The Athenian Constitution
this fact, and also some votive offerings of early times; for in the
Acropolis there is a votive offering, a statue of Diphilus, bearing
this inscription:
The son of Diphilus, Athenion hight,
Raised from the Thetes and become a knight,
Did to the gods this sculptured charger bring,
For his promotion a thank-offering.
And a horse stands in evidence beside the man, implying that this was
what was meant by belonging to the rank of Knight. At the same time it
seems reasonable to suppose that this class, like the
Pentacosiomedimni, was defined by the possession of an income of a
certain number of measures. Those ranked as Zeugitae who made two
hundred measures, liquid or solid; and the rest ranked as Thetes, and
were not eligible for any office. Hence it is that even at the present
day, when a candidate for any office is asked to what class he belongs,
no one would think of saying that he belonged to the Thetes.
Part 8
The elections to the various offices Solon enacted should be by lot,
out of candidates selected by each of the tribes. Each tribe selected
ten candidates for the nine archonships, and among these the lot was
cast. Hence it is still the custom for each tribe to choose ten
candidates by lot, and then the lot is again cast among these. A proof
that Solon regulated the elections to office according to the property
classes may be found in the law still in force with regard to the
Treasurers, which enacts that they shall be chosen from the
Pentacosiomedimni. Such was Solon's legislation with respect to the
nine Archons; whereas in early times the Council of Areopagus summoned
suitable persons according to its own judgement and appointed them for
the year to the several offices. There were four tribes, as before, and
four tribe-kings. Each tribe was divided into three Trittyes [=Thirds],
with twelve Naucraries in each; and the Naucraries had officers of
their own, called Naucrari, whose duty it was to superintend the
current receipts and expenditure. Hence, among the laws of Solon now
obsolete, it is repeatedly written that the Naucrari are to receive and
to spend out of the Naucraric fund. Solon also appointed a Council of
four hundred, a hundred from each tribe; but he assigned to the Council
of the Areopagus the duty of superintending the laws, acting as before
as the guardian of the constitution in general. It kept watch over the
affairs of the state in most of the more important matters, and
corrected offenders, with full powers to inflict either fines or
personal punishment. The money received in fines it brought up into the
Acropolis, without assigning the reason for the mulct. It also tried
those who conspired for the overthrow of the state, Solon having
enacted a process of impeachment to deal with such offenders. Further,
since he saw the state often engaged in internal disputes, while many
of the citizens from sheer indifference accepted whatever might turn
up, he made a law with express reference to such persons, enacting that
any one who, in a time [Transcriber's note: of?] civil factions, did
not take up arms with either party, should lose his rights as a citizen
and cease to have any part in the state.
Part 9
Such, then, was his legislation concerning the magistracies. There are
three points in the constitution of Solon which appear to be its most
democratic features: first and most important, the prohibition of loans
on the security of the debtor's person; secondly, the right of every
person who so willed to claim redress on behalf of any one to whom
wrong was being done; thirdly, the institution of the appeal to the
jurycourts; and it is to this last, they say, that the masses have owed
their strength most of all, since, when the democracy is master of the
voting-power, it is master of the constitution. Moreover, since the
laws were not drawn up in simple and explicit terms (but like the one
concerning inheritances and wards of state), disputes inevitably
occurred, and the courts had to decide in every matter, whether public
or private. Some persons in fact believe that Solon deliberately made
the laws indefinite, in order that the final decision might be in the
hands of the people. This, however, is not probable, and the reason no
doubt was that it is impossible to attain ideal perfection when framing
a law in general terms; for we must judge of his intentions, not from
the actual results in the present day, but from the general tenor of
the rest of his legislation.
Part 10
These seem to be the democratic features of his laws; but in addition,
before the period of his legislation, he carried through his abolition
of debts, and after it his increase in the standards of weights and
measures, and of the currency. During his administration the measures
were made larger than those of Pheidon, and the mina, which previously
had a standard of seventy drachmas, was raised to the full hundred. The
standard coin in earlier times was the two-drachma piece. He also made
weights corresponding with the coinage, sixty-three minas going to the
talent; and the odd three minas were distributed among the staters and
the other values.
Part 11
When he had completed his organization of the constitution in the
manner that has been described, he found himself beset by people coming
to him and harassing him concerning his laws, criticizing here and
questioning there, till, as he wished neither to alter what he had
decided on nor yet to be an object of ill will to every one by
remaining in Athens, he set off on a journey to Egypt, with the
combined objects of trade and travel, giving out that he should not
return for ten years. He considered that there was no call for him to
expound the laws personally, but that every one should obey them just
as they were written. Moreover, his position at this time was
unpleasant. Many members of the upper class had been estranged from him
on account of his abolition of debts, and both parties were alienated
through their disappointment at the condition of things which he had
created. The mass of the people had expected him to make a complete
redistribution of all property, and the upper class hoped he would
restore everything to its former position, or, at any rate, make but a
small change. Solon, however, had resisted both classes. He might have
made himself a despot by attaching himself to whichever party he chose,
but he preferred, though at the cost of incurring the enmity of both,
to be the saviour of his country and the ideal lawgiver.
Part 12
The truth of this view of Solon's policy is established alike by common
consent, and by the mention he has himself made of the matter in his
poems. Thus:
I gave to the mass of the people such rank as befitted their need,
I took not away their honour, and I granted naught to their greed;
While those who were rich in power, who in wealth were glorious
and great,
I bethought me that naught should befall them unworthy their
splendour and state;
So I stood with my shield outstretched, and both were safe in
its sight,
And I would not that either should triumph, when the triumph was
not with right.
Again he declares how the mass of the people ought to be treated:
But thus will the people best the voice of their leaders obey,
When neither too slack is the rein, nor violence holdeth the sway;
For indulgence breedeth a child, the presumption that spurns control,
When riches too great are poured upon men of unbalanced soul.
And again elsewhere he speaks about the persons who wished to
redistribute the land:
So they came in search of plunder, and their cravings knew no bound,
Every one among them deeming endless wealth would here be found.
And that I with glozing smoothness hid a cruel mind within.
Fondly then and vainly dreamt they; now they raise an angry din,
And they glare askance in anger, and the light within their eyes
Burns with hostile flames upon me. Yet therein no justice lies.
All I promised, fully wrought I with the gods at hand to cheer,
Naught beyond in folly ventured. Never to my soul was dear
With a tyrant's force to govern, nor to see the good and base
Side by side in equal portion share the rich home of our race.
Once more he speaks of the abolition of debts and of those who before
were in servitude, but were released owing to the Seisachtheia:
Of all the aims for which I summoned forth
The people, was there one I compassed not?
Thou, when slow time brings justice in its train,
O mighty mother of the Olympian gods,
Dark Earth, thou best canst witness, from whose breast
I swept the pillars broadcast planted there,
And made thee free, who hadst been slave of yore.
And many a man whom fraud or law had sold
For from his god-built land, an outcast slave,
I brought again to Athens; yea, and some,
Exiles from home through debt's oppressive load,
Speaking no more the dear ATHENIAN tongue,
But wandering far and wide, I brought again;
And those that here in vilest slavery
Crouched 'neath a master's frown, I set them free.
Thus might and right were yoked in harmony,
Since by the force of law I won my ends
And kept my promise. Equal laws I gave
To evil and to good, with even hand
Drawing straight justice for the lot of each.
But had another held the goad as
One in whose heart was guile and greediness,
He had not kept the people back from strife.
For had I granted, now what pleased the one,
Then what their foes devised in counterpoise,
Of many a man this state had been bereft.
Therefore I showed my might on every side,
Turning at bay like wolf among the hounds.
And again he reviles both parties for their grumblings in the times
that followed:
Nay, if one must lay blame where blame is due,
Wer't not for me, the people ne'er had set
Their eyes upon these blessings e'en in dreams:
While greater men, the men of wealthier life,
Should praise me and should court me as their friend.
For had any other man, he says, received this exalted post,
He had not kept the people back, nor ceased
Til he had robbed the richness of the milk.
But I stood forth a landmark in the midst,
And barred the foes from battle.
Part 13
Such then, were Solon's reasons for his departure from the country.
After his retirement the city was still torn by divisions. For four
years, indeed, they lived in peace; but in the fifth year after Solon's
government they were unable to elect an Archon on account of their
dissensions, and again four years later they elected no Archon for the
same reason. Subsequently, after a similar period had elapsed, Damasias
was elected Archon; and he governed for two years and two months, until
he was forcibly expelled from his office. After this, it was agreed, as
a compromise, to elect ten Archons, five from the Eupatridae, three
from the Agroeci, and two from the Demiurgi, and they ruled for the
year following Damasias. It is clear from this that the Archon was at
the time the magistrate who possessed the greatest power, since it is
always in connexion with this office that conflicts are seen to arise.
But altogether they were in a continual state of internal disorder.
Some found the cause and justification of their discontent in the
abolition of debts, because thereby they had been reduced to poverty;
others were dissatisfied with the political constitution, because it
had undergone a revolutionary change; while with others the motive was
found in personal rivalries among themselves. The parties at this time
were three in number. First there was the party of the Shore, led by
Megacles the son of Alcmeon, which was considered to aim at a moderate