pelargic wall and besieged him there together with the Athenians. While he was pressing the siege, it happened that the sons of the Pisistratids were caught trying to slip out. Once they were taken, the Pisistratids made an agreement for the safety of their children, carried their own property out within five days, and handed over the Acropolis to the Athenians, in the archonship of Harpactides — having held the tyranny for about seventeen years after their father's death, and altogether, counting also the years their father ruled, forty-nine years in all.
27| [paragraph 20] XX. When the tyranny had been overthrown, the two sides quarreled with each other: Isagoras son of Teisander, who was a friend of the tyrants, and Cleisthenes, who was of the family of the Alcmaeonidae. Cleisthenes, getting the worse of it in the political clubs, brought the common people over to his side, giving back the constitution to the multitude. Isagoras, falling short in power, in turn called on Cleomenes, who was a guest-friend of his, and persuaded him to drive out the pollution, on the ground that the Alcmaeonidae were held to be among the accursed. When Cleisthenes had withdrawn along with a few others, Cleomenes drove out seven hundred Athenian households as accursed. Having accomplished this, he next tried to dissolve the Council, and to put Isagoras and three hundred of his friends in control of the city. But the Council resisted, and when the multitude had gathered together, Cleomenes and Isagoras and their party took refuge on the Acropolis; the people sat down before it and besieged them for two days, and on the third day they let Cleomenes and all who were with him go under truce, but they sent for Cleisthenes and the other exiles to return. Once the people had taken control of affairs, Cleisthenes was their leader and the champion of the people. For it was above all the Alcmaeonidae who were responsible for the expulsion of the tyrants, and for the most part they had spent their time in factional strife. And even before this, Cedon of the Alcmaeonidae had attacked the tyrants, which is why they used to sing of him too in the drinking-songs:
28| 'Pour also for Cedon, cupbearer, and do not forget him, if it is right to pour wine for good men.' [paragraph 21] XXI. It was for these reasons, then, that the people trusted Cleisthenes. And now, standing at the head of the multitude, in the fourth year after the overthrow of the tyrants, in the archonship of Isagoras, first of all he distributed everyone among ten tribes instead of the four, wanting to mix them together so that more people would have a share in the constitution—hence too the saying, current among those who wanted to inquire into people's ancestry, 'not to inquire into tribes.' Next he made the Council five hundred[υ] instead of four hundred, fifty from each tribe (previously there had been a hundred). The reason he did not organize them into twelve tribes was so[ς] that he would not have to divide them according to the previously existing thirds; for out of the four tribes there had been twelve thirds, and this way it would not[συν] turn out that they were mixed together. He also divided the countryside by demes into thirty parts, ten belonging to the region around the city, ten to the coast, and ten to the inland, and naming these thirds, he assigned three by lot to each tribe, so that each tribe would have a share of every district. And he made fellow-demesmen of one another all those living in each of the demes, so that people would not expose the newly enrolled citizens by calling them by their fathers' names, but would instead proclaim them by their demes—which is also why the Athenians call themselves by the names of their demes.
29| He also established demarchs, who had the same responsibilities as the earlier naukraroi, for he made the demes take the place of the naukrariai. He named some of the demes after their localities, others after their founders, since not all of them still corresponded to actual localities. But the clans, the phratries, and the priesthoods he allowed each group to keep according to ancestral custom. For the tribes he made eponymous heroes chosen from a hundred nominated founding-figures, ten of whom the Pythia selected. [paragraph 22] XXII. Once this had been done, the constitution became far more favorable to the people than that of Solon. For it happened that the tyranny had caused Solon's laws to fall out of use because they were not being applied, and Cleisthenes laid down other new[ν] laws with an eye to the multitude, among which was also the law concerning ostracism. First of all, then, in the fifth year after this settlement, in the archonship of Hermocreon, they instituted for the Council of Five Hundred the oath which they still swear even now.
30| Next they chose the generals by tribes, one from each tribe, while the polemarch was commander of the whole army. Then, twelve years after this, having won the battle at Marathon in the archonship of Phaenippus, letting two years pass after the victory, with the people now grown confident, they for the first time made use of the law about ostracism, which had been laid down out of suspicion of men in positions of power, because Peisistratus, who had been a popular leader and a general, had made himself tyrant. And the first of his relatives to be ostracized was Hipparchus son of Charmus, of Collytus, on whose account Cleisthenes had especially laid down the law, wanting to drive him out. For the Athenians allowed the friends of the tyrants, so many of them as had not joined in wrongdoing during the disturbances, to go on living in the city, following the customary mildness of the people; and the leader and champion of these men was Hipparchus. Then straightaway in the following year, in the archonship of Telesinus, they chose the nine archons by lot, tribe by tribe, from among those preliminarily selected by the five hundred demesmen—this being the first time this was done since the tyranny; before this all of them had been elected. And Megacles son of Hippocrates, of Alopece, was ostracized. So then for three years they went on ostracizing the friends of the tyrants, which was the purpose for which the law existed; but after this, in the fourth year, they began to remove anyone else too who seemed to be too great.
31| And the first person to be ostracized who had no connection with the tyranny was Xanthippus son of Ariphron. Then, three years after this, in the archonship of Nicodemus, when the mines at Maroneia were discovered and the city had gained a hundred talents in profit from the works, and some were advising the people to divide up the money among themselves, Themistocles prevented it—not saying what he would use the money for, but instructing them instead to lend it out to the hundred wealthiest Athenians, a hundred talents to each, and then, if the expenditure proved satisfactory, the cost would fall to the city, but if not, they were to recover the money from those who had borrowed it. Having received the money on these terms, he had a hundred triremes built, each of the hundred men building one, and it was with these that they fought the sea-battle against the barbarians at Salamis. And it was in this period that Aristides son of Lysimachus was ostracized. In the fourth year they recalled all those who had been ostracized, in the archonship of Hypsichides, on account of the expedition of Xerxes; and for the future they fixed that those who were ostracized should live beyond Geraestus and Scyllaeum, or else be disfranchised outright.
32| [paragraph 23] XXIII. Up to this point, then, the city had advanced this far, growing little by little along with the democracy. But after the Persian Wars the Council of the Areopagus grew powerful again and administered the city, having taken over the leadership by no formal decree but because it had been responsible for the sea-battle at Salamis. For when the generals were at a total loss over the situation and had proclaimed that each man should save[ζ] himself, the Council raised eight drachmas for each man, distributed them, and put the men aboard the ships. On account of this service, people yielded to its authority, and the Athenians were governed well [and] in this period. For it fell to them, around this time, to train themselves for war, to win a good reputation among the Greeks, and to take the leadership of the sea against the will of the Lacedaemonians. The champions of the people during this period were Aristides son of Lysimachus and Themistocles son of Neocles, the one reputed to practice military affairs, the other clever in political matters and superior in justice to the men of his own time; and so people made use of the one as general, the other as advisor. The rebuilding of the walls, then, they carried out jointly, even though they were at odds with each other; but as for the revolt of the Ionians from their alliance with the Lacedaemonians, it was Aristides who urged it on, having watched the Spartans fall into disrepute on account of Pausanias. It was he, too, who was the one who fixed the tribute for the cities, the first assessment, in the third year after the sea-battle at Salamis, in the archonship of Timosthenes, and he swore the oaths to the
33| [to the Ionians] — so that they would have the same enemy and the same friend [as the Athenians]; and on these terms they also cast the masses of iron into the sea. [paragraph 24] XXIV. After this, once the city had grown confident and a great deal of money had been collected, Aristides advised them to lay hold of the leadership, and to come down from the countryside and live in the city; for there would be sustenance for everyone — some serving as soldiers, some standing guard, some conducting the public business — and in this way they would keep hold of the leadership. Persuaded by this, and having taken up the empire, they treated their allies in a more high-handed way, except for the Chians, the Lesbians, and the Samians; these they kept as guardians of their empire, letting them keep their own constitutions and rule over whatever they happened to rule. They also secured abundant sustenance for the mass of the people, just as Aristides had proposed; for it turned out that more than twenty thousand men were maintained from the tribute, the harbor and market dues, and the allies. There were six thousand jurors, sixteen hundred archers, and besides these twelve hundred cavalry, a Council of five hundred, five hundred guards of the dockyards, and besides these fifty guards stationed in the city itself; the magistrates serving at home numbered up to seven hundred men, and those serving abroad up to seven hundred; and besides these, once they later entered upon the war, there were twenty-five hundred hoplites, twenty guard-ships, and other ships that brought in the tribute, carrying two thousand men chosen by lot; and further, the prytaneum, the orphans, and the guards of the prisoners — for the upkeep of all of these came from the public funds.
34| [paragraph 25] XXV. This, then, is how the sustenance of the people came about. The constitution remained for about seventeen years after the Persian Wars with the Areopagites presiding over it, though it was gradually declining. But as the mass of the people grew, Ephialtes son of Sophonides became leader of the people; he had a reputation for being incorruptible and just toward the constitution, and he attacked the Council. First he did away with many of the Areopagites, bringing prosecutions against them over their conduct in office; then, in the archonship of Conon, he stripped the Council of all the added powers by which it safeguarded the constitution, and gave some of these to the Five Hundred, others to the people, and others to the lawcourts. He accomplished this with Themistocles as his accomplice — a man who was himself one of the Areopagites but was about to be tried for medizing. Wanting to bring the Council down, Themistocles told Ephialtes that the Council was about to seize him, and told the Areopagites that he feared certain men were banding together to overthrow the constitution. He then brought the men chosen from the Council to the place where Ephialtes was staying, so as to show them the men gathering there, and conferred with them earnestly. Ephialtes, when he saw them, was struck with fear and sat down at the altar wearing nothing but his tunic. Everyone was amazed at what had [happened]; and afterward, when the Council of Five Hundred was assembled, both Ephialtes and Themistocles became accusers of the Areopagites, and did the same again before the people, until they had stripped them of their power. And here the text breaks off. Ephialtes too was done away with, murdered not long after by Aristodicus of Tanagra.
35| [paragraph 26] XXVI. In this way, then, the Council of the Areopagites was stripped of its oversight. After this it happened that the constitution grew still more relaxed, on account of those who eagerly played the demagogue. For it happened at this period that the more reasonable citizens had no leader at all; the man standing at their head was Cimon son of Miltiades, who was rather young and had come late to public affairs; and besides this, most of them had been destroyed in war. For since military service in those days was raised by conscription lists, and the generals set over the troops were inexperienced in war but honored on account of their fathers' reputations, it constantly happened that, of those who went out, two or three thousand would be lost, so that the reasonable men were used up, both from the common people and from the wealthy. In everything else, then, they conducted affairs with no less attention to the laws than before, but they did not disturb the selection of the nine archons; however, in the sixth year after the death of Ephialtes, they decided that men from the Zeugitae too should be admitted among those preliminarily selected for the lot for the nine archonships, and the first of that class to hold office was Mnesitheides. All those before this had come from the Knights and the Five-Hundred-Bushel class, and the Zeugitae held only the ordinary offices, except where some provision of the laws was overlooked. In the fifth year after this, in the archonship of Lysicrates, the Thirty Judges were again established, the ones called "the judges by demes"; and in the third year after that, in the archonship of Antidotus, because of the great number of citizens, on Pericles' motion they decided that no one should share in citizenship who was not born of two citizen parents.
36| [paragraph 27] XXVII. After this, when Pericles turned to leading the people, and first won a good reputation when, still young, he brought a prosecution over the accounts of Cimon's generalship, the constitution came to be still more democratic; for he took away some of the powers of the Areopagites, and above all he urged the city toward naval power, and from this it resulted that the common people, growing bolder, 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 it the people were shut up within the city and grew accustomed to earning pay on campaigns, and so, partly by choice and partly against it, they took it upon themselves to administer the constitution directly. Pericles was also the first to make the lawcourts paid, competing for popular favor against Cimon's wealth. For Cimon, who had a fortune fit for a tyrant, in the first place performed the public liturgies splendidly, and in the second place supported many of his fellow demesmen; for any Laciad who wished could come to him each day and receive what he needed to get by, and further, all his estates were left unfenced, so that anyone who wished could enjoy the fruit. Against this lavish generosity Pericles, whose private means fell short, was advised by Damonides of Oea — who was thought to be the source of most of Pericles' policies, and was for this reason later ostracized — since he was outmatched in private giving, to give the people their own money back; so he arranged pay for the jurors. Some blame this for a decline, on the ground that ordinary men, rather than reasonable ones, were always more eager to put themselves forward for selection by lot. It was after this that jury-bribing too began, Anytus having been the first to show the way, after his command at Pylos; for, being prosecuted by certain men over the loss of Pylos, he bribed the court and was acquitted.
37| [paragraph 28] XXVIII. So then, as long as Pericles stood at the head of the people, the affairs of the constitution were better; but once Pericles died, they became much worse. For then, for the first time, the people took as their leader a man who did not enjoy a good reputation among reasonable people; whereas in earlier times the reasonable men had always continued to lead the people. For from the beginning, the first to become leader of the people was Solon, and the second was Pisistratus, both men of noble birth and standing; and after the tyranny was overthrown, Cleisthenes, of the family of the Alcmaeonids, was leader, and he had no rival faction leader once the party of Isagoras had been driven out. After this, Xanthippus stood at the head of the people, and Miltiades at the head of the notables; then Themistocles and Aristides. After these, Ephialtes led the people, and Cimon son of Miltiades led the wealthy; then Pericles led the people, and Thucydides — who was Cimon's relative by marriage — led the other party. When Pericles died, Nicias, who later died in Sicily, stood at the head of the distinguished men, and Cleon son of Cleaenetus at the head of the people — the man who seems to have done the most to corrupt the people with his violent impulses, and who was the first to shout on the speaker's platform, to hurl abuse, and to address the assembly with his cloak hitched up, while everyone else spoke in orderly fashion. Then, after these, Theramenes son of Hagnon led the other party, and Cleophon the lyre-maker led the people — the man who was also the first to introduce the two-obol payment; and for some time
38| ...was being distributed, but after this Callicrates of Paeania did away with it, being the first to promise to add another obol to the two obols. Both of these men were later condemned to death; for it is the way of the multitude, even when it has been deceived, to hate afterward those who have led them to do something not right. From Cleophon onward, the leadership of the people passed continuously to those most willing to be bold and to gratify the many, looking only to the immediate moment. The best of those who engaged in politics at Athens after the ancients are thought to have been Nicias, Thucydides, and Theramenes. About Nicias and Thucydides nearly everyone agrees that they were men not only fine and good but also statesmanlike, and that they treated the whole city as a father would, but about Theramenes, because the constitutions in his time turned out to be turbulent, there is dispute in the judgment of him. To those who declare their opinion not carelessly, however, it appears that he did not, as his detractors charge, overthrow every constitution, but rather promoted all of them so long as they broke no law, since he was capable of taking part in politics under any of them — which is the work of a good citizen — while not [conceding] to them when they broke the law, but incurring their hatred instead.
39| [paragraph 29] XXIX. Now as long as things were evenly balanced in the war, they preserved the democracy. But when, after the disaster that occurred in Sicily, the Lacedaemonians' position became stronger because of their alliance with the King, they were compelled, [having disturbed] the democracy, to set up the constitution of the Four Hundred, the speech before the decree being delivered by Melobius, and the motion being written by Pythodorus [of] Ana[phlystus], and the many being persuaded above all by the belief that the King would [more] readily join in the war on their side if they made the constitution the affair of a few. And it was —
40| the decree of Pythodorus, as follows: that the people should choose, in addition to the ten existing Commissioners, another twenty from among those over forty years of age, who, having sworn that they would draft whatever they judged best for the city, should draft proposals concerning its safety; and that it should be permitted also for any other citizen who wished to submit a proposal, so that from all of them the best might be chosen. Cleitophon proposed the rest just as Pythodorus had said, but moved further that those chosen should also search out the ancestral laws that Cleisthenes had established when he set up the democracy, so that, having heard these too, they might deliberate on the best course, on the ground that the constitution of Cleisthenes was not democratic but similar to that of Solon. Those chosen first wrote that it should be compulsory for the presiding officers to put to the vote everything said concerning the safety of the state, next they abolished the indictments for illegal proposals, the impeachments, and the summonses, so that any Athenian who wished might give counsel on the matters proposed; and if anyone, on account of these, either fined, summoned, or brought a man to trial, there should be information laid against him and summary arrest before the generals, and the generals should hand him over to the Eleven to be punished with death. After this they arranged the constitution in the following way: that the revenues coming in should not be spent on anything else but the war, that all the offices should be held without pay for as long as the war lasted, except the nine archons and whoever were serving as presiding officers; these should each receive three obols a day. And that the rest of the constitution should be entrusted entirely to those Athenians most able, in both person and property, to render service, not fewer than five thousand, for as long as the war lasted; and that these should have full authority, including the power to make treaties with whomever they wished; and that ten men over forty years of age should be chosen from each tribe, who, having sworn an oath over full-grown victims, should draw up the list of the Five Thousand.
41| [paragraph 30] XXX. Those who had been chosen, then, drafted these measures. When these had been ratified, the Five Thousand chose from among themselves a hundred men to draw up the constitution. Those chosen drew it up and published the following. That those over thirty years of age should serve as councillors each year without pay; and that from among these should come the generals, the nine archons, the Hieromnemon, the taxiarchs, the hipparchs, the phylarchs, the commanders in the garrisons, the ten treasurers of the sacred moneys of the [goddess] and the other gods, the twenty who shall handle all the other sacred moneys and administer them, the sacrificial officers, and the overseers, ten of each; that all of these should be chosen from a preliminary list, the preliminary candidates being nominated in greater number from those currently serving as councillors, and that all the other offices should be filled by lot and not from the council; and that the Hellenotamiai, whoever should be handling the moneys, should not also sit on the council. That for the future four councils should be formed from the age-group specified, and that whichever portion of these was allotted should serve as council, and that the rest also should be distributed to their respective divisions; and that the Hundred Men should divide both themselves and the rest into four parts as equal as possible, and allot them by lot, and that each should serve as council for a year.
42| They should deliberate however seems to them likely to serve best, both concerning the moneys, so that they may be safe and be spent as needed, and concerning everything else, as best they are able; and if they need to deliberate on some matter with more men, each may call in as an additional member whomever he wishes from the same age-group; and that the council should hold its sessions every five days, unless they need more. The nine archons should draw the council by lot, and five men allotted from the council should judge the show of hands, and from these one should be chosen by lot each day to put questions to the vote. The five so allotted should draw by lot those who wish to appear before the council, giving precedence first to matters of religion, second to heralds, third to embassies, and fourth to everything else; but matters of war, whenever necessary, the generals should bring forward without the lot and have them dealt with. Any councillor who does not come to the council-chamber at the appointed hour should owe a drachma for each day, unless he is absent having obtained leave from the council. [paragraph 31] XXXI. 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 as council, according to
43| ancestral custom, forty from each tribe, from a preliminary list chosen by the tribesmen from among those over thirty years of age. These should establish the offices, and draw up the oath that must be sworn, and act concerning the laws, the [audits], and everything else in whatever way they judge advantageous. Whatever laws are enacted concerning matters of state should be used, and it should not be permitted to alter them or to enact others. For the present, the choice of generals should be made from all of the Five Thousand; but the council, once established, should hold a review under arms and choose ten men, and along with these, those chosen should hold office as absolute rulers for the coming year, and should take counsel with the council if they need anything. They should also choose one hipparch and ten phylarchs; for the future the council should make the choice of these offices according to what has been written. Of the other offices, except the council and the generalship, it should not be permitted either to these men or to anyone else to hold the same office more than once. For the future — so that the Four Hundred should be distributed among the four divisions, (text corrupt here) whenever it falls to the citizens to take part in council along with the rest — the Hundred Men should divide them up.
44| [paragraph 32] XXXII. The Hundred, then, who had been chosen by the Five Thousand, drew up this constitution. When these measures had been ratified by the multitude, on the motion of Aristomachus, the council in office under Callias that had been deliberating was dissolved on the fourteenth of the month Thargelion, and the Four Hundred entered office on the ninth from the end of Thargelion. The council chosen by the bean was due to enter office on the fourteenth of Skirophorion. The oligarchy, then, was established in this way, in the archonship of Callias, about a hundred years after the expulsion of the tyrants, the men most responsible being Pisander, Antiphon, and Theramenes, men both of good birth and reputed to excel in intelligence and judgment. When this constitution had come into being, the Five Thousand were chosen only in name, while the Four Hundred, together with the ten men holding absolute power, entered the council-chamber and ruled the city, and, sending envoys to the Lacedaemonians, tried to end the war on the terms each side actually held at the time. But since the Lacedaemonians would not agree unless the Athenians also gave up their command of the sea, they broke off in this way.
45| [paragraph 33] XXXIII. The constitution of the Four Hundred lasted about four months. Of these, Mnasilochus held the office of archon for two months, under the archonship of Theopompus, who held it for the remaining ten months. Having been defeated in the naval battle off Eretria, and with all of Euboea revolting except Oreus, they took this disaster harder than any that had gone before (for they happened to derive more benefit from Euboea than from Attica), and they dissolved the Four Hundred and handed over affairs to the Five Thousand made up of those able to provide their own arms, having voted that no office should carry pay. The men most responsible for the dissolution were Aristocrates and Theramenes, who were displeased with what was being done by the Four Hundred; for these men did everything through themselves, referring nothing back to the Five Thousand. The city seems to have been well governed in these times, with war standing and the constitution resting on those under arms. [paragraph 34] XXXIV. The people, then, took the constitution away from these men quickly. And in the seventh year after the dissolution of the Four Hundred, in the archonship of Callias of Angele, when the naval battle at Arginusae took place, first it happened that the ten generals who had won the battle were all judged by a single vote — some of them not even having taken part in the battle, others having been rescued on someone else's ship — the people having been deceived by those who misled them; then, when the Lacedaemonians wished to withdraw from Decelea and for each side to make peace on the terms then held, some were eager for it, but the majority did not comply,
46| having been deceived by Cleophon, who prevented the peace from coming about by coming into the assembly drunk and wearing a breastplate, saying he would not permit it unless the Lacedaemonians gave up all the cities. Having handled matters badly on that occasion, they recognized their error not long after. For in the following year, in the archonship of Alexias, they suffered defeat in the naval battle at Aegospotami, as a result of which it came about that Lysander, having become master of the city, set up the Thirty in the following manner. Peace having been made for them on the condition that they should live under the ancestral constitution, the men of the popular party tried to preserve the democracy, while of the notables, those who belonged to political clubs, and those of the exiles who had returned after the peace, desired oligarchy, and those who belonged to no club but [otherwise] seemed inferior to none of the citizens sought the ancestral constitution. Among these were Archinus and Anytus and Cleitophon and Phormisius and many others, but Theramenes stood foremost among them. When Lysander threw in his support with the oligarchic party, the people, terrified, were compelled to vote for the oligarchy by show of hands. Dracontides of Aphidna wrote the decree.
47| [paragraph 35] XXXV. The Thirty, then, were established in this manner, in the archonship of Pythodorus. But once they had become masters of the city, they disregarded the other resolutions that had been made about the constitution, but appointed five hundred councillors and the other officials from a preliminary list of a thousand chosen men, and having chosen for themselves ten rulers of the Piraeus and eleven guardians of the prison and three hundred whip-bearing attendants, they held the city in their own hands. At first, then, they were moderate toward the citizens and pretended to be administering the ancestral constitution, and they took down from the [Areopagus] the laws of Ephialtes and Archestratus concerning the Areopagites, and they abolished those of Solon's ordinances that admitted of dispute, and they did away with the authority that lay in the jurors, on the ground that they were correcting the constitution and making it free of dispute; for example, in the matter of giving one's own property to whomever one wished, they made this absolute without qualification, and they removed the difficulties attached to it ("unless he is mad, or aged, or under the influence of a woman"), so that the sycophants should have no opening; and they did the same in other matters as well. At the beginning, then, they did these things, and they put to death the sycophants and those who consorted with the people for favor contrary to what was best and were troublemakers and wicked men — actions at which the city rejoiced, since people supposed they were acting for the sake of what was best. But when they had gained a firmer grip on the city, they held back from none of the citizens, but put to death anyone of substantial property, both to remove fear and because they wished to plunder their estates; and in a short space of time they had put to death no fewer than fifteen hundred.
48| [paragraph 36] XXXVI. With the city thus being carried downward, Theramenes, indignant at what was happening, advised them to stop their excess and to give a share in affairs to the best men. At first they opposed him; but when his words spread among the mass of the people, and the many were favorably disposed toward Theramenes, they became afraid that he might become leader of the people and put an end to their power, and so they drew up a list of three thousand citizens, as though they were going to give them a share in the constitution. Theramenes rebuked them again on this point too — first, because although they wished to give a share to the respectable, they gave it only to three thousand, as though excellence were confined to that number; and second, because they were doing two utterly contrary things, making their rule both violent and weaker than those they ruled. They, however, paid little heed to this, and for a long time kept putting off the enrollment of the three thousand and kept those who had been enrolled to themselves in secret, and whenever they did decide to publish the list, they struck out some of those already registered and wrote in others from outside it in their place.
49| [paragraph 37] XXXVII. Now that winter had already set in, with Thrasybulus and the exiles having seized Phyle, and the force which the Thirty led out against them having withdrawn in bad shape, they resolved to take away the arms of everyone else, and to destroy Theramenes, in the following manner. They introduced into the council two laws which they ordered to be voted on: one of these gave the Thirty full power to put to death any citizen not included in the list of the Three Thousand; the other excluded from the present constitution all who happened to have taken part in demolishing the fort at Eetioneia, or had acted in any way against the Four Hundred, [or] against those who had established the oligarchy — and Theramenes happened to have had a share in both of these; so that when the laws were ratified, the result was that he was excluded from the constitution and the Thirty had full authority to put him to death. Once Theramenes had been put to death, they took away the arms of everyone except the Three Thousand, and in other respects too they advanced greatly in cruelty and wickedness. They sent envoys to Lacedaemon to accuse Theramenes and to ask for help for themselves; and when the Lacedaemonians heard them, they sent out Callibius as governor and about seven hundred soldiers, who went and garrisoned the Acropolis. [paragraph 38] XXXVIII. After this, when those from Phyle had seized Munychia and had defeated in battle those who came to the aid of the Thirty, the men from the city, after withdrawing from the danger, gathered together in the marketplace on the following day and deposed the Thirty, and chose ten citizens with full powers to bring the war to an end. But these men, once they had taken office, did not do the things for which they had been chosen, but sent to Lacedaemon
50| requesting aid and borrowing money. And the men then in power, taking this hard, and fearing they might be deposed from office, and wishing to terrify the rest (which is indeed what happened), seized a man second to none among the citizens and put him to death, and they held their power securely, with Callibius and the Peloponnesians who were present fighting on their side, and besides these some of the cavalrymen; for some of these citizens in particular were eager that the men from Phyle should not return. But when the men holding the Piraeus and Munychia, once the whole people had gone over to their side, began to prevail in the war, then they deposed the first ten who had been chosen and chose another ten thought to be the best men, under whom it came about both that the reconciliation took place and that the people returned, these men cooperating and being eager for it. Foremost among them stood Rhinon of Paeania and Phayllus of Acherdous; for these men, even before Pausanias [too] arrived, were sending back and forth to those in the Piraeus and were zealous for the return. For Pausanias, the king of the Lacedaemonians, brought the peace and the reconciliation to completion, together with the ten mediators who arrived later from Lacedaemon, whom he himself had been eager to have come. And the party of Rhinon were praised for their goodwill toward the people, and though they had taken charge of affairs under the oligarchy, they rendered their accounts under the democracy, and no one brought any charge against them, neither of those who had remained in the city nor of those who had returned from the Piraeus; rather, because of this, Rhinon was straightaway elected general.
51| [paragraph 39] XXXIX. The reconciliation took place in the archonship of Eucleides, on the following terms. Those Athenians who wish, among the ones who stayed in the city, may live at Eleusis, retaining their full citizen rights, being masters of themselves and in control of their own affairs. The sanctuary is to belong to both parties in common, and the Kerykes and the Eumolpidai are to have charge of it according to ancestral custom. Neither are those from Eleusis permitted to go into the city, nor those from the city to go to Eleusis, except at the Mysteries, in either case. They are to contribute from their revenues to the war fund just as the rest of the Athenians do. If any of those departing take a house at Eleusis, they are to win over the owner by persuasion; but if they cannot come to terms with one another—
52| each side is to choose three assessors, and the owner is to receive whatever price these appoint. As for the people of Eleusis, only those are to live there whom these men wish. Registration is to be open to those who wish to move out: for those residing in the city, within [ten] days from when they swear the oaths, and the actual move within twenty; for those abroad, in the same way, once they return home. No one settled at Eleusis is permitted to hold any office in the city until he registers again as residing in the city. Cases of homicide are to be judged according to ancestral practice, if anyone killed or wounded another with his own hand. Concerning what has passed, no one is permitted to bear a grudge against anyone else, except against the Thirty and the Ten and the Eleven and those who had ruled in Piraeus—and not even against these, if they render their accounts. Those who ruled in Piraeus are to render their accounts before men in Piraeus, and those in the city before those who furnish the property assessments. After this, those who wish may move out. The money that either side borrowed for the war is to be repaid separately by each.
53| [paragraph 40] XL. Now that the reconciliation had taken this form, and those who had fought on the side of the Thirty were afraid, and many were planning to move out but kept putting off registration to the last days, as everyone tends to do, Archinus, seeing how many there were and wanting to hold them back, cut short the days remaining for registration, so that many were forced to stay against their will, until they took courage. And this is thought to have been fine statesmanship on the part of Archinus, and so too was his later act of indicting Thrasybulus's decree as unconstitutional, in which Thrasybulus proposed to grant citizenship to all who had come back together from Piraeus, some of whom were plainly slaves. And a third act, when someone—
54| among those who had come back began to bear a grudge, he had this man led 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 their oaths; for if they let this man go, they would be encouraging the rest as well, but if they put him to death, they would make him an example for everyone. And that is exactly what happened: for once he was put to death, no one ever afterward bore a grudge against anyone. Instead, they seem, both privately and in common, to have handled the misfortunes that had befallen them in the finest and most statesmanlike way of anyone: for they not only wiped out the charges arising from earlier events, but also repaid the Lacedaemonians in common the money that the Thirty had borrowed for the war, even though the agreement required each side—those from the city and those from Piraeus—to repay separately, since they believed this ought to be the first step toward concord. In the other cities, by contrast, those who have won a democratic victory not only fail to contribute further from their own property but actually [redistribute] the land. They also came to a settlement with those who had settled at Eleusis, in the third year after the move out, in the archonship of [Xenainetos].
55| [paragraph 41] XLI. Now these events took place at a [later] time; but at that point the people, having become masters of affairs, established the constitution now in force, in the archonship of Pythodorus, and the people are thought to have taken over the [constitution] justly, because the people themselves brought about the return. This was the eleventh in number of the changes. For the first change was the one made at the very beginning, by Ion and those who settled together with him; for then, for the first time, they were organized into the four tribes and set up the tribe-kings. The second, and the first after [this] one to have the form of a constitution, was the one under Theseus, deviating slightly from monarchy. After this came the one under Draco, in which they also wrote down laws for the first time. The third, after the civil strife, was the one under Solon, from which the beginning of democracy came about. The fourth was the tyranny under Peisistratus. The fifth, after the overthrow of the tyrants, was that of Cleisthenes, more democratic than Solon's. The sixth was the one after—
56| the Persian Wars, when the Council of the Areopagus was in charge. The seventh, coming after this, was the one that Aristeides pointed the way toward and Ephialtes brought to completion, by putting down the Areopagite council; in this period the city, because of the demagogues, made a great many mistakes on account of its rule of the sea. The eighth was the establishment of the Four Hundred, and after this, the ninth, democracy again. The tenth was the tyranny of the Thirty and of the Ten. The eleventh was the one after the return from Phyle and from Piraeus, from which it has continued down to the present day, always adding further to the power of the mass of people. For the people has made itself master of everything, and everything is administered by decrees and by lawcourts, in which the people is the ruling power. Indeed even the judgments of the Council have come before the people. And this they seem to do rightly: for the few are more easily corrupted by gain and by favors than the many are. At first they refused to make the assembly a paid body; but since people were not gathering for the assembly, and the presiding officers were resorting to many contrivances to get the mass of people to come for the ratification of the vote by show of hands, first Agyrrhius provided one obol, then after him Heracleides of Clazomenae, nicknamed 'the King,' provided two obols, and again Agyrrhius provided three obols.
57| [paragraph 42] XLII. The present arrangement of the constitution is as follows. Those share in the constitution who are born of parents both of whom are citizens, and they are enrolled among the members of their deme 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 required by law—and if they do not seem to have reached it, they go back again among the boys—and second, whether the person is free and has been born in accordance with the laws.
58| Then, if they vote that he is not free, he may appeal to the lawcourt, and the demesmen choose five [men] from among themselves as accusers; and if it is judged that he was not rightfully enrolled, the city sells him; but if he wins, the demesmen are compelled to enroll him. After this the Council [examines] those who have been enrolled, and if anyone [seems] to be younger than eighteen years, it fines the demesmen who enrolled him. Once the ephebes have been examined and approved, [the] fathers assemble by tribes and, having sworn an oath, choose three men from the tribesmen over forty years of age, whomever they judge to be best and most suited to have charge of the ephebes; and from these the people elects [by] show of hands one man from each tribe as sophronist (disciplinarian), and a supervisor over all of them chosen from the rest of the Athenians. These men take the ephebes in charge: first they make the rounds of the sanctuaries, then they proceed to Piraeus, and some of them garrison Munichia and others the Acte. The people also [elects] for them two trainers in gymnastics, and instructors who teach them to fight in heavy armor, to shoot the bow, to throw the javelin, and to fire a catapult. It also grants for their [maintenance] one drachma each to the sophronists, and four obols each to the ephebes; and each sophronist, receiving the money of his own tribesmen, buys the provisions for all of them in common (for they mess together by tribes), and looks after everything else as well. And in this way they spend the first year. In the second, after an assembly has been held in the theater, they give a public demonstration to the people—
59| As to their formations — having received a shield and spear from the city — they patrol the countryside and spend their time in the guard-posts. They keep guard for the two years, wearing military cloaks, and are exempt from all [public burdens]; they neither bring a law[suit] nor face one, so that there may be no [pretext] for leaving their post, except concerning an inheritance or an heiress, or if a [priesthood] falls to someone by descent. When the two years have [elapsed], they are now enrolled with the rest. [paragraph 43] XLIII. This, then, is how matters stand concerning the registration of citizens and the ephebes. As for the offices concerned with the ordinary administration, they make all of them appointed by lot, except for the treasurer of military funds, the officials in charge of the festival 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 chosen by lot, five hundred in number, fifty from each tribe. Each of the tribes holds the presidency in turn, in whatever order they draw by lot, the first four
60| for thirty-six days each, and the latter six for thirty-five days each; for they reckon [the] year by the moon. Those of them holding the presidency, first of all, dine together in the Tholos, receiving money from [the] city; then they convene both the council and the assembly — the council on every day, except when one is a day of exemption, and the assembly four times in each presidency. And whatever business the council must transact, and what is to be dealt with on each day, and where it is to sit, these men post up in advance. They also post up notice of assemblies: one is the sovereign assembly, at which they must vote by show of hands on whether the officials seem to be ruling well, and must deal with the grain supply and with the guarding of the countryside, and on this day anyone who wishes may lodge impeachments,
61| and the lists of confiscated property are read out, and the claims to inheritances and to heiresses are [read out], so that nothing left without an heir may escape notice. In the sixth presidency, in addition to the matters mentioned, they also put to a vote whether it seems best to hold an ostracism or not, and impeachments of sycophants, of Athenians and of resident [aliens] alike, up to three of each, and cases where someone has made a promise to the people and not carried it out. Another assembly is set aside for petitions of supplication, at which anyone who wishes, having laid down a suppliant's [branch], may address the people about whatever he wishes, whether private or public business. The remaining two assemblies are concerned with other matters, at which the laws direct them to deal with religious business three times, with heralds and embassies three times, and with secular business three times; and sometimes they transact business even without a preliminary vote having been taken. Both heralds and envoys approach the presiding officials first, and those bringing letters deliver them to these same men. [paragraph 44] XLIV. There is one president of the presiding officials, chosen by lot; this man
62| presides over that office for a single night and day; no one may serve in it again, nor may one person keep the post any longer than that. This man keeps the keys of the sanctuaries in which the city's money and records are kept, and the public seal; and it is compulsory for him to remain in the Tholos, and likewise for a third part of the presiding officials, whichever he directs. And whenever the presiding officials convene the council or the assembly, this man chooses by lot nine chairmen, one from each tribe except the one holding the presidency, and again from these one president, and hands over the [agenda] to them; and having received it, they take care of good order, put forward the matters that must be dealt with, judge the votes by show of hands, and administer everything else, and have authority to dismiss [the assembly]; but it is not permitted to hold the presidency more than once in the year, though it is permitted to hold the chairmanship once in each presidency. They also hold the elections of generals, cavalry commanders, and the other offices concerned with war, in the assembly, in whatever manner seems best to the people; these are held by those presiding after the sixth presidency, in the period during which a favorable omen occurs. But a preliminary resolution of the council must be passed concerning these matters as well.
63| [paragraph 45] XLV. The council formerly had authority to fine, to imprison, and to put to death. And when it had led Lysimachus away to the executioner, and he was already sitting there about to be put to death, Eumelides of Alopeke rescued him,
64| declaring that no citizen ought to be put to death without a judgment of a court; and when a trial was held in court, Lysimachus was acquitted and got the nickname "the man from the drum," while the people took away from the council the power to put to death, to imprison, and to fine, and passed a law that if the council condemned anyone of [wrongdoing] or fined him, the thesmothetae should bring the condemnations and fines before the court, and whatever the jurors voted should be authoritative. The council judges most of the officials, and especially those who handle money; but its judgment is not final, but subject to appeal to the court. Private individuals are permitted to impeach any official they wish for not observing the laws; and these too have the right of appeal to the court if the council condemns them. It also scrutinizes the councillors who are to serve in the following year, and the nine archons. Formerly its rejection was final, but now these too have the right of appeal to the court. In these matters, then, the council has no final authority; but it deliberates in advance for the people, and nothing may be put to the people that has not first been deliberated on, nor anything that the presiding officials have not posted up in advance; for on precisely these grounds, the man who carries such a motion is liable to the indictment for proposing an illegal measure.
65| [paragraph 46] XLVI. It also takes care of the triremes already built, and of their gear, and of the shipsheds, and has new triremes or quadriremes built, if the people so vote by show of hands, along with [gear] for them and shipsheds; the people elect shipwrights by show of hands to oversee the ships. And if they do not hand these over completed to the incoming council, they cannot receive their reward; for they receive it under the following council instead. It has the triremes built by choosing ten trireme-builders from among its own members. It also inspects all the public buildings, and if anyone seems to it to be doing wrong, it reports him to the people, and once it has passed condemnation, hands him over to a court. [paragraph 47] XLVII. It also shares in the administration of most of the other offices. For in the first place, the treasurers of Athena are ten in number, and one is chosen by lot from
66| ...the tribe, from the men of the five-hundred-bushel class in accordance with Solon's law [for the law is] still in force, and the man on whom the lot falls may be very poor. They take over the statue of Athena, the Victories [statues], and the rest of the ornaments and the [treasures], in front of the Council. Then the sellers (poletai) are ten in number, one allotted from each tribe. They lease out all the leases, and they sell the mines and the tax-contracts together with the treasurer of the military fund and those chosen for the theoric fund, in front of the [Council], and they ratify the award to whomever the Council votes for by show of hands; and the mines already sold — both the workable ones sold for three years, and the mines already sold, both the workable ones sold for three years — and the conceded ones sold for [so many] years. And they sell the property of those exiled by sentence of the Areopagus and of others, in front of [the] Council, and the nine archons ratify [the sale]. And having registered the taxes sold for the year on whitened tablets, both the buyer and [however much] he bought it for, they hand them over to the Council. They register separately those who must pay in [each] prytany into 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 prytany. They also register the plots of land and the houses that have been [registered as confiscated] and sold in the court; for indeed
67| these men sell these too. Of the houses, [the price must] be paid within [five] years, of the plots of land within ten; they make these payments in the ninth prytany. And the [King] Archon also brings in the leases of the sacred precincts, having registered them on whitened [tablets]. Of these too the lease runs for ten years, and payment is made in the [ninth] prytany; and the greatest amount of money is collected in [that] prytany. So the tablets recording the payments, [now] registered, are brought into the Council, and the public slave keeps them; and whenever a payment of money is due, he hands these very tablets over to the receivers, having taken them down from the racks on which the money must be paid and [must be] cancelled that day, and set the rest aside separately so that nothing may be cancelled [before its time].
68| [paragraph 48] XLVIII. There are ten [receivers] (apodektai), allotted [by tribes]; these take the tablets and cancel the payments made, in front of the [Council] in the council-house, and hand the tablets back again to [the] public slave. And if anyone falls short in a payment, it is recorded there, and he must pay double the amount in default or be [imprisoned], and the Council has authority [to exact] this and to imprison, according to the laws. So on the day before they receive all the payments and apportion them to the magistracies, and on the next day they bring [in] the apportionment, having written it on a board, and read it out in the council-house, and post it [up] before the Council, asking if anyone knows of anyone [doing wrong] regarding the apportionment, magistrate or private citizen, and they put opinions to the vote if anyone seems [to be doing wrong]. The councillors also choose by lot ten auditors from among themselves, to audit —
69| — the accounts of the [magistrates] in each prytany. They also choose by lot one [examiner] (euthynos) [from each] tribe, and two assessors for each examiner, [whose duty it] is to sit... by the statue of the hero for whom each tribe is named. And if anyone wishes, within three [days from] the day on which a man rendered his accounts in court, to lodge either a private or a [public] charge against him, he writes on a whitened [tablet], [both] his own name and that of the defendant and the wrongdoing he charges, and having [added] an assessed penalty as seems fit to him, gives it to the examiner. The examiner, taking this and [reading] it, if he condemns the man, hands over the private charges to the jurors [drawn from the demes] who bring cases for that tribe, and registers the public charges [to] the thesmothetai. The thesmothetai, if they take up [this audit-charge], bring it again into the court, and whatever the jurors [decide, this] is authoritative. [paragraph 49] XLIX. The Council also examines the cavalry horses, and if a man with a fine
70| horse seems to [be keeping] it [badly], it fines him in fodder; and for those unable to keep up with the ranks, or unwilling to remain in service but leading their horses away instead, it applies a branding-wheel to the [jaw], and the man who suffers this is disqualified. It also examines the scouts (prodromoi), [whoever seem] to it fit to serve as scouts, and if it votes against anyone, that man is dismissed. It also examines the mounted javelin-men (hamippoi), and if it votes against anyone, that man ceases to draw pay. The cavalry are enrolled by the enrolling officers, ten men whom the people elect by show of hands; and whomever they enroll they hand over to the cavalry-commanders and the tribal cavalry-officers, who take the roll and bring it into the Council, and opening the tablet on which the cavalrymen's names are recorded under seal, they strike off those of the previously enrolled who swear that they are physically unable to serve as cavalry, and summon those newly enrolled; and if a man swears that he is unable to serve as cavalry either in body or in property, they release him, but the councillors vote by show of hands on the man who does not swear off, whether he is fit to serve as cavalry or not; if they vote for him, they enroll him on the tablet, and if not, they release him. The Council once also used to judge the designs and the robe, but now the court chosen by lot does so; for the Council was thought to be showing favor in its judgments. And together with the treasurer of the military fund it oversees the making of the Victory-statues and the prizes for the Panathenaic games. The Council also examines the disabled; for there is a law which orders that men who possess less than three minas and are so maimed in body that they
71| are unable to do any work be examined by the Council, and be given public maintenance of two obols a day each. And a treasurer is allotted for them. It also jointly administers, one might say, most of the business of the other offices as well. [paragraph 50] L. These, then, are the matters administered by the Council. There are also allotted repairers of the sacred buildings, ten men, who receive thirty minas from the receivers and repair whichever of the sacred buildings most need it; and ten city-commissioners (astynomoi): of these five hold office in Piraeus and five in the city, and they see to it that flute-girls, harp-girls, and lyre-girls are not hired out for more than two drachmas, and if several people are eager to hire the same girl, these officials cast lots among them and hire her out to the winner. They also take care that none of the dung-collectors dumps dung within ten stades of the wall; and they prevent people from building out into the streets, from stretching balconies over the streets, from making drainpipes that discharge into the street, and from opening windows that swing out over the street; and they remove the bodies of those who die in the streets, keeping public slaves for this purpose. [paragraph 51] LI. There are also allotted market-commissioners (agoranomoi), five for Piraeus and five for the city. These are charged by the laws with overseeing all goods offered for sale, so that they will be sold pure and unadulterated. There are also allotted measure-commissioners (metronomoi), five for the city and five for
72| Piraeus; these oversee all measures and weights, so that sellers will use fair ones. There were also grain-guardians (sitophylakes) allotted, [ten] in all, five for Piraeus and five for the city, but now twenty for the city and fifteen for Piraeus. These see to it, first, that the unprocessed grain in the market is sold at a fair price, and next, that the millers sell barley-meal in proportion to the price of barley, and the bread-sellers sell their loaves in proportion to the price of wheat, at the weight these officials fix; for the law orders them to fix it. They also allot ten [overseers] of the trading-port (emporion); these are charged with overseeing the harbor markets, and with compelling the merchants to bring two-thirds of the grain that arrives by sea at the grain-market into the city itself. [paragraph 52] LII. They also appoint the Eleven by lot, to have charge of those in the prison, and of thieves brought in under arrest, and of kidnappers —
73| ...kidnappers and cloak-snatchers: if they [confess], to punish them with death; but if they dispute it, to bring them into [court], and if they are acquitted, to release them, but if not, then to put them to death; and to bring into court the lands and houses that have been registered, and to hand over to the sellers whatever is adjudged to be [public] property, and to bring in the denunciations — for the Eleven bring these in as well. Some of the denunciations are also brought in by the thesmothetai. They also allot by lot five men as introducers, who bring in the monthly suits, two tribes to each man. The monthly suits are these: dowry suits, if a man owing a dowry does not pay it; suits if a man who has borrowed at drachma-interest defrauds the lender; suits if a man wishing to work in the marketplace has borrowed capital from someone; and further, suits for assault and
74| marriage suits, and accusations, taking these over, and had full authority to punish with death those who confessed to the wrongdoing, while keeping under guard in the prison, until judgment, those who disputed it. Some of those condemned they put to death with poison, while others they handed over to the public executioner to kill. They also brought into court the lands or houses that had been registered, and handed over to the sellers whatever was adjudged to be public property, to exact payment. — Here the papyrus text is accompanied by parallel testimony from later lexicographers. Etymologicum Genuinum [from Photius], from which also Symeon and the Etymologicum Magnum 338.31 (= Lexicon Sabbaiticum 19.22 = Lexicon Vindobonense 88), s.v. 'the Eleven': these were magistrates chosen by lot who presided over the prison; they took charge of the wrongdoers being led away to death and punished them, but brought those who disputed the charge into court and carried out whatever was decided about them. They also brought in the lands and houses that were registered, and handed over to the sellers whatever was adjudged to be public property; they also brought in some of the denunciations. (Rhetorical Lexicon.) Bekker's Anecdota, the fifth collection (BA 310.15): 'The Eleven kill those who confess to being thieves, cloak-snatchers, and kidnappers, but bring into court those who deny it.' The same gloss is found in Photius 11 and Suda 1, s.v. 'presidency of the court': not all the magistrates were permitted to bring every kind of suit against everyone, but... to the Eleven were assigned as many suits as concern bringing in pirates, cloak-snatchers, and kidnappers.
75| Photius, p. 49.12 (Porson): 'Concerning the Eleven. Eleven men over forty years of age received this office by lot. They took charge of those in the prison. Thieves, cloak-snatchers, and kidnappers, if they caught them in the act, they punished with death; but if the men disputed the charge, they brought them to trial.' Suda: 'The Eleven: an office at Athens that took charge of those [condemned] in the prison, to whom thieves and kidnappers were led away.' Scholiast on Aristophanes, Wasps 1108 (manuscripts V and R): 'The office of the Eleven punished with death those who confessed to being thieves and kidnappers and cloak-snatchers, but brought those who denied it into court. They also brought in the denunciations.' Scholiast on Lucian, vol. IV p. 170 (Jacobitz): 'The Eleven were magistrates among the Athenians who took charge of those in the prison, and those led away [as] thieves or kidnappers or cloak-snatchers they punished with death; but if they disputed the charge, they brought them into court and did whatever was decided about them. And if anyone else was condemned to death, the Eleven took charge of him.' Bekker's Anecdota, the fifth collection, s.v. 'the Eleven' (BA 250.11): '...of the denunciations, some they brought into court themselves, the Eleven, and the thesmothetai brought others.'
76| Lexicon Sabbaiticum 19.19: '...of the denunciations, some were brought into court by the Eleven, others by the thesmothetai.' Lexicon Patmense p. 16: 'of the denunciations, some the Eleven brought in, others the thesmothetai.' — Suits arising from mutual-loan clubs and from partnerships, suits about slaves and pack animals, trierarchic suits, and banking suits: these men, then, judge these as monthly suits, bringing them [in]; and the receivers deal with the tax-farmers, and against the tax-farmers, having full [authority] up to ten drachmas, but bringing the rest into court as monthly suits. [paragraph 53] LIII. They also allot by lot the Forty, one from each tribe, to whom people bring their other lawsuits. [Formerly] these were thirty, and they went about through the demes and gave judgment there, but after the [oligarchy] of the Thirty they became forty. And for suits up to ten drachmas they have full and final authority to [judge], but suits above that valuation they hand over to the arbitrators. And these, once they have taken the cases over, [if] they cannot reconcile the parties,
77| give their judgment; and if both parties are satisfied with what has been decided and abide by it, the case is finished. But if either of the disputants appeals to the court, they place the testimonies and the challenges and the laws into boxes — separately those of the prosecutor and separately those of the defendant — and having sealed these, and attached the arbitrator's judgment written on a tablet, they hand them over to the [four] men who judge cases for the tribe of the defendant. And these, once they have taken the cases over, bring them into court: cases involving up to a thousand drachmas before a panel of two hundred and one jurors, and cases above a thousand before four hundred and one. And it is not permitted to make use of laws or challenges or testimonies other than those from the arbitrator that were placed in the boxes. The arbitrators are those men who are in their sixtieth year; this is evident from the archons and the eponymous heroes. For there are ten eponymous heroes of the tribes, and forty-two
78| of the age-classes. The ephebes, when they were enrolled, were formerly registered on whitened tablets, and there was inscribed on them both the archon under whom they were enrolled and the eponymous hero who had served as arbitrator the year before; but now they are inscribed on a bronze stele, and the stele stands in front of the council-house beside the eponymous heroes. The Forty take the last of the eponymous heroes and distribute the arbitrations among the men of that age-class, and assign by lot which cases each man will arbitrate, and it is compulsory for each man to carry through to the end whatever arbitrations he is allotted. For the law commands that anyone who does not become an arbitrator when it is the proper age for him be disenfranchised — unless he happens to be holding [some] office in that year, or to be abroad; these alone are exempt. It is also possible to bring a formal charge against the arbitrators, if someone has been wronged by an arbitrator, and if the jurors convict him on it, the laws order that he be disenfranchised; there is a right of appeal in these cases too. They also make use of the eponymous heroes for military levies: when they send out an age-class for service, they post up in advance from which archon and [eponymous] hero to which ones men must serve. [paragraph 54] LIV. They also allot by lot the following offices: five road-builders, whose duty, with public workmen at their disposal, is to keep the roads in repair. And ten auditors, and ten advocates for them, to whom everyone who has
79| held office is required to render account. For these men alone examine the accounts of those liable to audit and bring the audits into court. And if they convict someone of embezzlement, the jurors condemn him for theft, and the amount assessed is repaid tenfold; and if they show that someone has taken bribes and the jurors convict him, they assess a penalty for bribery, and this too is repaid tenfold; but if they convict him of wrongdoing, they assess a penalty for wrongdoing, and this is repaid at its simple value if the man pays before the ninth prytany, but if not, it is doubled. [The remaining words here duplicate the same statement and are corrupt.] They also allot by lot the secretary called 'the one for the prytany,' who has charge of the documents and keeps the decrees that are passed, and countersigns everything else, and sits beside the council. Formerly this office was filled by a show of hands, and they used to [elect] to it the most distinguished and trustworthy men — for indeed this man's name is inscribed on the stelae recording alliances, grants of [proxenia], and grants of citizenship; but now it has become an office filled by lot. They also allot by lot another man in charge of the laws, who sits beside the council, and he too countersigns
80| ...all of them. The people also elect by show of hands a secretary to read [documents] to them and to [the] Council, and he has authority over [nothing] except the reading of them. They also select by lot ten sacrificial officials, called those in charge of extra offerings, [who] perform the oracularly prescribed sacrifices, and, whenever a favorable sign is needed, [do so] together with the seers. They also select by lot another [ten], called the annual officials, who perform certain sacrifices and administer all the four-yearly festivals except [the] Panathenaea. The four-yearly festivals [are] as follows: one to Delos (there is also a seven-yearly festival there), a second the Brauronia, a third the [Heraclea], a fourth the Eleusinia, and a fifth the Panathenaea; and none of them falls [in] the same [year]. Now the Hephaestia has also been added, under the archonship of [Cephisophon]. They also select by lot an archon for Salamis and a demarch for [Piraeus], [who] hold the Dionysia in each place and appoint choregoi. In Salamis the archon's name is also officially recorded. [paragraph 55] LV. These, then, are the officials who are chosen by lot and have authority over everything [just] mentioned. As for the so-called nine archons, the manner in which they were originally appointed has been [already] stated;
81| but now they select by lot six thesmothetae and a secretary for them, and further an archon, a king, and a polemarch, one in turn from [each] tribe. These are first examined [for fitness] in the Council of [Five Hundred], except the secretary, who is examined only in a lawcourt, like the other officials (for all of them, both those chosen by lot and those examined, hold office [only after passing]); but the nine archons are examined [both] in the Council and again in a lawcourt. And formerly a man rejected by the Council did not hold office, but now there is [an] appeal to the lawcourt, and it is this that has final authority over the examination. When they examine a man, they ask 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?" Then, whether he has an ancestral Apollo and a household Zeus, and where these shrines are; then whether he has family tombs and where; then whether he treats his parents well, pays [his] taxes, and has served in the military campaigns. "Summon," says [the examiner], "the witnesses to these things." When he has produced his witnesses, [the examiner] asks, "Does anyone wish to bring a charge against this man?" And if there is an accuser, he allows the accusation and the defense, and then puts it to a vote by show of hands in the Council, and to a ballot in the lawcourt; but if no one wishes to accuse him, he puts it to the vote at once. And formerly [one] man alone cast the ballot, but now all are required to vote on it, so that if some worthless man has gotten rid of his accusers, it still falls to the jurors to reject him. When a man has been approved in this manner, they go to the stone on which the sacrificial portions lie, the same stone on which the arbitrators, after swearing, declare
82| their verdicts, and the witnesses swear off their testimony; and mounting upon it, they swear to rule justly and according to the laws, and not to take gifts on account of their office, and, if they do take anything, to dedicate a golden statue. From there, having sworn this oath, they go up to the Acropolis and there swear the same oaths again, and after this they enter upon their office.
83| [paragraph 56] LVI. The archon, the king, and the polemarch each take two assessors, whomever [each] wishes, and these are examined in the lawcourt before they may serve as assessors, and they render an account [of their conduct] after they have served. And the archon, as soon as he enters office, first proclaims that whatever anyone possessed before he entered office, that man shall keep and hold securely until the end of his term. Next he appoints choregoi for tragedy, three from all the Athenians, the wealthiest men; formerly he also appointed [five] for comedy, but now the tribes bring these forward [instead]. Then, taking over the choregoi put forward by the tribes for the Dionysia, for men, for boys, and for the comic choruses, and for the Thargelia, for men and for boys (for the Dionysia [one is furnished] by each tribe, for the Thargelia one by [two] tribes jointly, the tribes taking their turn in this), he arranges for these men the exchanges of property and introduces the pleas of exemption, [in case] someone claims to have already performed this liturgy, or [claims] to be exempt because he has performed another liturgy and the period of his exemption has not yet run out, or [claims] that he has not reached the required age; for the man who serves as choregos for the boys must be over [forty] years old. He also appoints choregoi for [the mission to] Delos, and a chief [sacred] envoy for the thirty-oared [ship] that conveys the young men. He also takes care of the processions, [both] that held for Asclepius, when the initiates keep to their houses, and that of the Great Dionysia, together with the superintendents, whom the people formerly elected by show of hands, ten [in number], and
84| who used to spend on the expenses of the procession out of their own funds, but now he chooses [one] man from each tribe by lot and gives a hundred minae for the preparations. He also takes care of [the] procession for the Thargelia and that for Zeus the Savior. He likewise administers the contest at the Dionysia and that at the Thargelia. These, then, are the festivals [he] takes care of. Public and private suits are brought before him, which, after conducting a preliminary hearing, he introduces into the lawcourt: suits for maltreatment of parents (these carry no penalty for the man [willing] to prosecute), suits for maltreatment of orphans (these lie against the [guardians]), suits for maltreatment of an heiress (these lie [both] against the guardians and against those cohabiting with her), suits for maltreatment of an orphan's estate (these too lie against the [guardians]), suits of insanity, if someone charges another with being insane and thereby [wasting his substance], suits for the appointment of arbitrators [to divide] an estate, if someone is unwilling to share [property] held in common, suits for the establishment of a [guardianship], suits for adjudication of a guardianship, suits for the appointment of a guardian over visible property, [suits] for a man to register himself as guardian, [and suits] for adjudication of claims to estates and heiresses. He also takes care of orphans and heiresses and of [any] women who, after the death of their [husband], claim to be pregnant; and he has authority either to penalize wrongdoers himself [or] to bring them before the lawcourt. He also leases out the estates of orphans and of [heiresses], until [the girl] turns fourteen, and receives the [security] deposits for these estates; and if the [guardians] fail to provide the children with maintenance, [he] exacts it from them.
85| [paragraph 57] LVII. The archon, then, takes care of these matters. The king, first of all, takes care of the Mysteries, together with the superintendents whom the people elect by show of hands, two from all the Athenians, one from the Eumolpidae, and one from [the] Kerykes. Next he takes care of the Dionysia at [the] Lenaeum; this consists of [both] a procession and a contest. The procession is conducted jointly by the king and the superintendents, but the king arranges the contest [itself]. He also arranges all the torch-race contests; and, one might almost say, he administers all the ancestral sacrifices. Public suits for impiety are brought before him, as well as any dispute over a priesthood between two claimants. He also adjudicates for the clans and for the priests all the disputes concerning sacred matters. All suits for homicide are likewise brought before him, and it is he who proclaims the exclusion of the accused from the customary rites. There are suits for homicide and for wounding: if a man kills or wounds with premeditation, [the case is tried] in the Areopagus, and likewise cases of poisoning, if a man kills by administering poison, and cases of arson; for these alone the Council of the Areopagus judges. But cases of unintentional homicide, and of [merely] planning a killing, and if a man kills a slave, or...
86| ...for a metic or a foreigner, the case goes to the judges at the Palladion. But if someone admits to killing, yet claims he acted according to the laws — for example, having caught an adulterer, or having killed someone unknowingly in war, or while competing in an athletic contest — for [this man] they judge the case at the Delphinion. And if a man in exile for an offense that admits of pardon is charged with killing or wounding someone [again], for him they judge the case at Phreatto, and he makes his defense from a boat moored offshore. Those chosen by lot judge these cases — [the ephetai] — except for the cases that come before the Areopagus; the king brings the case in, and they judge [in the open], in a sacred precinct and under the sky, and the king, whenever he judges, takes off his crown. The man under the charge is barred from the sacred places for the rest of the time, and by [law] he may not even set foot in the agora; but on that one occasion he goes into the sacred precinct and makes his defense. And when the plaintiff does not know who did it, he brings suit against 'the one who did the deed.' The king and the tribe-kings also judge cases involving inanimate objects and the other animals. [paragraph 58] LVIII. The polemarch offers sacrifices, one to Artemis the Huntress and one to Enyalius, and arranges the funeral games [for] those who have died in war, and performs rites for Harmodius and Aristogeiton. Only private suits are brought before him — those that arise for resident aliens, for those with equal tax status, and for privileged foreigners. He must take the case, divide it into ten parts, assign to each tribe the portion that falls to it by lot, and the men who judge for that tribe must hand it over to the arbitrators. He himself
87| ...whenever something inanimate falls and kills someone — that is, if it is a stone, a piece of wood, iron, or something of that sort — and the court does not know who threw it, but knows and holds the object that did the killing. Editorial note (from the Epitome): 'At the Prytaneion' names a homicide court, for cases where the weapon that killed — a missile or a stone or the like — is known, but the one who wielded it is not. For it was an ancient custom to try inanimate objects too, to decide whether they should be cast out beyond the borders. (Excerpted by the Suda, and from the Etymologicum Genuinum [from Photius], from which Symeon and the Etymologicum Magnum, 362.55, also drew.) Bekker's Anecdota, fifth collection (BA 311.15): 'At the Prytaneion': when a stone, iron, or wood is shown to be the cause, but the one who did it is unknown (Lexicon Patmense 138.75). Compare Pollux 8.120: the court 'at the Prytaneion' judges cases of killers even when they are unknown, and it also judges cases of inanimate objects that have fallen and killed; the tribe-kings presided over this court, whose duty it was to cast the offending object beyond the borders. All of this is hardly drawn from Aristotle himself. He — the polemarch — also brings in suits concerning the charge of [desertion of one's patron] and of [having no registered patron], and suits over inheritances and heiresses, on behalf of resident aliens; and all the other cases that the archon handles for citizens, the polemarch handles for resident aliens.
88| [paragraph 59] LIX. The thesmothetai, first of all, have authority to post in advance which days the courts are to sit, and then to assign the courts to the magistrates; for the magistrates use the courts in whatever way [these men] arrange. Further, they bring impeachments before the people, and they bring in all the depositions-from-office by show of hands and all the formal complaints; and they also bring in indictments for proposing illegal measures, for proposing an unfitting law, indictments concerning the presidency and the chairmanship, and audits of generals. There are also indictments brought before them for which a deposit is required: for illegal claim to citizenship, for corrupt naturalization — if someone escapes a charge of foreign birth by giving bribes — for malicious prosecution, for bribery, for false registration, for false summoning of witnesses, for conspiracy, for evasion of registration, and for adultery. They also bring in the scrutinies for all the magistrates, and the cases of men rejected by their demesmen, and condemnations referred down from the Council. They also bring in private suits: commercial suits, mining suits, and slave suits, when someone speaks abusively of a free man. They also allot to the magistrates the private and the public juries. They ratify the treaties made with other cities, and bring in the suits arising under those treaties, and cases of false witness referred from the Areopagus. All nine archons allot the jurors, and a tenth, the secretary of the thesmothetai, each allotting the jurors of his own tribe.
89| [paragraph 60] LX. This, then, is how matters stand with the nine archons. They also allot ten men as athlothetai, one from each tribe. These men, once scrutinized, hold office for four years, and administer the procession of the Panathenaea, the musical contest, the athletic contest, and the horse race; they have the robe made, and, together with the Council, have the amphorae made, and they distribute the olive oil to the athletes. The oil is collected from the sacred olive trees; the archon exacts it from those who own the properties on which the sacred trees stand, three half-cotylai from each trunk. Formerly the city sold the produce outright; and if [someone] dug up a sacred olive or cut it down, the Council of the Areopagus tried the case, and if it convicted him, they punished him with [death]. But from the time when the man who owns the property instead pays over the oil, the law still stands, but the trial has fallen out of use. And [the oil] belongs to the city as a product of the property, not of the trunks themselves. So the archon, once he has collected what falls due in [his own] term, hands it over to the treasurers, and he cannot go up to the [Areopagus] until he has handed it over to the treasurers. The treasurers keep it on the acropolis for the rest of the time, and at the Panathenaea they measure it out to the athlothetai, and the athlothetai to the winning competitors. For the prizes are: for the winners in music, silver and gold; for the winners in manly beauty, shields; for the winners in the athletic contest and the horse race, olive oil.
90| [paragraph 61] LXI. They also elect by show of hands all the offices concerned with war: ten generals — formerly one from each tribe, now from the whole body — and they assign these by vote: one over the hoplites, who leads the hoplites whenever they go out on campaign; one over the territory, who guards it, and if a war breaks out within the territory, this man wages it; two over the Piraeus, one for Munichia and one for Acte, who take care of the garrison [and] of affairs in the Piraeus; and one over the symmories, who enrolls the trierarchs, arranges exchanges of property for them, and brings in their adjudications; the rest they send out to whatever business is at hand. There is a vote of confirmation on them at each prytany, to decide whether they seem to be governing well; and if they vote someone out of office, he is tried in court, and if he is convicted, they assess what he must suffer or pay, but if he is acquitted, he holds office [again]. They also have authority
91| when they are in command, to bind a man who is disorderly, to have him [proclaimed] by herald, and to impose a fine — though they are not accustomed to impose one. They also elect ten taxiarchs, [one from each tribe]; each of these leads the men of his tribe and appoints company commanders. They also elect two cavalry commanders from the whole body; these lead the cavalry, [dividing] the tribes between the two of them, each taking half, and they have the same authority over the cavalry that the generals have over the hoplites. There is a vote of confirmation on these men too. They also elect one phylarch for each tribe, to lead the cavalry of that tribe, just as the taxiarchs lead the tribes' infantry. They also elect a hipparch for Lemnos, who has charge of the cavalry stationed on Lemnos. And they elect a treasurer for the Paralus, and separately one for [the ship] Ammon.
92| [paragraph 62] The offices filled by lot were, in former times, partly allotted from the whole tribe together with the nine archons, and partly allotted at the Theseum and then divided out among the demes; but since the demes had taken to selling these positions, the city now allots these too from the whole tribe, except for members of the Council and for the guards [ten are added to these], whom they hand over to the demes instead. Pay is provided as follows: first, the people receive a drachma for the ordinary assemblies, and nine drachmas for the sovereign assembly. Next, the courts: three obols. The Council: five obols; and to those serving as prytaneis an obol is added for their maintenance. Next, for their maintenance the nine archons each receive four obols and also keep a herald and a flute-player at the state's expense; next, the archon sent to Salamis receives a drachma a day. The organizers of the games dine in the Prytaneum throughout the month of Hecat[om]baeon, whenever the Panathenaea is held, beginning from the fourth day of the month. The delegates sent to Delos receive a drachma for each day spent [there] on Delos. And whatever officials are sent out to Samos or Scyros or Lemnos or Imbros also receive money for their maintenance. One may hold the offices concerned with war more than once, but none of the others more than once, except that one may serve on the Council twice. [paragraph 63] The magistrates allot the [sessions] by tribes,
93| and the secretary of the thesmothetae allots [for the tenth tribe]. There are [ten] entrances into the 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 the tickets of the jurors who have been allotted are thrown, and [two] water-jars. Staves are set out at each entrance, as many as there are jurors [assigned to it], and tokens are thrown into the water-jar equal in number to the staves; and on the tokens are inscribed the letters of the alphabet starting from the eleventh, [up to the thirtieth], as many as the courts that are due to be filled [that day]. Anyone over [thirty] years of age may serve as a juror, provided he does not owe a debt to the treasury and is not disenfranchised. If anyone sits as a juror who is not entitled to, he is denounced and brought before the court; and if he is convicted, the jurors add to his penalty whatever they think he deserves to suffer or to pay. And if he is assessed a fine in money, he must be imprisoned until he pays off both the original debt for which he was denounced and whatever [additional] penalty the court [imposes] on him. Each juror holds his boxwood ticket, inscribed with his own name, his father's name, and his deme, and one letter of the alphabet up to [kappa]; for the jurors are divided by tribes into ten [groups], roughly equal [in number] under each letter. And when the thesmothetes has allotted by lot which letters must be assigned in addition to each of the courts, the attendant [carries] and places on [each] court the letter that has been allotted to it.
94| [paragraph 64] The [ten] boxes [stand] in front of [the] entrance, [one] for each [tribe]; and on [them] are inscribed [the] letters up to [kappa]. And then, when [the] jurors [throw] [their] tickets into [the box]
95| box on which is inscribed [the same] letter as is on [his] own ticket [and once the attendant has shaken it], the thesmothetes draws [one] ticket from each box; this man is called [the] 'inserter,' and he fixes the tickets [from the box] into the frame on which stands the same letter as was on the box. He is chosen [by lot] so that the same man is not always doing the inserting and so committing fraud. There are [five] frames in each of [the] allotment-machines. [When he has] put in [the] dice, [the] archon allots the tribe [by] allotment-machine. The dice are made of bronze, [black and white]; as many as are needed [to make up] the number of jurors required are put in [white], one for every five tickets, and [the] black ones in the same [proportion]. When he draws out [the] dice, the herald calls out [the names] of those who have been allotted; and [the] inserter is included in [the] count. The man who is called and answers draws [a] token from the water-jar, and holding it out [with the letter facing upward], shows it first to [the] presiding archon; and the archon, [when he has seen it], throws the man's ticket into [the] box [on which is inscribed] the same letter as is on [the] token, so that he enters the court to which he has been allotted [and not whichever one he wishes, nor can anyone gather] into one court whichever jurors he wants. And beside [the] archon are placed [as many boxes as]
96| there are courts [due to be filled that day], each bearing [the] number [belonging to] that court. [paragraph 65] He himself, having shown [his token again] to [the] attendant, goes in, [passing within] the barrier. The attendant gives him a staff of [the] same color as [the] court on which [is inscribed the same letter] as [is on] his token, so that he is bound to enter [the court he has been allotted, and if] he enters [a] different [one], he is exposed by [the] color of his staff. [For each court] has [a] color painted [on the door-post at its] entrance. He who has [taken] the staff walks to [the court] whose color matches his staff [and bears] [the] same letter [as was on his token]. And when [he has entered, he receives a public token] from [the] official presiding over that court. Then, keeping both [the token and the staff], they sit down, having entered [this] court; and to those [not allotted], [the] inserters give back their tickets. The public attendants [from each tribe] hand over [the] boxes, [one] to each court, [in which] are [the] names [of that tribe] for each of the courts. They hand [these] over to those allotted [to the task, so that they may] distribute [the tickets] to [the] jurors court by court in order, so that, calling them by [these], they may pay out [the wage]. [And in this way] no [one] is [ever] crowded out [of his rightful place], nor cheated [of what], in [that] court, [is] owed [him], nor [kept waiting] beyond [his] [proper] turn[, as the law requires].
97| [paragraph 66] When all [the] courts are full, [two] allotment-machines are set up in [the] first of the [courts], and bronze [dice] on which are inscribed [the] colors [of the courts], and [other] dice on which are inscribed [the] names [of the offices]. [Two] of the thesmothetae, chosen [by lot], each separately throw in [the] dice, [one] the [colors] into [the] one allotment-[machine], [the] other [the] names of the [offices] into the [other]. Whichever office is drawn first is announced [by] [the] herald as using [the first] court drawn, [the] second office [the] second [court, and likewise for the rest, so] that no magistracy knows [beforehand which court it will use], but [each uses whatever court it happens to draw. And when] [the] jurors have come and [been distributed to each court], [the] official [presiding] over each court draws [one] [ticket] from each box, so that [there are ten], [one] from each [tribe], and throws [these tickets into another, empty box, and] from [these] he chooses by lot [the] first [five drawn], [one] to preside over [the water-clock], [four] others [over the votes], so that no one may tamper beforehand [with the man over the water] nor with [those over the votes], nor [may any] fraud [occur] in these matters. Those [of the five] who are not [chosen] receive from these [officials the notice] showing how they [are to receive their pay], and where [each of the tribes is to sit] within [that] same court, so that, [once they have judged], each group may withdraw [in small numbers] and take [their pay], and not be crowded [together into] one place, [nor delayed], nor getting in each other's way[, nor any dispute arise over precedence].
98| [paragraph 67] Having done [this, they] call in the cases: when they are judging private suits, [the private] cases, eight in number [from each] of the categories of suits established by law, [are called], and the litigants swear an oath [to speak] to the point at issue; but when they judge [the] public suits, [the public] cases, and they try only [one] [such case] in a day. There are water-clocks [with small outlets], into which [the] water is poured, [by which the time] allowed for speaking [in the case is fixed]. [Ten] choes are given to [the] parties in cases involving more than five thousand [drachmas], and [three] choes for [the second] speech; [seven] choes are given for cases up to five thousand [and two] for [the] second speech; and [five] choes are given [in cases below one thousand drachmas — text breaks off]
99| For suits [worth] less than a thousand drachmas [two choes of water are given], and for special-pleading suits [about disputed property] six choes, and after [that] no [further] speech is permitted to [anyone at all]. The man who has been [allotted] to mind the water stops up the [tube] whenever the [clerk] is about [to read] out a decree, a law, a [deposition], or a [contract]; but whenever the contest is one for which [the whole day has been measured] out, then he does [not] stop it, but [equal] water is given [to] both the [accuser] and the one making his [defense]. It is measured out according to the days of the month [Poseideon] . . . [several lines are lost] . . . they use [it] . . . [several words are lost] . . . the [jurors] . . . [several words are lost] . . . into which each [one] . . . [several words are lost] . . . for they were [in a hurry] . . . [several words are lost] . . . to push [the] people out . . . [several words are lost] . . . they [take] water . . . [several words are lost] . . . there are [two kinds], one belonging to those who [prosecute], the other to those who [stand trial]; and in the [cases] . . . [several words are lost] . . . he set aside [for the counting] of votes—
100| [several words are lost] . . . by the count. The day is divided [with regard to] . . . [several words are lost] . . . of contests to which imprisonment, death, exile, [loss of civic rights], or confiscation of property is attached . . . [several words are lost] . . . what must [either] be [paid] or [suffered]. [paragraph 68] LXVIII. Most of the courts sit [as] . . . [several words are lost] . . . but whenever a public indictment must be brought in before a thousand [jurors], two courts join together [into] the Heliaia . . . [several words are lost] . . . into five hundred and a thousand, or even three [courts, joining]. The ballots are [bronze, each] having a tube in [its] middle, [half] of them pierced through, the other half [left solid and] full. Those who have been allotted [to distribute] the ballots, once the [speeches] have been [finished], hand to each of the [jurors] two ballots, one pierced and one solid, [visible] to the [litigants on both sides], so that no one may take either [two] solid ones or [two] pierced ones. Then the man who has been [allotted] to this [task] takes back the [staffs],
101| in [exchange] for which each juror, on [casting] his vote, receives a bronze [token]—for by [handing] back the staff he receives the token—so that all may [vote]; for no one is [permitted] to receive a token [unless] he casts a vote. There are [two] urns set in the [courtroom], one of [bronze], the other of [wood], [kept apart] so that no one may [slip in] extra ballots [unnoticed]; in these the jurors [cast] their votes—the [bronze] one is the [valid] urn, the [wooden] one is [not]—and the bronze one has a lid [pierced through] so that only a [single] ballot can pass through it, to prevent [the] same man from dropping in two. When the jurors are [about] to cast their votes, the herald first [proclaims], in case the litigants wish to raise a [challenge] against the [depositions]; for it is not [permitted] to raise a challenge once the voting has begun. Then he proclaims [again]: "the pierced ballot belongs to the one who spoke [first], the solid one to the one who spoke [second]." And the juror, [taking] both ballots together from the [lamp-stand], pressing the [tube] of [his] ballot shut and [showing] neither litigant the pierced one nor the solid one, casts the valid one into the [bronze] urn, and the invalid one into the [wooden] urn. [paragraph 69] LXIX. When all have [finished] voting, the attendants take the bronze urn, [the valid one], and [pour] it out onto a counting-board that has as many holes in it as there are votes,
102| so that the votes, both the pierced ones and the solid ones, may be [easy] to count and [plainly visible] to the litigants. Those who have been [allotted] to the ballots count them out on the counting-board, [keeping] the solid ones separate and the pierced ones [separate], and the herald [announces] the number of votes, the pierced ones for the [prosecutor], the solid ones for the [defendant]; whichever side gets the [greater] number wins, and if the votes are [equal], the defendant wins. Then again, if there needs to be an [assessment] of the penalty, they vote a second time in the same way, handing back the token and taking up the staff once more. The assessment allows each side up to half a chous of water. And when judgment has been [given] on the matters prescribed by the laws, the jurors receive their [pay] in the section to which each was allotted.