The Athenian Constitution
confirmation. There are also ten Phylarchs, elected by open vote, one
from each tribe, to command the cavalry, as the Taxiarchs do the
infantry. There is also a Hipparch for Lemnos, elected by open vote,
who has charge of the cavalry in Lemnos. There is also a treasurer of
the Paralus, and another of the Ammonias, similarly elected.
Part 62
Of the magistrates elected by lot, in former times some including the
nine Archons, were elected out of the tribe as a whole, while others,
namely those who are now elected in the Theseum, were apportioned among
the demes; but since the demes used to sell the elections, these
magistrates too are now elected from the whole tribe, except the
members of the Council and the guards of the dockyards, who are still
left to the demes.
Pay is received for the following services. First the members of the
Assembly receive a drachma for the ordinary meetings, and nine obols
for the 'sovereign' meeting. Then the jurors at the law-courts receive
three obols; and the members of the Council five obols. The Prytanes
receive an allowance of an obol for their maintenance. The nine Archons
receive four obols apiece for maintenance, and also keep a herald and a
flute-player; and the Archon for Salamis receives a drachma a day. The
Commissioners for Games dine in the Prytaneum during the month of
Hecatombaeon in which the Panathenaic festival takes place, from the
fourteenth day onwards. The Amphictyonic deputies to Delos receive a
drachma a day from the exchequer of Delos. Also all magistrates sent to
Samos, Scyros, Lemnos, or Imbros receive an allowance for their
maintenance. The military offices may be held any number of times, but
none of the others more than once, except the membership of the
Council, which may be held twice.
Part 63
The juries for the law-courts are chosen by lot by the nine Archons,
each for their own tribe, and by the clerk to the Thesmothetae for the
tenth. There are ten entrances into the courts, one for each tribe;
twenty rooms in which the lots are drawn, two for each tribe; a hundred
chests, ten for each tribe; other chests, in which are placed the
tickets of the jurors on whom the lot falls; and two vases. Further,
staves, equal in number to the jurors required, are placed by the side
of each entrance; and counters are put into one vase, equal in number
to the staves. These are inscribed with letters of the alphabet
beginning with the eleventh (lambda), equal in number to the courts
which require to be filled. All persons above thirty years of age are
qualified to serve as jurors, provided they are not debtors to the
state and have not lost their civil rights. If any unqualified person
serves as juror, an information is laid against him, and he is brought
before the court; and, if he is convicted, the jurors assess the
punishment or fine which they consider him to deserve. If he is
condemned to a money fine, he must be imprisoned until he has paid up
both the original debt, on account of which the information was laid
against him, and also the fine which the court as imposed upon him.
Each juror has his ticket of boxwood, on which is inscribed his name,
with the name of his father and his deme, and one of the letters of the
alphabet up to kappa; for the jurors in their several tribes are
divided into ten sections, with approximately an equal number in each
letter. When the Thesmothetes has decided by lot which letters are
required to attend at the courts, the servant puts up above each court
the letter which has been assigned to it by the lot.
Part 64
The ten chests above mentioned are placed in front of the entrance used
by each tribe, and are inscribed with the letters of the alphabet from
alpha to kappa. The jurors cast in their tickets, each into the chest
on which is inscribed the letter which is on his ticket; then the
servant shakes them all up, and the Archon draws one ticket from each
chest. The individual so selected is called the Ticket-hanger
(Empectes), and his function is to hang up the tickets out of his chest
on the bar which bears the same letter as that on the chest. He is
chosen by lot, lest, if the Ticket-hanger were always the same person,
he might tamper with the results. There are five of these bars in each
of the rooms assigned for the lot-drawing. Then the Archon casts in the
dice and thereby chooses the jurors from each tribe, room by room. The
dice are made of brass, coloured black or white; and according to the
number of jurors required, so many white dice are put in, one for each
five tickets, while the remainder are black, in the same proportion. As
the Archon draws out the dice, the crier calls out the names of the
individuals chosen. The Ticket-hanger is included among those selected.
Each juror, as he is chosen and answers to his name, draws a counter
from the vase, and holding it out with the letter uppermost shows it
first to the presiding Archon; and he, when he has seen it, throws the
ticket of the juror into the chest on which is inscribed the letter
which is on the counter, so that the juror must go into the court
assigned to him by lot, and not into one chosen by himself, and that it
may be impossible for any one to collect the jurors of his choice into
any particular court. For this purpose chests are placed near the
Archon, as many in number as there are courts to be filled that day,
bearing the letters of the courts on which the lot has fallen.
Part 65
The juror thereupon, after showing his counter again to the attendant,
passes through the barrier into the court. The attendant gives him a
staff of the same colour as the court bearing the letter which is on
his counter, so as to ensure his going into the court assigned to him
by lot; since, if he were to go into any other, he would be betrayed by
the colour of his staff. Each court has a certain colour painted on the
lintel of the entrance. Accordingly the juror, bearing his staff,
enters the court which has the same colour as his staff, and the same
letter as his counter. As he enters, he receives a voucher from the
official to whom this duty has been assigned by lot. So with their
counters and their staves the selected jurors take their seats in the
court, having thus completed the process of admission. The unsuccessful
candidates receive back their tickets from the Ticket-hangers. The
public servants carry the chests from each tribe, one to each court,
containing the names of the members of the tribe who are in that court,
and hand them over to the officials assigned to the duty of giving back
their tickets to the jurors in each court, so that these officials may
call them up by name and pay them their fee.
Part 66
When all the courts are full, two ballot boxes are placed in the first
court, and a number of brazen dice, bearing the colours of the several
courts, and other dice inscribed with the names of the presiding
magistrates. Then two of the Thesmothetae, selected by lot, severally
throw the dice with the colours into one box, and those with the
magistrates' names into the other. The magistrate whose name is first
drawn is thereupon proclaimed by the crier as assigned for duty in the
court which is first drawn, and the second in the second, and similarly
with the rest. The object of this procedure is that no one may know
which court he will have, but that each may take the court assigned to
him by lot.
When the jurors have come in, and have been assigned to their
respective courts, the presiding magistrate in each court draws one
ticket out of each chest (making ten in all, one out of each tribe),
and throws them into another empty chest. He then draws out five of
them, and assigns one to the superintendence of the water-clock, and
the other four to the telling of the votes. This is to prevent any
tampering beforehand with either the superintendent of the clock or the
tellers of the votes, and to secure that there is no malpractice in
these respects. The five who have not been selected for these duties
receive from them a statement of the order in which the jurors shall
receive their fees, and of the places where the several tribes shall
respectively gather in the court for this purpose when their duties are
completed; the object being that the jurors may be broken up into small
groups for the reception of their pay, and not all crowd together and
impede one another.
Part 67
These preliminaries being concluded, the cases are called on. If it is
a day for private cases, the private litigants are called. Four cases
are taken in each of the categories defined in the law, and the
litigants swear to confine their speeches to the point at issue. If it
is a day for public causes, the public litigants are called, and only
one case is tried. Water-clocks are provided, having small
supply-tubes, into which the water is poured by which the length of the
pleadings is regulated. Ten gallons are allowed for a case in which an
amount of more than five thousand drachmas is involved, and three for
the second speech on each side. When the amount is between one and five
thousand drachmas, seven gallons are allowed for the first speech and
two for the second; when it is less than one thousand, five and two.
Six gallons are allowed for arbitrations between rival claimants, in
which there is no second speech. The official chosen by lot to
superintend the water-clock places his hand on the supply tube whenever
the clerk is about to read a resolution or law or affidavit or treaty.
When, however, a case is conducted according to a set measurement of
the day, he does not stop the supply, but each party receives an equal
allowance of water. The standard of measurement is the length of the
days in the month Poseideon. The measured day is employed in cases
when imprisonment, death, exile, loss of civil rights, or confiscation
of goods is assigned as the penalty.
Part 68
Most of the courts consist of 500 members; and when it is necessary
to bring public cases before a jury of 1,000 members, two courts
combine for the purpose, the most important cases of all are brought
1,500 jurors, or three courts. The ballot balls are made of brass with
stems running through the centre, half of them having the stem pierced
and the other half solid. When the speeches are concluded, the
officials assigned to the taking of the votes give each juror two
ballot balls, one pierced and one solid. This is done in full view of
the rival litigants, to secure that no one shall receive two pierced or
two solid balls. Then the official designated for the purpose takes
away the jurors' staves, in return for which each one as he records his
vote receives a brass voucher marked with the numeral 3 (because he
gets three obols when he gives it up). This is to ensure that all shall
vote; since no one can get a voucher unless he votes. Two urns, one of
brass and the other of wood, stand in the court, in distinct spots so
that no one may surreptitiously insert ballot balls; in these the
jurors record their votes. The brazen urn is for effective votes, the
wooden for unused votes; and the brazen urn has a lid pierced so as to
take only one ballot ball, in order that no one may put in two at a
time.
When the jurors are about to vote, the crier demands first whether the
litigants enter a protest against any of the evidence; for no protest
can be received after the voting has begun. Then he proclaims again,
'The pierced ballot for the plaintiff, the solid for the defendant';
and the juror, taking his two ballot balls from the stand, with his
hand closed over the stem so as not to show either the pierced or the
solid ballot to the litigants, casts the one which is to count into the
brazen urn, and the other into the wooden urn.
Part 69