more particularly to the government of the state in the hands of the rich. • The citizens of the first three 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. As the proportion of revenue determined the order of the classes, as their revenues augmented, the people were allowed to rise to a superior class. If Plutarch may be believed, Solon formed two councils, which were the two anchors as it were of the commonwealth, to secure it from being shaken by the commotions of 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, a hundred of each tribe; for Cecrops, 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 that 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 were a continual source of troubles and seditions. One of these three parties was formed out of those who inhabited the high lands; and these favoured popular government: the other out of those who lived in the plains; and they were for oligarchy. and the third out of the people upon the coast; and these held the mean between both. It is necessary, for the better understanding what we have now said, to enter into a more particular account of the Athenian people. SECT. II. OF THE INHABITANTS OF ATHENS.-" There were • Pollux, 1. viii. c. 10. * In Solon. p. 88. "Athen. 1. vi. p. 272. • One thousand French crowns. Five hundred livres. A. M. 3690. Ant. J. C. three sorts of inhabitants of Athens: citizens, strangers, and servants. In the account taken by Demetrius Phalereus in the cxvith Olympiad, their number 314. amounted to twenty-one thousand citizens, ten thousand strangers, and forty thousand servants. The number of citizens was almost the same in the time of Cecrops, and less under Pericles. 1. Of the Citizens.-A citizen could only be such by birth or adoption. To be a natural denizen of Athens, it was necessary to be born of a father and mother both free, and Athenians. * We have seen that Pericles restored in all its force this law, which had not been exactly observed, and which he himself some short time after infringed. The people could confer the freedom of the city upon strangers; and those whom they had so adopted, enjoyed almost the same rights and privileges as the natural citizens. The quality of citizen of Athens was sometimes granted as an honour and mark of gratitude to those who had rendered great services to the state; as to Hippocrates: and even kings have sometimes canvassed that title for themselves or their children. Evagoras, king of Cyprus, thought it much to his honour. When the young men had attained the age of twenty they were inrolled upon the list of citizens, after having taken an oath; and it was only in virtue of that public and solemn act that they became members of the state. The form of this oath is exceedingly remarkable, which Stobæus and Pollux have preserved in the following words: I will never dishonour the profession of arms, nor save my life by a shameful flight. I will fight to my last breath for the religion and civil interests of the state, in concert with the other citizens, and alone if occasion be. I will not bring my country into a worse condition than I found it, but will use my utmost endeavours to make it more flourishing. I will always submit myself to the laws and magistrates, and to whatsoever shall be ordained by the common consent of the people. If any one shall violate, Vol. ii. y Pollux, I. viii. c. 9. *The text says, μugiádas Tracagánovra, four hundred thousand; which is a manifest error. or attempt to annul, the laws, I will not disguise or conceal such an enterprise, but will oppose it either alone or in conjunction with my fellow-citizens; and I will constantly adhere to the religion of my forefathers. To all which I call to witness Agraulos, Enyalius, Mars, and Jupiter.' I leave the reader to his own reflections upon this august ceremony, well adapted to inspire the love of their country in the hearts of the young citizens. The whole people at first had been divided into four tribes, and afterwards into ten. Each tribe was subdivided into several parts, which were called dñμ, pagi. It was by these two titles that the citizens were described in the public acts. Melitus, è tribu Cecropide, è pago Pitthensi. 2. Of the Strangers.-I call those by that name who, being of a foreign country, came to settle at Athens, or in Attica, whether for the sake of commerce, or the exercising any trade. They were termed μéroxo, inquilini. They had no share in the government, nor votes in the assembly of the people, and could not be admitted into any office. They put themselves under the protection of some citizen, as we find from a passage of * Terence, and upon that account were obliged to render him certain duties and services, as the clients did at Rome to their patrons. They were bound to observe all the laws of the republic, and to conform entirely to all its customs. They paid a yearly tribute to the state of twelve † drachmas; and in default of payment were made slaves, and exposed to sale. z Xenocrates, the celebrated but poor philosopher, was very near experiencing this misfortune, and was being carried to prison; but Lycurgus, the orator, having paid the tax, released him from the hands of the farmers of the public revenues; a kind of men who in all times have been very little sensible to merit, with the exception of an exceeding few of their number. That philosopher, meeting some time after the sons of his deliverer, told them, I pay your father the favour he has done me with usury, for all the world praises him upon my account.' Plut. in Flamin. p. 375. * Thais patri se commendavit in clientelam et fidem : Nobis dedit sese. Eunuch. act. 5. scen. ult. + Six livres. 3. Of the Servants.-These were of two kinds. The one who were free, and not able to get their bread by their work, were obliged by the bad state of their affairs to go into service, and their condition was reputable and not laborious. The service of the other was forced and constrained: these were slaves, who had either been taken prisoners in war, or bought of such as trafficked publicly in them. They formed part of the property of their masters, who disposed absolutely of them, but generally treated them with great humanity. & Demosthenes observes, in one of his harangues, that the condition of servants was infinitely more gentle at Athens than any where else. There was in that city an asylum and place of refuge for slaves, where the bones of Theseus had been interred, and that asylum still subsisted in Plutarch's time. How glorious was it for Theseus, that his tomb should do that, twelve hundred years after his death, which he had done himself during his life, and continue the protector of the oppressed as he had been! с When the slaves were treated with too much rigour and inhumanity, they had their action against their masters, who were obliged to sell them to others, if the fact were sufficiently proved. They could ransom themselves even against their master's consent, when they had laid up money enough for that purpose. For out of what they got by their labour, after having paid a certain proportion to their masters, they kept the remainder for themselves, and made a stock which was at their own disposal. Private persons, when they were satisfied with their services, often gave these slaves their liberty; and the same favour was always granted them by the public, when the necessity of the times obliged the state to put arms in their hands and enlist them amongst the citizens. The humane and equitable manner in which the Athenians treated their servants and slaves, was an effect of the good temper natural to that people, and very remote from the austere and cruel severity of the Lacedæmonians towards their Helots, which often brought their republic to the very brink of destruction. d Plutarch, with great reason, condemns this a Philip. 3. Plaut. in Casin. b Plut. de superstit. p. 166. rigour. He thinks it proper to habituate one's self always to mercy, even with regard to beasts, were it only, says he, to learn by that means to treat men well, and to serve, as it were, an apprenticeship to humanity and benevolence. He relates upon this occasion a very singular fact, and one well calculated to give an idea of the character of the Athenians. After having finished the temple called Hecatonpedon, they set all the beasts of burden at liberty, that had been employed in the work, and assigned them fat pasturages as consecrated animals. And it was said, that one of these beasts having come to offer itself at the work, and put itself at the head of those that drew the carts to the citadel, walking foremost, as if to exhort and encourage them, the Athenians ordained by a decree, that the creature should be maintained at the public expense till its death. SECT. III. OF THE COUNCIL OR SENATE OF FIVE HUNDRED. ---In consequence of Solon's institutions, the people of Athens had a great share and authority in the government. Appeals might be brought to their tribunals in all causes; they had a right to cancel the old laws, and establish new ones: in a word, all important affairs, whether relating to war or peace, were decided in their assemblies. In order that their determinations should be made with more wisdom and maturity, Solon had instituted a council, composed of four hundred senators, a hundred out of each tribe, which were then four in number; and they prepared and digested the affairs which were to be laid before the people, as we shall soon explain more at large. Clisthenes, about a hundred years after Solon, having increased the number of tribes to ten, augmented also that of the senators to five hundred; each tribe supplying fifty. This was called the council, or senate, of the Five flundred. They received their stipend out of the public treasury. They were chosen by lot, in which they made use of black and white beans, which were mingled and shaken in an urn; and each tribe gave in the names of those who aspired to that trust, and had the revenue assigned by the laws to qualify them for it. None could be admitted under the age of thirty. |