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 upon that depends the idea men form to themselves of virtue and vice, and the distinction they ought to make between the good and the bad. adds he, "God conceives a just indignation, when a person is blamed who resembles 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 were worshipped. "The just man is the most sacred, and the wicked the most detestable, of all beings in this world."

For,"

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. Apollodorus, 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 barbarous 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 self interested, to a degree of thinking that no gain was base, enemies of labour and regularity of life, professed liars and knaves; so that to Cretise became a proverb amongst the Greeks, implying 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.

Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscrip. Tom. III.

~ Kgures au fiuçai, nana Ongia, jaseges agyar. The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. Tit. i. 12.

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 reestablished, and subsisted with splendor till the defeat in Sicily, and the taking of the city by the Lacedemonians. These subjected them to the thirty tyrants, whose authority was not of long duration, and gave place again to liberty, which continued amidst various events during a long series of years, till the Roman power had subdued Greece, and reduc. ed it into a province.

w Plat. p. 320.

I shall consider in this place only the popular government, and shall examine in particular five or six heads the foundation 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.*

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 establishment 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

* Book v. art. vii.

y Plut. in Thes. p. 10, 11.

there was for their labours; and the artisans had the superiority to both the other bodies, in their number. Athens, to speak properly, did not become a popular 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 five hundred 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 five hundred measures. The second class was composed of such as had three hundred, and could maintain a horse for war; these were called horsemen or knights. Those who had only two hundred, were in the third class, and were called zugitæ. Out of these three only classes the magistrates and commanders were chosen. All the other citizens, who were below these three classes, and

z Plut. in Solon, p. 87.

It is believed they were so called from their being ranked between the knights and the theti; as in the galleys those who rowed in the middle were termed zugita; their place was between the thalamita and thranite.