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...[They were tried] by a court empanelled from among the noble families, and sworn
upon the sacrifices. The part of accuser was taken by Myron. They were found guilty of
the sacrilege, and their bodies were cast out of their graves and their race banished for
evermore. In view of this expiation, Epimenides the Cretan performed a purification of
the city.
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After this event there was contention for a long time between the upper classes and the
populace. Not only was the constitution at this time oligarchical in every respect, but the
poorer classes, men, women, and children, were the serfs of the rich. They were known
as Pelatae and also as Hectemori, because they cultivated the lands of the rich at the
rent thus indicated. The whole country was in the hands of a few persons, and if the
tenants failed to pay their rent they were liable to be haled into slavery, and their
children with them. All loans secured upon the debtor's person, a custom which
prevailed until the time of Solon, who was the first to appear as the champion of the
people. But the hardest and bitterest part of the constitution in the eyes of the masses
was their state of serfdom. Not but what they were also discontented with every other
feature of their lot; for, to speak generally, they had no part nor share in anything.
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Now the ancient constitution, as it existed before the time of Draco, was organized as follows. The magistrates were elected according to qualifications of birth and wealth. At first they governed for life, but subsequently for terms of ten years. The first magistrates, both in date and in importance, were the King, the Polemarch, and the Archon. The earliest of these offices was that of the King, which existed from ancestral antiquity. To this was added, secondly, the office of Polemarch, on account of some of the kings proving feeble in war; for it was on this account that Ion was invited to accept the post on an occasion of pressing need. The last of the three offices was that of the Archon, which most authorities state to have come into existence in the time of Medon. Others assign it to the time of Acastus, and adduce as proof the fact that the nine Archons swear to execute their oaths 'as in the days of Acastus,' which seems to suggest that it was in his time that the descendants of Codrus retired from the kingship in return for the prerogatives conferred upon the Archon. Whichever way it may be, the difference in date is small; but that it was the last of these magistracies to be created is shown by the fact that the Archon has no part in the ancestral sacrifices, as the King and the Polemarch have, but exclusively in those of later origin. So it is only at a comparatively late date that the office of Archon has become of great importance, through the dignity conferred by these later additions. The Thesmothetae were many years afterwards, when these offices had already become annual, with the object that they might publicly record all legal decisions, and act as guardians of them with a view to determining the issues between litigants. Accordingly their office, alone of those which have been mentioned, was never of more than annual duration.
Such, then, is the relative chronological precedence of these offices. At that time the
nine Archons did not all live together. The King occupied the building now known as the
Boculium, near the Prytaneum, as may be seen from the fact that even to the present
day the marriage of the King's wife to Dionysus takes place there. The Archon lived in
the Prytaneum, the Polemarch in the Epilyceum. The latter building was formerly called
the Polemarcheum, but after Epilycus, during his term of office as Polemarch, had rebuilt
it and fitted it up, it was called the Epilyceum. The Thesmothetae occupied the
Thesmotheteum. In the time of Solon, however, they all came together into the
Thesmotheteum. They had power to decide cases finally on their own authority, not, as
now, merely to hold a preliminary hearing. Such then was the arrangement of the
magistracies. The Council of Areopagus had as its constitutionally assigned duty the
protection of the laws; but in point of fact it administered the greater and most important
part of the government of the state, and inflicted personal punishments and fines
summarily upon all who misbehaved themselves. This was the natural consequence of
the facts that the Archons were elected under qualifications of birth and wealth, and that
the Areopagus was composed of those who had served as Archons; for which latter
reason the membership of the Areopagus is the only office which has continued to be a
life-magistracy to the present day.
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Such was, in outline, the first constitution, but not very long after the events above
recorded, in the archonship of Aristaichmus, Draco enacted his ordinances. Now his
constitution had the following form. The franchise was given to all who could furnish
themselves with a military equipment. The nine Archons and the Treasurers were elected
by this body from persons possessing an unencumbered property of not less than ten
minas, the less important officials from those who could furnish themselves with a
military equipment, and the generals [Strategi] and commanders of the cavalry
[Hipparchi] from those who could show an unencumbered property of not less than a
hundred minas, and had children born in lawful wedlock over ten years of age. These
officers were required to hold to bail the Prytanes, the Strategi, and the Hipparchi of the
preceding year until their accounts had been audited, taking four securities of the same
class as that to which the Strategi and the Hipparchi belonged. There was also to be a
Council, consisting of four hundred and one members, elected by lot from among those
who possessed the franchise. Both for this and for the other magistracies the lot was
cast among those who were over thirty years of age; and no one might hold office twice
until every one else had had his turn, after which they were to cast the lot afresh. If any
member of the Council failed to attend when there was a sitting of the Council or of the
Assembly, he paid a fine, to the amount of three drachmas if he was a
Pentacosiomedimnus, two if he was a Knight, and One if he was a Zeugites. The Council
of Areopagus was guardian of the laws, and kept watch over the magistrates to see that
they executed their offices in accordance with the laws. Any person who felt himself
wronged might lay an information before the Council of Areopagus, on declaring what law
was broken by the wrong done to him. But, as has been said before, loans were secured
upon the persons of the debtors, and the land was in the hands of a few.
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Since such, then, was the organization of the constitution, and the many were in slavery to the few, the people rose against the upper class. The strife was keen, and for a long time the two parties were ranged in hostile camps against one another, till at last, by common consent, they appointed Solon to be mediator and Archon, and committed the whole constitution to his hands. The immediate occasion of his appointment was his poem, which begins with the words:
In this poem he fights and disputes on behalf of each party in turn against the other, and finally he advises them to come to terms and put an end to the quarrel existing between them. By birth and reputation Solon was one of the foremost men of the day, but in wealth and position he was of the middle class, as is generally agreed, and is, indeed, established by his own evidence in these poems, where he exhorts the wealthy not to be grasping.
Indeed, he constantly fastens the blame of the conflict on the rich; and accordingly at the
beginning of the poem he says that he fears' the love of wealth and an overweening
mind', evidently meaning that it was through these that the quarrel arose.
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As soon as he was at the head of affairs, Solon liberated the people once and for all, by
prohibiting all loans on the security of the debtor's person: and in addition he made laws
by which he cancelled all debts, public and private. This measure is commonly called
the Seisachtheia [= removal of burdens], since thereby the people had their loads
removed from them. In connexion with it some persons try to traduce the character of
Solon. It so happened that, when he was about to enact the Seisachtheia, he
communicated his intention to some members of the upper class, whereupon, as the
partisans of the popular party say, his friends stole a march on him; while those who
wish to attack his character maintain that he too had a share in the fraud himself. For
these persons borrowed money and bought up a large amount of land, and so when, a
short time afterwards, all debts were cancelled, they became wealthy; and this, they say,
was the origin of the families which were afterwards looked on as having been wealthy
from primeval times. However, the story of the popular party is by far the most probable.
A man who was so moderate and public-spirited in all his other actions, that when it was
within his power to put his fellow-citizens beneath his feet and establish himself as
tyrant, he preferred instead to incur the hostility of both parties by placing his honour
and the general welfare above his personal aggrandisement, is not likely to have
consented to defile his hands by such a petty and palpable fraud. That he had this
absolute power is, in the first place, indicated by the desperate condition the country;
moreover, he mentions it himself repeatedly in his poems, and it is universally admitted.
We are therefore bound to consider this accusation to be false.
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Next Solon drew up a constitution and enacted new laws; and the ordinances of Draco ceased to be used, with the exception of those relating to murder. The laws were inscribed on the wooden stands, and set up in the King's Porch, and all swore to obey them; and the nine Archons made oath upon the stone, declaring that they would dedicate a golden statue if they should transgress any of them. This is the origin of the oath to that effect which they take to the present day. Solon ratified his laws for a hundred years; and the following was the fashion in which he organized the constitution. He divided the population according to property into four classes, just as it had been divided before, namely, Pentacosiomedimni, Knights, Zeugitae, and Thetes. The various magistracies, namely, the nine Archons, the Treasurers, the Commissioners for Public Contracts (Poletae), the Eleven, and Clerks (Colacretae), he assigned to the Pentacosiomedimni, the Knights, and the Zeugitae, giving offices to each class in proportion to the value of their rateable property. To who ranked among the Thetes he gave nothing but a place in the Assembly and in the juries. A man had to rank as a Pentacosiomedimnus if he made, from his own land, five hundred measures, whether liquid or solid. Those ranked as Knights who made three hundred measures, or, as some say, those who were able to maintain a horse. In support of the latter definition they adduce the name of the class, which may be supposed to be derived from this fact, and also some votive offerings of early times; for in the Acropolis there is a votive offering, a statue of Diphilus, bearing this inscription:
And a horse stands in evidence beside the man, implying that this was what was meant
by belonging to the rank of Knight. At the same time it seems reasonable to suppose that
this class, like the Pentacosiomedimni, was defined by the possession of an income of a
certain number of measures. Those ranked as Zeugitae who made two hundred
measures, liquid or solid; and the rest ranked as Thetes, and were not eligible for any
office. Hence it is that even at the present day, when a candidate for any office is asked
to what class he belongs, no one would think of saying that he belonged to the Thetes.
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The elections to the various offices Solon enacted should be by lot, out of candidates
selected by each of the tribes. Each tribe selected ten candidates for the nine
archonships, and among these the lot was cast. Hence it is still the custom for each tribe
to choose ten candidates by lot, and then the lot is again cast among these. A proof that
Solon regulated the elections to office according to the property classes may be found in
the law still in force with regard to the Treasurers, which enacts that they shall be chosen
from the Pentacosiomedimni. Such was Solon's legislation with respect to the nine
Archons; whereas in early times the Council of Areopagus summoned suitable persons
according to its own judgement and appointed them for the year to the several offices.
There were four tribes, as before, and four tribe-kings. Each tribe was divided into three
Trittyes [=Thirds], with twelve Naucraries in each; and the Naucraries had officers of their
own, called Naucrari, whose duty it was to superintend the current receipts and
expenditure. Hence, among the laws of Solon now obsolete, it is repeatedly written that
the Naucrari are to receive and to spend out of the Naucraric fund. Solon also appointed
a Council of four hundred, a hundred from each tribe; but he assigned to the Council of
the Areopagus the duty of superintending the laws, acting as before as the guardian of
the constitution in general. It kept watch over the affairs of the state in most of the more
important matters, and corrected offenders, with full powers to inflict either fines or
personal punishment. The money received in fines it brought up into the Acropolis,
without assigning the reason for the mulct. It also tried those who conspired for the
overthrow of the state, Solon having enacted a process of impeachment to deal with such
offenders. Further, since he saw the state often engaged in internal disputes, while many
of the citizens from sheer indifference accepted whatever might turn up, he made a law
with express reference to such persons, enacting that any one who, in a time civil
factions, did not take up arms with either party, should lose his rights as a citizen and
cease to have any part in the state.
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Such, then, was his legislation concerning the magistracies. There are three points in
the constitution of Solon which appear to be its most democratic features: first and most
important, the prohibition of loans on the security of the debtor's person; secondly, the
right of every person who so willed to claim redress on behalf of any one to whom wrong
was being done; thirdly, the institution of the appeal to the jurycourts; and it is to this
last, they say, that the masses have owed their strength most of all, since, when the
democracy is master of the voting-power, it is master of the constitution. Moreover, since
the laws were not drawn up in simple and explicit terms (but like the one concerning
inheritances and wards of state), disputes inevitably occurred, and the courts had to
decide in every matter, whether public or private. Some persons in fact believe that
Solon deliberately made the laws indefinite, in order that the final decision might be in
the hands of the people. This, however, is not probable, and the reason no doubt was
that it is impossible to attain ideal perfection when framing a law in general terms; for we
must judge of his intentions, not from the actual results in the present day, but from the
general tenor of the rest of his legislation.
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These seem to be the democratic features of his laws; but in addition, before the period of his legislation, he carried through his abolition of debts, and after it his increase in the standards of weights and measures, and of the currency. During his administration the measures were made larger than those of Pheidon, and the mina, which previously had a standard of seventy drachmas, was raised to the full hundred. The standard coin in earlier times was the two-drachma piece. He also made weights corresponding with the coinage, sixty-three minas going to the talent; and the odd three minas were distributed among the staters and the other values.