place in the popular tribunals to be presently described. 136 The old divisions of Tribe, Fraternity, and Name were virtually at an end; and it was perhaps at this time that the Trittyes and Naucraries,137 or bodies of householders, were, if not instituted, at least substituted in place of the older orders, that had been regulated by birth, and not by industry or property or public services; so that the rise from one class to another was inevitable to him who prospered in his duties. The most unpretending account of this reform in the Athenian constitution, the stepping-stone, as it proved, to succeeding development, is obliged to bear some witness against the misunderstanding of which Solon has been made the victim. He intended to make every class a class of citizens, but, at the same time, to confine the exercise of the higher political rights to the higher classes, whose services to the state were the largest and the most important.138 Yet there was an especial law to pre

136 The first class was called the Пlevтaкoσιoμédiμvot, their income amounting to 500 measures (700 of our bushels) of produce. The second, the 'Imeis (knights), had an income of 300 measures or upwards, and were able to support a horse besides. The third, Zevyírai (yokemen), had 200 measures or more, and kept a yoke of cattle, or a pair of horses or mules. The fourth, Onres, were partly of the poorest citizens, and partly of those whose income did not reach 200 measures;

neither, however, were taxed. Cf. Plut., Sol., 18.

137 Each of the four Tribes contained three Trittyes, making twelve in all; each Trittys containing four Naucraries, making forty-eight. See especially Wachsmuth, Hist. Ant., Vol. I. sect. 44, pp. 354, 355, Eng. transl.

138 The Greek expression for the payment of taxes (Teλeîv tỏ téλos) does not express the mere payment of a regular sum of money, but includes the fulfilment of all the

vent the increase of landed property beyond certain limits; 139 while, on the other hand, there was a law equally stringent to compel the father to provide some occupation for his children, and further, to secure the punishment of such as were content to remain unemployed.140 As far as government or legislation could protect the labor of a people, to the advantage of the lowest and to the control of the highest, it was done.

It is only reasonable to suppose, that, if Solon thus actually remoulded the whole substance of the Athenian institutions, he was little concerned with the forms in which its political operation might be cast. The Archonship and the Areopagus, however, in which both civil and priestly authority had hitherto been concentrated, would scarcely seem so trustworthy to Solon that he would be willing to confide the interests he had espoused to them; and the institution of appeal from the judicial decisions of the Archons to the public tribunals 141 he established testifies to his intention of preventing the magistrates of elder date from exercising any undue authority. The places in the Archonship and the Areopagus, like all the high offices of the state, were held under strict responsibility to

duties imposed on a certain assessed class; namely, military service, liturgies, and even extraordinary taxes upon property." Hase, Anc. Greeks, p. 241, Eng. transl.

139 Arist., Pol., II. 4. 4. See Schömann's Assemblies of the Athen., p. 9, Eng. transl.

140 Plut., Sol., 22. Cf. Herod., II. 177; and Boeckh, Pol. Econ., Book IV. ch. 7. See the article Argias Graphe in the Dict. Gr. and Rom. Ant., ed. Smith, 2d edit.

141 Εἰς τὸ δικαστήριον. Plut., Sol., 18.

the laws. 142 It then, apparently, became the object of Solon to revive the assembly and the senate, which must have had some previous existence, in order not only to defend his people against positive dangers, but to help them forward to greater privileges. His work continued calmly and unfailingly. The assembly,

according to his constitution, was composed of all native Athenians, attained to the age of twenty, whose principal rights, in the beginning, consisted in electing to offices, and in calling magistrates to account for the manner in which their powers were exercised, 143 Above this in consideration and in authority was the senate, or, as then styled, the council; to which one hundred members, thirty years, at least, of age, were chosen yearly, from each of the four tribes, but not, perhaps, from all classes, in order to superintend the affairs and to pass the ordinary decrees of public administration.144 It is sometimes

doubted if Solon established the Heliæa, a general court, as it may be called, appointed from members

142 See the Dict. Ant., Art. Euthyne.

143 Arist., Pol., II. 9. 4. Plut., Sol., 18. The privilege which the citizens fifty years old or upwards received, of speaking first before the assembly, is characteristic only of Solon's time. So, too, the anecdote of Anacharsis's slur in Plut., Sol., 5. The most important reference here required is to the lines of Solon himself, in which he describes a very moderate constitution of the popular privileges. Plut., Sol., 18.

144 Xenophon (Mem., I. 2. 35) mentions the age; Plutarch (Sol., 19) fills up the description of the senate, to which he ascribes the initiative in affairs not yet, apparently, submitted to the assembly. The most important functions of the council were discharged by its Prytanes, or presiding committees, each of which, in turn, took possession of the Prytaneum, continuing on duty without interruption for a certain number of days.

of the assembly, but of those only who were thirty years old or upwards, and divided into various smaller tribunals, whose action, chiefly of a judicial character, was intended, like that of the council, to serve as a check upon the recklessness or insubordination of the assembly, from which it was formed; 145 in its earliest times, it was the court, especially, of appeal ; 146 nor is it certain that the examination of candidates for the magistracies, or for places in the higher assemblies, as well as for common citizenship, was instituted by Solon. 147 The danger, as we have already remarked, is of attributing too much to the single lawgiver; but on whatever grounds the exercise of political liberty was intrusted to the people, it appears, that, after they were settled, Solon retraced, as it were, his steps, to corroborate the authority of the Areopagus. According to his law, the Archons, whose office had been honorably sustained, were alone made eligible to the most solemn of the Athenian tribunals, which, in conjunction with, yet in superiority to, the council, was formally constituted with authority over private and public life, as "the guardian and the protector of all the laws." 148 It is not difficult to conceive that a people, meeting together, with new impulses to excitement, beneath a southern sun, would soon need to be restrained as much as

145 See Wachsmuth, Hist. Ant., Vol. I. sect. 47, pp. 382-384, Eng. transl.

146 Plut., Sol., 18. See note 141. 147 It was held before the Heliæa 22

VOL. I.

or the senate. Smith's Dict. Gr. and Rom. Ant., art. Docimasia.

148 Επίσκοπον πάντων καὶ φύλακα Twv vóμwv. Plut., Sol., 19.

they had, at first, needed to be encouraged in the uses of their freedom.

The larger number of the laws composing the code which Solon gave his countrymen have not yet been considered; nor can they now be enumerated, much less explained. But it is right to mention some more prominently connected with the efforts by which he who framed them was endeavouring to establish the liberty of the Athenians. The cruel penalties of Draco's laws were repealed; and the crime of murder alone remained punishable by death. While every one was encouraged to bring an offender of any degree to trial, it became necessary to exercise fresh severity in order to restrain the extravagance to which many of the richer men were yielding, and to prevent the insolence of the lower classes towards those esteemed to be far above them. The attention of the laboring people was directed towards mechanical arts, as the means of their support in a country whose narrow limits and scanty soil prevented the greater number from supporting themselves by agriculture; while nothing was allowed to be exported but oil, the abundant harvest from the olive-trees which covered Attica. The laws, in all their relations, were to be upheld; the prowess they encouraged was honored in public with magnificent rewards, and the vices they prohibited, such even as the thanklessness of children who neglected to support their parents, were branded with the deepest infamy. 149 Under so much watch

149 Plut., Sol., 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 24. Diog. Laert., I. 55, 56.