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"one shall violate, or make void the laws, I will not disguise

or conceal such an attempt, but will oppose it either alone "or in conjunction with my fellow-citizens, and I will con"stantly adhere to the religion of my forefathers. To all "which I call to witness Agraulis, Enylaus, Mars, and Jupi"ter." I leave the reader to his own reflections upon this august ceremony, well adapted to inspire te love of their country into 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 Ano, pagi. It was by these two titles the citizens were described in the public acts. Melitus, è tribu Cecropide è pago Pitthensi.

II. 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 METOXO, 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 in *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 held 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 12 † drachms, and in default of payment were made slaves, and exposed to sale. Xenocrates, the celebrated, but poor philosopher, was very near experiencing this misfortune, and was carried to prison; but Lycurgus the orator having paid the tax, released him from 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 the world "praises him upon my account."

III. OF THE SERVANTS.

There were two kinds of them. 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 easy, and not laborious. The service of the other was forced and unavoidable; these were slaves, who had either been taken prisoners in war, or bought of such as traf ficked publicly in them. Part of their master's estate consisted * Thais patri se commendavit in clientelam et fidem: Nobis dedit sese. Eunuch. Act. 5. scen. ult. Plut. in Flamin. p. 375.

↑ Six livres,

in them, 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 subsisted in Plutch's time. How glorious was it for Theseus, that his tomb should do that 1200 years after his death, which he had done himself during his life, and continue the protector of the people as he had been !

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 hav ing paid a certain proportion to their masters, they kept the remainder for themselves, and made a stock of it at their own disposal. Private persons, when they were satisfied with their services, often gave these slaves their liberty; and the same grace was always granted them by the public, when the necessity of the times obliged the state to arm and list them for the war among the citizens.

The humane and equitable usage with 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 in regard to their helots, which often brought their republic to the very brink of destruction. § Plutarch, with great reason, condemns this 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 for the sake of habituating humanity and benevolence. He relates upon this occasion a very singular fact, and very proper to explain 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 himself at the work, and put himself at the head of those that drew the carriages 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 expence till its death.

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* Philip. 3.

Plaut. in Casin.

+ Plut. de superstit. p. 166.
$ Plut. in Catone, p. 338, 339.

VOL. IV.

L

SECTION 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 tribunal 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 to their determinations being made with more wisdom and maturity, Solon had instituted a council, composed of 400 senators, 100 out of each tribe, which were then four in number; they prepared and digested the affairs which were to be laid before the people, as we shall soon explain more at large. Clisthenes, about 100 years after Solon, having increased the number of tribes to ten, augmented also that of the senators to 500; each tribe supplying 50. This was called the council, or senate of the five hundred. 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 30. After inquiry made into the manners and conduct of the candidate, he was made to take an oath, whereby he engaged to give at all times the best council he could to the people of Athens, and never to depart in the least from the tenor of the laws.

This senate assembled every day, except upon the days appointed for festivals. Each tribe in its turn furnished those who were to preside in it, called * prytanes, and this rank was decided by lot. This presidency continued 35 days, which being reckoned ten times, amounts to the number of days, except four, of the lunar year followed at Athens. This time of the presidency or prytanism, was divided into five weeks with regard to the five tens of the prytanes, who were to preside in them, and every week seven of these ten prytanes, drawn by lot, presided each their day, and were denominated Iodo, that is to say, presidents. He † who was so for the day, presided in the assembly of the senators, and in that of the people. He was charged with the public seal, as also with the keys of the citadel and treasury.

The senators, before they assembled, offered a sacrifice to Jupiter and Minerva, under the additional appellation of Goddess of Good Counsel †, to demand the prudence and understanding necessary in wise deliberations. The president proposed the business which was to be considered in the assembly.

Ρουτάνιες, † He was called Ἐπιςάτης. Η Βυλαίος, βαλαία,

Every one gave his opinion in his turn, and always standing. After a question had been settled, it was drawn up in writing, and read with a loud voice. Each senator then gave his vote by scrutiny, in putting a bean into the urn. If the number of the white beans carried it, the question passed, otherwise it was rejected. This sort of decree was called, or limuna, as much as to say, preparatory resolution. It was afterwards laid before the assembly of the people, where, if it was received and approved, it had the force of the law; if not, its authority subsisted only one year. This shows with what wisdom Solon established this council, to inform and direct the people, to fix their inconstancy, to prevent their temerity, and to assist their deliberations with a prudence and maturity not to be expected in a confused and tumultuous assembly, composed of a great number of citizens, most of them without education, capacity, or much zeal for the public good. The reciprocal dependency and natural intercourse of the two bodies of the state, which were obliged to lend each other their authority, and remained equally without force when without union and a good understanding, were besides a method judiciously contrived for supporting a wise balance between the two bodies; the people not being able to institute any thing without its being first proposed and approved by the senate, nor the senate to pass any decree into a law till it had been ratified by the people.

We may judge of the importance of this council by the matters which were treated in it, the same, without any exception, as were laid before the people; wars, taxes, maritime affairs, treaties of peace, alliances; in a word, whatever related to government; without mentioning the account which they obliged the magistrates to give on quitting their offices, and their frequent decisions and judgments upon the most serious and important affairs..

SECTION IV.

OF THE AREOPAGUS.

THIS Council took its name from the place where it assem-bled, called the Quarter, or Hill of Mars, because, according to some, Mars had been cited thither in judgment for a murder committed by him. It was believed to be as ancient as the nation. Cicero and Plutarch attribute the institution of it to Solon; but he only re-established it, by giving it more lustre and authority than it had had till then, and for that reason was looked upon as its founder. The number of the senators of the Areopagus was not fixed; at certain times they amounted to 200 or 300. Solon thought proper that

• "Άρειος πάγος.

only those who had borne the office of archon should be honoured with that dignity.

This senate had the care of seeing the laws duly observed, of inspecting the manners of the people, and especially of judg ing in criminal cases. They held their sittings in an open place, and during the night; the former very probably to avoid being under the same roof with the criminals, and not to defile themselves by such a commerce with them; the latter, that they might not be softened by the sight of the guilty, and might judge according to justice and the laws. It was for the same reason the orators were not permitted to use their exordium or peroration, nor allowed to excite the passions, and were obliged to confine themselves solely to the subjectmatter of their cause. The severity of their judgments was exceedingly dreaded, particularly in regard to murder, and they were highly attentive to inspire their citizens with horror for that crime. They|| condemned a child to be put to death for making it his pastime to put out the eyes of quails; conceiving this sanguinary inclination as the mark of a very wicked disposition, which might one day prove fatal to many, if he were suffered to grow up with impunity.

The affairs of religion, as blasphemies against the gods, contempt of sacred mysteries, different species of impiety, and the introduction of new ceremonies and new divinities, were also brought before this tribunal. We read in Justin Martyr, that Plato, who in his travels in Egypt had acquired great lights concerning the unity of God, when he returned to Athens took great care to dissemble and conceal his sentiments, for fear of being obliged to appear and give an account of them before the Areopagita; and we know that St. Paul was tra duced before them, as teaching a new doctrine †, and endeavouring to introduce new gods.

These judges were in great reputation for their probity, equity, and prudence, and generally respected. Cicero, in. writing to his friend Atticus, upon the fortitude, constancy, and wise severity of the Roman senate, thinks he makes a great encomium upon it, in comparing it with the Areopagus. Senatus, "Ageas, rayos, nil constantius, nil severius, nil fortius. Cicero must have conceived a very advantageous idea of it, to speak of it as he does in the first book of his Offices. He Nec mihi videntur Areopagitæ, cum damnaverunt puerum oculos coturnicum eruentem,aliud judicasse, quam id signum esse perniciosissimæ mentis, multisque malo futuræ si adolevisset. Quintil. l. v. c. 9. *Cohort ad Græc. Acts xvii. 18—20.

Ad Attic. 1. i. ep. 13.

$ Quamvis Themistocles jure laudetur et sit ejus nomen, quam Sofenis, illustrius, citeturque Salamis clarissimæ testis victoriæ, quæ anteponatur consilio Solonis ei, quo primum constituit Areopagitas :

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