The Athenian Constitution
any formal decree, but because it had been the cause of the battle of
Salamis being fought. When the generals were utterly at a loss how to
meet the crisis and made proclamation that every one should see to his
own safety, the Areopagus provided a donation of money, distributing
eight drachmas to each member of the ships' crews, and so prevailed on
them to go on board. On these grounds people bowed to its prestige; and
during this period Athens was well administered. At this time they
devoted themselves to the prosecution of the war and were in high
repute among the Greeks, so that the command by sea was conferred upon
them, in spite of the opposition of the Lacedaemonians. The leaders of
the people during this period were Aristides, of Lysimachus, and
Themistocles, son of Lysimachus, and Themistocles, son of Neocles, of
whom the latter appeared to devote himself to the conduct of war, while
the former had the reputation of being a clever statesman and the most
upright man of his time. Accordingly the one was usually employed as
general, the other as political adviser. The rebuilding of the
fortifications they conducted in combination, although they were
political opponents; but it was Aristides who, seizing the opportunity
afforded by the discredit brought upon the Lacedaemonians by Pausanias,
guided the public policy in the matter of the defection of the Ionian
states from the alliance with Sparta. It follows that it was he who
made the first assessment of tribute from the various allied states,
two years after the battle of Salamis, in the archonship of
Timosthenes; and it was he who took the oath of offensive and defensive
alliance with the Ionians, on which occasion they cast the masses of
iron into the sea.
Part 24
After this, seeing the state growing in confidence and much wealth
accumulated, he advised the people to lay hold of the leadership of the
league, and to quit the country districts and settle in the city. He
pointed out to them that all would be able to gain a living there, some
by service in the army, others in the garrisons, others by taking a
part in public affairs; and in this way they would secure the
leadership. This advice was taken; and when the people had assumed the
supreme control they proceeded to treat their allies in a more
imperious fashion, with the exception of the Chians, Lesbians, and
Samians. These they maintained to protect their empire, leaving their
constitutions untouched, and allowing them to retain whatever dominion
they then possessed. They also secured an ample maintenance for the
mass of the population in the way which Aristides had pointed out to
them. Out of the proceeds of the tributes and the taxes and the
contributions of the allies more than twenty thousand persons were
maintained. There were 6,000 jurymen, 1,600 bowmen, 1,200 Knights, 500
members of the Council, 500 guards of the dockyards, besides fifty
guards in the Acropolis. There were some 700 magistrates at home, and
some 700 abroad. Further, when they subsequently went to war, there
were in addition 2,500 heavy-armed troops, twenty guard-ships, and
other ships which collected the tributes, with crews amounting to 2,000
men, selected by lot; and besides these there were the persons
maintained at the Prytaneum, and orphans, and gaolers, since all these
were supported by the state.
Part 25
Such was the way in which the people earned their livelihood. The
supremacy of the Areopagus lasted for about seventeen years after the
Persian wars, although gradually declining. But as the strength of the
masses increased, Ephialtes, son of Sophonides, a man with a reputation
for incorruptibility and public virtue, who had become the leader of
the people, made an attack upon that Council. First of all he ruined
many of its members by bringing actions against them with reference to
their administration. Then, in the archonship of Conon, he stripped the
Council of all the acquired prerogatives from which it derived its
guardianship of the constitution, and assigned some of them to the
Council of Five Hundred, and others to the Assembly and the law-courts.
In this revolution he was assisted by Themistocles, who was himself a
member of the Areopagus, but was expecting to be tried before it on a
charge of treasonable dealings with Persia. This made him anxious that
it should be overthrown, and accordingly he warned Ephialtes that the
Council intended to arrest him, while at the same time he informed the
Areopagites that he would reveal to them certain persons who were
conspiring to subvert the constitution. He then conducted the
representatives delegated by the Council to the residence of Ephialtes,
promising to show them the conspirators who assembled there, and
proceeded to converse with them in an earnest manner. Ephialtes, seeing
this, was seized with alarm and took refuge in suppliant guise at the
altar. Every one was astounded at the occurrence, and presently, when
the Council of Five Hundred met, Ephialtes and Themistocles together
proceeded to denounce the Areopagus to them. This they repeated in
similar fashion in the Assembly, until they succeeded in depriving it
of its power. Not long afterwards, however, Ephialtes was assassinated
by Aristodicus of Tanagra. In this way was the Council of Areopagus
deprived of its guardianship of the state.
Part 26
After this revolution the administration of the state became more and
more lax, in consequence of the eager rivalry of candidates for popular
favour. During this period the moderate party, as it happened, had no
real chief, their leader being Cimon son of Miltiades, who was a
comparatively young man, and had been late in entering public life; and
at the same time the general populace suffered great losses by war. The
soldiers for active service were selected at that time from the roll of
citizens, and as the generals were men of no military experience, who
owed their position solely to their family standing, it continually
happened that some two or three thousand of the troops perished on an
expedition; and in this way the best men alike of the lower and the
upper classes were exhausted. Consequently in most matters of
administration less heed was paid to the laws than had formerly been
the case. No alteration, however, was made in the method of election of
the nine Archons, except that five years after the death of Ephialtes
it was decided that the candidates to be submitted to the lot for that
office might be selected from the Zeugitae as well as from the higher
classes. The first Archon from that class was Mnesitheides. Up to this
time all the Archons had been taken from the Pentacosiomedimni and
Knights, while the Zeugitae were confined to the ordinary magistracies,
save where an evasion of the law was overlooked. Four years later, in
the archonship of Lysicrates, thirty 'local justices', as they as they
were called, were re-established; and two years afterwards, in the
archonship of Antidotus, consequence of the great increase in the
number of citizens, it was resolved, on the motion of Pericles, that no
one should be admitted to the franchise who was not of citizen birth by
both parents.
Part 27
After this Pericles came forward as popular leader, having first
distinguished himself while still a young man by prosecuting Cimon on
the audit of his official accounts as general. Under his auspices the
constitution became still more democratic. He took away some of the
privileges of the Areopagus, and, above all, he turned the policy of
the state in the direction of sea power, which caused the masses to
acquire confidence in themselves and consequently to take the conduct
of affairs more and more into their own hands. Moreover, forty-eight
years after the battle of Salamis, in the archonship of Pythodorus, the
Peloponnesian war broke out, during which the populace was shut up in
the city and became accustomed to gain its livelihood by military
service, and so, partly voluntarily and partly involuntarily,
determined to assume the administration of the state itself. Pericles
was also the first to institute pay for service in the law-courts, as a
bid for popular favour to counterbalance the wealth of Cimon. The
latter, having private possessions on a regal scale, not only performed
the regular public services magnificently, but also maintained a large
number of his fellow-demesmen. Any member of the deme of Laciadae could
go every day to Cimon's house and there receive a reasonable provision;
while his estate was guarded by no fences, so that any one who liked
might help himself to the fruit from it. Pericles' private property was
quite unequal to this magnificence and accordingly he took the advice
of Damonides of Oia (who was commonly supposed to be the person who
prompted Pericles in most of his measures, and was therefore
subsequently ostracized), which was that, as he was beaten in the
matter of private possessions, he should make gifts to the people from
their own property; and accordingly he instituted pay for the members
of the juries. Some critics accuse him of thereby causing a
deterioration in the character of the juries, since it was always the
common people who put themselves forward for selection as jurors,
rather than the men of better position. Moreover, bribery came into
existence after this, the first person to introduce it being Anytus,
after his command at Pylos. He was prosecuted by certain individuals
on account of his loss of Pylos, but escaped by bribing the jury.
Part 28
So long, however, as Pericles was leader of the people, things went
tolerably well with the state; but when he was dead there was a great
change for the worse. Then for the first time did the people choose a
leader who was of no reputation among men of good standing, whereas up
to this time such men had always been found as leaders of the
democracy. The first leader of the people, in the very beginning of
things, was Solon, and the second was Pisistratus, both of them men of
birth and position. After the overthrow of the tyrants there was
Cleisthenes, a member of the house of the Alcmeonidae; and he had no
rival opposed to him after the expulsion of the party of Isagoras.
After this Xanthippus was the leader of the people, and Miltiades of
the upper class. Then came Themistocles and Aristides, and after them
Ephialtes as leader of the people, and Cimon son of Miltiades of the
wealthier class. Pericles followed as leader of the people, and
Thucydides, who was connected by marriage with Cimon, of the
opposition. After the death of Pericles, Nicias, who subsequently fell
in Sicily, appeared as leader of the aristocracy, and Cleon son of
Cleaenetus of the people. The latter seems, more than any one else, to
have been the cause of the corruption of the democracy by his wild
undertakings; and he was the first to use unseemly shouting and coarse
abuse on the Bema, and to harangue the people with his cloak girt up
short about him, whereas all his predecessors had spoken decently and
in order. These were succeeded by Theramenes son of Hagnon as leader of
the one party, and the lyre-maker Cleophon of the people. It was
Cleophon who first granted the two-obol donation for the theatrical
performances, and for some time it continued to be given; but then
Callicrates of Paeania ousted him by promising to add a third obol to
the sum. Both of these persons were subsequently condemned to death;
for the people, even if they are deceived for a time, in the end
generally come to detest those who have beguiled them into any unworthy
action. After Cleophon the popular leadership was occupied successively
by the men who chose to talk the biggest and pander the most to the
tastes of the majority, with their eyes fixed only on the interests of