regard to the rich; but for the poor and helpless, calumny and malice pursued them even to this last tribunal, and found means to have them doomed for ever as criminals. The Fable adds, that upon reiterated complaints and warm remonstrances made to Jupiter upon this account, he changed the form of these trials. The time for them was fixed to be the very moment after death. Rhadamanthus and Æacus, both sons of Jove, were appointed judges; the first for the Asiatics, the other for the Europeans; and Minos over them, to decide supremely in cases of doubt and obscurity. Theirtribunal is situated in a place called "the field of truth," because neither falsehood nor calumny can approach it. greatest prince must appear there, as soon as he has resigned his last breath, deprived of all his grandeur, reduced to his naked self, without defence or protection, silent and trembling for his own doom, after having made the whole world tremble for theirs. If he be found guilty of crimes which are of a nature to be expiated, he is confined in Tartarus for a certain time only, and with assurance of being released as soon as he shall be sufficiently purified. But if his crimes are unpardonable, such as injustice, perjury, and the oppression of his people, he is cast into the same Tartarus, there to suffer eternal miseries. The just, on the contrary, of whatsoever. condition they are, are conducted into the blessed abodes of peace and joy, to partake of a felicity which shall have no end.. Who does not see that the poets, under the cover of these fictions, ingenious indeed, but little to the honour of the gods, intended to give us the model of an accomplished prince, whose first care is to render justice to his people, and to image the extraordinary happiness Crete enjoyed under the wise government of Minos? This happiness did not expire: with him..* The laws he established subsisted in all their vigour even in Plato's time; that is to say, more than 900 years after; and they were considered as the effect of his long conversations for many years with Jupiter, who had condescended to become his teacher, to enter into a familiarity with him as with a friend, and to form him in the great art of reigning with a secret complacency, as a favourite disciple, and a tenderly beloved son. It is in this manner Plato explains these words of Homer: || Aids uyars gins; the most exalted praise, according to him, that can * Plat. in Min. p. 321. + Idem. p. 319. Et Jovis arcanis Minos admissus. Horat. This poetical fiction is perhaps taken from the holy scriptures, which say of Moses; And the Lord spake unto Moses, face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. Exod. xxxiii. 11. Odyss. T. ver. 179. be given to a mortal, and which that poet ascribes only to Minos. Notwithstanding so shining and solid a merit, the theatres of Athens resounded with nothing so much as imprecations against the memory of Minos; and Socrates, in the dialogue of Plato I have already often cited, observes upon, and gives the reason for them: But first he makes a reflection well worthy of being weighed. "When either the praise or dispraise "of great men is in question, it is infinitely proper," says he,. "to treat them with circumspection and wisdom; because up"on that depends the idea men form to themselves of virtne "and vice, and the distinction they ought to make between "the good and the bad. "For," adds he, "God con"ceives a just indignation, when a person is blamed who re"sembles himself; and, on the contrary, another praised who "is the reverse of him. We must not believe that nothing is "sacred but brass and marble; (he speaks of the statues that 66 were worshipped ;) the just man is the most sacred, and the "wicked the most detestable of all beings in this world." After this reflection, Socrates observes, that the source and cause of the Athenians' hatred of Minos was the unjust and cruel tribute he imposed upon them, in obliging them to send him, every nine years, seven young men and as many maids, to be devoured by the Minotaur ; and he could not avoid reproaching that prince, with having drawn upon himself the abhorrence of a city like Athens, abounding with learned men, and of having sharpened the tongues of the poets against him, a dangerous and formidable race of men, from the poisoned shafts they never fail to let fly against their enemies... It appears from what I have repeated, that Plato imputes to Minos the imposition of that cruel tribute. Appollodorus, Strabo, and Plutarch, seem to be of the same opinion.. * Monsieur the Abbe Banier alleges and proves that they are mistaken, and confound the first Minos, of whom we speak, with a second, his grandson, who reigned after. him in Crete, and to avenge the death of his son Androgeus, killed in Attica, declared war against the Athenians, and imposed that tribute, to which Theseus put an end by killing the Minotaur. It would indeed be difficult to reconcile so inhuman and barba rous a conduct with what all antiquity relates of the goodness, lenity, and equity of Minos, and with the magnificent praises it bestows upon the policy and institutions of Crete. It is true the Cretans degenerated very much from their ancient reputation, which at length they absolutely lost, by an entire change of their manners, becoming avaricious, and selfinterested, to a degree of thinking that no gain was base, ene * Mem. de l'Acad, des Inscrip. tom. III. mies of labour and regularity of life, professed liars and knaves; so that to Cretise became a proverb amongst the Greeks, im plying to lie and to deceive. Every body knows that † St. Paul cites against them as truth the testimony of one of their ancient poets (it is believed of Epimenides,) who paints them in colours much to their dishonour; but this change of manners, in whatever time it might arrive, does not at all affect the probity of the ancient Cretans, nor the glory of Minos their king. The most certain proof of that legislator's wisdom, as Plato observes, is the solid and lasting happiness, which was the effect of the sole imitation of his laws by Sparta. Lycurgus had regulated the government of that city upon the plan and idea. of that of Crete, and it subsisted in an uniform manner for many ages, without experiencing the vicissitudes and revolutions so common in all the other states of Greece. ARTICLE II.. OF THE GOVERNMENT OF ATHENS. THE government of Athens was neither so permanent nor so uniform as that of Sparta, but suffered various alterations, according to the diversity of times and conjunctures. Athens, after having long been governed by kings, and afterwards by archons, assumed entire liberty, which gave place however for some years to the tyrannic power of the Pisistratides, but was soon after re-established, and subsisted with splendour till the defeat in Sicily, and the taking of the city by the Lacedæmo nians. These subjected them to the thirty tyrants, whose au thority was not of long duration, and gave place again to li berty, which continued amidst various events during a long series of years, till the Roman power had subdued Greece, and reduced it into a province. I shall consider in this place only the popular government, and shall examine in particular five or six heads; the founda tion of the government, according to Solon's establishment, the different parts of which the republic consisted, the council or senate of the five hundred, the assemblies of the people, the different tribunals for the administration of justice, the revenues or finances of the republic. I shall be obliged to be more extensive upon what regards the government of Athens than I have been upon that of Sparta, because the latter is almost sufficiently known, from what has been said of it in the life of Lycurgus.* † Κρήτες ἀεὶ ψεύσαι, κακὰ θηρία, γαςέρες ἀργαί. 'The Cretans are al ways liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. Tit. i. 12. Book v. art. vii Plat. p. 320... SECTION I. FOUNDATION OF THE GOVERNMENT OF ATHENS. SOLON was not the first who established the popular government at Athens. Theseus long before him had traced out the plan, and began the execution of it. After having united the twelve towns into one city, he divided the inhabitants into three bodies; that of the nobility, to whom the superintendence in religious affairs and all offices were confided; the labourers, or husbandmen; and the artisans. He had proposed the esta blishment of a kind of equality between the three orders for if the nobles were considerable by their honours and dignities, the husbandmen had the advantage of their utility to the public, and the necessity there was for their labours; and the ar tisans had the superiority to both the other bodies, in their number. Athens, to speak properly, did not become a popu lar state, till the establishment of the nine archons, whose authority continued only for one year, whereas before it was for ten; and it was not till many years after, that Solon, by the wisdom of his laws, instituted and confirmed this form of government. * Solon's great principle was to establish as much as possible a kind of equality among his citizens, which he regarded with reason as the foundation and essential point of liberty. He resolved therefore to leave the public employments in the hands of the rich, as they had been till then, but to give the poor also some share in the government, from which they were excluded. For this reason he made an estimation of what each individual was worth. Those who were found to have an annual revenue of 300 measures, as well in grain as liquid things, were placed in the first class, and called the pentacosiomedimni, that is, those who had a revenue of 500 measures. The second class was composed of such as had 800, and could maintain a horse for war; these were called horsemen or knights. Those who had only 200, were in the third class, and were called zugitæ. Out of these three classes only the magistrates and commanders were chosen. All the other citizens, who were below these three classes, and had less revenues, were comprised under the name of theti, hirelings, or workmen labouring with their hands. Solon did not permit them to hold any office, and granted them only the right of giving their suffrages in the assemblies and trials of the people, which at first seemed a very slight privilege, but at length was found * Plut. in Solon. p. 87. + Plut. in Thes. p. 10, 11. It is believed they were so called from their being ranked be tween the knights and the theti; as in the galleys those who rowed in the middle were termed zugita; their place was between the halamite and thranite. to be a very great advantage, as will appear in the sequel. I do not know whether Solon foresaw it, but he used to say, that the people were never more obedient and submissive than when they possessed neither too much nor too little liberty‡: which comes very near Galba's expression, § when, to incline Piso to treat the Roman people with goodness and lenity, he desires him to remember that he was going to command men who were incapable of bearing either entire liberty, or absolute subjection. The people of Athens, being become more haughty after their victories over the Persians, pretended to have a right to share in all the public offices and the magistracy; and Aristides, to prevent the disorders which too tenacious an opposi tion might have occasioned, thought proper to give way to, them in this point. It appears, however, from a passage in Xenophon, that the people contented themselves with the offices from whence some profit arose, and left those which related more particularly to the government of the state in the hands of the rich. ¶ The citizens of the three first classes paid every year a certain sum of money, to be laid up in the public treasury; the first a talent, the knights half a talent, and the zugitæ ten minæ . If ** Plutarch may be believed, Soton formed two councils, which were a kind of double limitation to fix and temper the assemblies of the people. The first was the Areopagus; but it was much more ancient than his institutions, and he only reformed it, and gave it new lustre by augmenting its power. The second was the council of the four hundred, that is, an hundred of each tribe; for Cecrop, the first king of the Athenians, had divided the people into four tribes. Clisthenes long after him changed that order, and established ten. It was in this council of the four hundred, all affairs were considered before they were proposed to the assembly of the people, as we shall soon explain. I do not mention here another division of the people into three parties or factions, which, till the time of Pisistratus, was a continual source of troubles and seditions. One of these three parties was formed out of those who inhabited the high lands, and favoured popular government; the other out of those who lived in the plains, and they were for oligarchy; $ Tacit. hist. I. x. c. 16. Plut. in Solon, p. 110. sunt, nec totam libertatem. * Plut. in Aristid. p. 332. Pollux, 1. viii. c. 10. 500 livres. |