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Commentary: Several comments have been posted aboutThe Athenian Constitution.
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Part 1
...[They were tried] by a court empanelled from among the noble families,and sworn upon the sacrifices. The part of accuser was taken by Myron.They were found guilty of the sacrilege, and their bodies were cast outof their graves and their race banished for evermore. In view of this expiation,Epimenides the Cretan performed a purification of thecity.
Part 2
After this event there was contention for a long time between theupper classes and the populace. Not only was the constitution at this timeoligarchical in every respect, but the poorer classes, men, women, andchildren, were the serfs of the rich. They were known as Pelatae and alsoas Hectemori, because they cultivated the lands of the rich at the rentthus indicated. The whole country was in the hands of a few persons, andif the tenants failed to pay their rent they were liable to be haled intoslavery, and their children with them. All loans secured upon the debtor'sperson, a custom which prevailed until the time of Solon, who was the firstto appear as the champion of the people. But the hardest and bitterestpart of the constitution in the eyes of the masses was their state of serfdom.Not but what they were also discontented with every other feature of theirlot; for, to speak generally, they had no part nor share inanything.
Part 3
Now the ancient constitution, as it existed before the time ofDraco, was organized as follows. The magistrates were elected accordingto qualifications of birth and wealth. At first they governed for life,but subsequently for terms of ten years. The first magistrates, both indate and in importance, were the King, the Polemarch, and the Archon. Theearliest of these offices was that of the King, which existed from ancestralantiquity. To this was added, secondly, the office of Polemarch, on accountof some of the kings proving feeble in war; for it was on this accountthat Ion was invited to accept the post on an occasion of pressing need.The last of the three offices was that of the Archon, which most authoritiesstate to have come into existence in the time of Medon. Others assign itto the time of Acastus, and adduce as proof the fact that the nine Archonsswear to execute their oaths 'as in the days of Acastus,' which seems tosuggest that it was in his time that the descendants of Codrus retiredfrom the kingship in return for the prerogatives conferred upon the Archon.Whichever way it may be, the difference in date is small; but that it wasthe last of these magistracies to be created is shown by the fact thatthe Archon has no part in the ancestral sacrifices, as the King and thePolemarch have, but exclusively in those of later origin. So it is onlyat a comparatively late date that the office of Archon has become of greatimportance, through the dignity conferred by these later additions. TheThesmothetae were many years afterwards, when these offices had alreadybecome annual, with the object that they might publicly record all legaldecisions, and act as guardians of them with a view to determining theissues between litigants. Accordingly their office, alone of those whichhave been mentioned, was never of more than annual duration.
Such, then, is the relative chronological precedence of these offices.At that time the nine Archons did not all live together. The King occupiedthe building now known as the Boculium, near the Prytaneum, as may be seenfrom the fact that even to the present day the marriage of the King's wifeto Dionysus takes place there. The Archon lived in the Prytaneum, the Polemarchin the Epilyceum. The latter building was formerly called the Polemarcheum,but after Epilycus, during his term of office as Polemarch, had rebuiltit and fitted it up, it was called the Epilyceum. The Thesmothetae occupiedthe Thesmotheteum. In the time of Solon, however, they all came togetherinto the Thesmotheteum. They had power to decide cases finally on theirown authority, not, as now, merely to hold a preliminary hearing. Suchthen was the arrangement of the magistracies. The Council of Areopagushad as its constitutionally assigned duty the protection of the laws; butin point of fact it administered the greater and most important part ofthe government of the state, and inflicted personal punishments and finessummarily upon all who misbehaved themselves. This was the natural consequenceof the facts that the Archons were elected under qualifications of birthand wealth, and that the Areopagus was composed of those who had servedas Archons; for which latter reason the membership of the Areopagus isthe only office which has continued to be a life-magistracy to the presentday.
Part 4
Such was, in outline, the first constitution, but not very longafter the events above recorded, in the archonship of Aristaichmus, Dracoenacted his ordinances. Now his constitution had the following form. Thefranchise was given to all who could furnish themselves with a militaryequipment. The nine Archons and the Treasurers were elected by this bodyfrom persons possessing an unencumbered property of not less than ten minas,the less important officials from those who could furnish themselves witha military equipment, and the generals [Strategi] and commanders of thecavalry [Hipparchi] from those who could show an unencumbered propertyof not less than a hundred minas, and had children born in lawful wedlockover ten years of age. These officers were required to hold to bail thePrytanes, the Strategi, and the Hipparchi of the preceding year until theiraccounts had been audited, taking four securities of the same class asthat to which the Strategi and the Hipparchi belonged. There was also tobe a Council, consisting of four hundred and one members, elected by lotfrom among those who possessed the franchise. Both for this and for theother magistracies the lot was cast among those who were over thirty yearsof age; and no one might hold office twice until every one else had hadhis turn, after which they were to cast the lot afresh. If any member ofthe Council failed to attend when there was a sitting of the Council orof the Assembly, he paid a fine, to the amount of three drachmas if hewas a Pentacosiomedimnus, two if he was a Knight, and One if he was a Zeugites.The Council of Areopagus was guardian of the laws, and kept watch overthe magistrates to see that they executed their offices in accordance withthe laws. Any person who felt himself wronged might lay an informationbefore the Council of Areopagus, on declaring what law was broken by thewrong done to him. But, as has been said before, loans were secured uponthe persons of the debtors, and the land was in the hands of afew.
Part 5
Since such, then, was the organization of the constitution, andthe many were in slavery to the few, the people rose against the upperclass. The strife was keen, and for a long time the two parties were rangedin hostile camps against one another, till at last, by common consent,they appointed Solon to be mediator and Archon, and committed the wholeconstitution to his hands. The immediate occasion of his appointment washis poem, which begins with the words:
I behold, and within my heart deep sadness has claimed itsplace,
As I mark the oldest home of the ancient Ionianrace
Slain by the sword.
In this poem he fights and disputes on behalf of each party inturn against the other, and finally he advises them to come to terms andput an end to the quarrel existing between them. By birth and reputationSolon was one of the foremost men of the day, but in wealth and positionhe was of the middle class, as is generally agreed, and is, indeed, establishedby his own evidence in these poems, where he exhorts the wealthy not tobe grasping.
But ye who have store of good, who are sated andoverflow,
Restrain your swelling soul, and still it and keep itlow:
Let the heart that is great within you be trained a lowlierway;
Ye shall not have all at your will, and we will not for everobey.
Indeed, he constantly fastens the blame of the conflict on therich; and accordingly at the beginning of the poem he says that he fears'the love of wealth and an overweening mind', evidently meaning that itwas through these that the quarrel arose.
Part 6
As soon as he was at the head of affairs, Solon liberated the peopleonce and for all, by prohibiting all loans on the security of the debtor'sperson: and in addition he made laws by which he cancelled all debts, publicand private. This measure is commonly called the Seisachtheia [= removalof burdens], since thereby the people had their loads removed from them.In connexion with it some persons try to traduce the character of Solon.It so happened that, when he was about to enact the Seisachtheia, he communicatedhis intention to some members of the upper class, whereupon, as the partisansof the popular party say, his friends stole a march on him; while thosewho wish to attack his character maintain that he too had a share in thefraud himself. For these persons borrowed money and bought up a large amountof land, and so when, a short time afterwards, all debts were cancelled,they became wealthy; and this, they say, was the origin of the familieswhich were afterwards looked on as having been wealthy from primeval times.However, the story of the popular party is by far the most probable. Aman who was so moderate and public-spirited in all his other actions, thatwhen it was within his power to put his fellow-citizens beneath his feetand establish himself as tyrant, he preferred instead to incur the hostilityof both parties by placing his honour and the general welfare above hispersonal aggrandisement, is not likely to have consented to defile hishands by such a petty and palpable fraud. That he had this absolute poweris, in the first place, indicated by the desperate condition the country;moreover, he mentions it himself repeatedly in his poems, and it is universallyadmitted. We are therefore bound to consider this accusation to befalse.
Part 7
Next Solon drew up a constitution and enacted new laws; and theordinances of Draco ceased to be used, with the exception of those relatingto murder. The laws were inscribed on the wooden stands, and set up inthe King's Porch, and all swore to obey them; and the nine Archons madeoath upon the stone, declaring that they would dedicate a golden statueif they should transgress any of them. This is the origin of the oath tothat effect which they take to the present day. Solon ratified his lawsfor a hundred years; and the following was the fashion in which he organizedthe constitution. He divided the population according to property intofour classes, just as it had been divided before, namely, Pentacosiomedimni,Knights, Zeugitae, and Thetes. The various magistracies, namely, the nineArchons, the Treasurers, the Commissioners for Public Contracts (Poletae),the Eleven, and Clerks (Colacretae), he assigned to the Pentacosiomedimni,the Knights, and the Zeugitae, giving offices to each class in proportionto the value of their rateable property. To who ranked among the Theteshe gave nothing but a place in the Assembly and in the juries. A man hadto rank as a Pentacosiomedimnus if he made, from his own land, five hundredmeasures, whether liquid or solid. Those ranked as Knights who made threehundred measures, or, as some say, those who were able to maintain a horse.In support of the latter definition they adduce the name of the class,which may be supposed to be derived from this fact, and also some votiveofferings 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 evidencebeside the man, implying that this was what was meant by belonging to therank of Knight. At the same time it seems reasonable to suppose that thisclass, like the Pentacosiomedimni, was defined by the possession of anincome of a certain number of measures. Those ranked as Zeugitae who madetwo hundred measures, liquid or solid; and the rest ranked as Thetes, andwere not eligible for any office. Hence it is that even at the presentday, when a candidate for any office is asked to what class he belongs,no one would think of saying that he belonged to theThetes.
Part 8
The elections to the various offices Solon enacted should be bylot, out of candidates selected by each of the tribes. Each tribe selectedten 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 bylot, and then the lot is again cast among these. A proof that Solon regulatedthe elections to office according to the property classes may be foundin the law still in force with regard to the Treasurers, which enacts thatthey shall be chosen from the Pentacosiomedimni. Such was Solon's legislationwith respect to the nine Archons; whereas in early times the Council ofAreopagus summoned suitable persons according to its own judgement andappointed 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 officersof their own, called Naucrari, whose duty it was to superintend the currentreceipts and expenditure. Hence, among the laws of Solon now obsolete,it is repeatedly written that the Naucrari are to receive and to spendout 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 Areopagusthe duty of superintending the laws, acting as before as the guardian ofthe constitution in general. It kept watch over the affairs of the statein most of the more important matters, and corrected offenders, with fullpowers to inflict either fines or personal punishment. The money receivedin fines it brought up into the Acropolis, without assigning the reasonfor the mulct. It also tried those who conspired for the overthrow of thestate, Solon having enacted a process of impeachment to deal with suchoffenders. Further, since he saw the state often engaged in internal disputes,while many of the citizens from sheer indifference accepted whatever mightturn up, he made a law with express reference to such persons, enactingthat any one who, in a time civil factions, did not take up arms with eitherparty, should lose his rights as a citizen and cease to have any part inthe state.
Part 9
Such, then, was his legislation concerning the magistracies. Thereare three points in the constitution of Solon which appear to be its mostdemocratic features: first and most important, the prohibition of loanson the security of the debtor's person; secondly, the right of every personwho so willed to claim redress on behalf of any one to whom wrong was beingdone; thirdly, the institution of the appeal to the jurycourts; and itis to this last, they say, that the masses have owed their strength mostof all, since, when the democracy is master of the voting-power, it ismaster of the constitution. Moreover, since the laws were not drawn upin simple and explicit terms (but like the one concerning inheritancesand wards of state), disputes inevitably occurred, and the courts had todecide in every matter, whether public or private. Some persons in factbelieve that Solon deliberately made the laws indefinite, in order thatthe 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 attainideal perfection when framing a law in general terms; for we must judgeof his intentions, not from the actual results in the present day, butfrom 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 abolitionof debts, and after it his increase in the standards of weights and measures,and of the currency. During his administration the measures were made largerthan those of Pheidon, and the mina, which previously had a standard ofseventy drachmas, was raised to the full hundred. The standard coin inearlier times was the two-drachma piece. He also made weights correspondingwith the coinage, sixty-three minas going to the talent; and the odd threeminas were distributed among the staters and the othervalues.
Part 11
When he had completed his organization of the constitution in themanner that has been described, he found himself beset by people comingto him and harassing him concerning his laws, criticizing here and questioningthere, till, as he wished neither to alter what he had decided on nor yetto be an object of ill will to every one by remaining in Athens, he setoff 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 thatthere was no call for him to expound the laws personally, but that everyone should obey them just as they were written. Moreover, his positionat this time was unpleasant. Many members of the upper class had been estrangedfrom him on account of his abolition of debts, and both parties were alienatedthrough their disappointment at the condition of things which he had created.The mass of the people had expected him to make a complete redistributionof all property, and the upper class hoped he would restore everythingto its former position, or, at any rate, make but a small change. Solon,however, had resisted both classes. He might have made himself a despotby attaching himself to whichever party he chose, but he preferred, thoughat the cost of incurring the enmity of both, to be the saviour of his countryand the ideal lawgiver.
Part 12
The truth of this view of Solon's policy is established alike bycommon consent, and by the mention he has himself made of the matter inhis poems. Thus:
I gave to the mass of the people such rank as befitted theirneed,
I took not away their honour, and I granted naught to theirgreed;
While those who were rich in power, who in wealth were gloriousand
great,
I bethought me that naught should befall them unworthytheir
splendour and state;
So I stood with my shield outstretched, and both were sale inits
sight,
And I would not that either should triumph, when the triumphwas
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 neithertoo slack is the rein, nor violence holdeth the sway; For indulgence breedetha child, the presumption that spurns control,
When riches too great are poured upon men of unbalancedsoul.
And again elsewhere he speaks about the persons who wished to redistributethe land: So they came in search of plunder, and their cravings knew nohound, Every one among them deeming endless wealth would here be found.And that I with glozing smoothness hid a cruel mind within. Fondly thenand vainly dreamt they; now they raise an angry din, And they glare askancein anger, and the light within their eyes Burns with hostile flames uponme. Yet therein no justice lies. All I promised, fully wrought I with thegods at hand to cheer, Naught beyond in folly ventured. Never to my soulwas dear With a tyrant's force to govern, nor to see the good and baseSide by side in equal portion share the rich home of ourrace.
Once more he speaks of the abolition of debts and of those whobefore were in servitude, but were released owing to theSeisachtheia:
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 whosebreast
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 timesthat 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 otherman, he says, received this exalted post,
He had not kept the people hack, 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 governmentthey were unable to elect an Archon on account of their dissensions, andagain four years later they elected no Archon for the same reason. Subsequently,after a similar period had elapsed, Damasias was elected Archon; and hegoverned for two years and two months, until he was forcibly expelled fromhis 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 thatthe Archon was at the time the magistrate who possessed the greatest power,since it is always in connexion with this office that conflicts are seento arise. But altogether they were in a continual state of internal disorder.Some found the cause and justification of their discontent in the abolitionof debts, because thereby they had been reduced to poverty; others weredissatisfied with the political constitution, because it had undergonea revolutionary change; while with others the motive was found in personalrivalries 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 form of government; then therewere the men of the Plain, who desired an oligarchy and were led by Lycurgus;and thirdly there were the men of the Highlands, at the head of whom wasPisistratus, who was looked on as an extreme democrat. This latter partywas reinforced by those who had been deprived of the debts due to them,from motives of poverty, and by those who were not of pure descent, frommotives of personal apprehension. A proof of this is seen in the fact thatafter the tyranny was overthrown a revision was made of the citizen-roll,on the ground that many persons were partaking in the franchise withouthaving a right to it. The names given to the respective parties were derivedfrom the districts in which they held their lands.
Part 14
Pisistratus had the reputation of being an extreme democrat, andhe also had distinguished himself greatly in the war with Megara. Takingadvantage of this, he wounded himself, and by representing that his injurieshad been inflicted on him by his political rivals, he persuaded the people,through a motion proposed by Aristion, to grant him a bodyguard. Afterhe had got these 'club-bearers', as they were called, he made an attackwith them on the people and seized the Acropolis. This happened in thearchonship of Comeas, thirty-one years after the legislation of Solon.It is related that, when Pisistratus asked for his bodyguard, Solon opposedthe request, and declared that in so doing he proved himself wiser thanhalf the people and braver than the rest,-wiser than those who did notsee that Pisistratus designed to make himself tyrant, and braver than thosewho saw it and kept silence. But when all his words availed nothing hecarried forth his armour and set it up in front of his house, saying thathe had helped his country so far as lay in his power (he was already avery old man), and that he called on all others to do the same. Solon'sexhortations, however, proved fruitless, and Pisistratus assumed the sovereignty.His administration was more like a constitutional government than the ruleof a tyrant; but before his power was firmly established, the adherentsof Megacles and Lycurgus made a coalition and drove him out. This tookplace in the archonship of Hegesias, five years after the first establishmentof his rule. Eleven years later Megacles, being in difficulties in a partystruggle, again opened-negotiations with Pisistratus, proposing that thelatter should marry his daughter; and on these terms he brought him backto Athens, by a very primitive and simple-minded device. He first spreadabroad a rumour that Athena was bringing back Pisistratus, and then, havingfound a woman of great stature and beauty, named Phye (according to Herodotus,of the deme of Paeania, but as others say a Thracian flower-seller of thedeme of Collytus), he dressed her in a garb resembling that of the goddessand brought her into the city with Pisistratus. The latter drove in ona chariot with the woman beside him, and the inhabitants of the city, struckwith awe, received him with adoration.
Part 15
In this manner did his first return take place. He did not, however,hold his power long, for about six years after his return he was againexpelled. He refused to treat the daughter of Megacles as his wife, andbeing afraid, in consequence, of a combination of the two opposing parties,he retired from the country. First he led a colony to a place called Rhaicelus,in the region of the Thermaic gulf; and thence he passed to the countryin the neighbourhood of Mt. Pangaeus. Here he acquired wealth and hiredmercenaries; and not till ten years had elapsed did he return to Eretriaand make an attempt to recover the government by force. In this he hadthe assistance of many allies, notably the Thebans and Lygdamis of Naxos,and also the Knights who held the supreme power in the constitution ofEretria. After his victory in the battle at Pallene he captured Athens,and when he had disarmed the people he at last had his tyranny securelyestablished, and was able to take Naxos and set up Lygdamis as ruler there.He effected the disarmament of the people in the following manner. He ordereda parade in full armour in the Theseum, and began to make a speech to thepeople. He spoke for a short time, until the people called out that theycould not hear him, whereupon he bade them come up to the entrance of theAcropolis, in order that his voice might be better heard. Then, while hecontinued to speak to them at great length, men whom he had appointed forthe purpose collected the arms and locked them up in the chambers of theTheseum hard by, and came and made a signal to him that it was done. Pisistratusaccordingly, when he had finished the rest of what he had to say, toldthe people also what had happened to their arms; adding that they werenot to be surprised or alarmed, but go home and attend to their privateaffairs, while he would himself for the future manage all the businessof the state.
Part 16
Such was the origin and such the vicissitudes of the tyranny ofPisistratus. His administration was temperate, as has been said before,and more like constitutional government than a tyranny. Not only was hein every respect humane and mild and ready to forgive those who offended,but, in addition, he advanced money to the poorer people to help them intheir labours, so that they might make their living by agriculture. Inthis he had two objects, first that they might not spend their time inthe city but might be scattered over all the face of the country, and secondlythat, being moderately well off and occupied with their own business, theymight have neither the wish nor the time to attend to public affairs. Atthe same time his revenues were increased by the thorough cultivation ofthe country, since he imposed a tax of one tenth on all the produce. Forthe same reasons he instituted the local justices,' and often made expeditionsin person into the country to inspect it and to settle disputes betweenindividuals, that they might not come into the city and neglect their farms.It was in one of these progresses that, as the story goes, Pisistratushad his adventure with the man of Hymettus, who was cultivating the spotafterwards known as 'Tax-free Farm'. He saw a man digging and working ata very stony piece of ground, and being surprised he sent his attendantto ask what he got out of this plot of land. 'Aches and pains', said theman; 'and that's what Pisistratus ought to have his tenth of'. The manspoke without knowing who his questioner was; but Pisistratus was so leasedwith his frank speech and his industry that he granted him exemption fromall taxes. And so in matters in general he burdened the people as littleas possible with his government, but always cultivated peace and kept themin all quietness. Hence the tyranny of Pisistratus was often spoken ofproverbially as 'the age of gold'; for when his sons succeeded him thegovernment became much harsher. But most important of all in this respectwas his popular and kindly disposition. In all things he was accustomedto observe the laws, without giving himself any exceptional privileges.Once he was summoned on a charge of homicide before the Areopagus, andhe appeared in person to make his defence; but the prosecutor was afraidto present himself and abandoned the case. For these reasons he held powerlong, and whenever he was expelled he regained his position easily. Themajority alike of the upper class and of the people were in his favour;the former he won by his social intercourse with them, the latter by theassistance which he gave to their private purses, and his nature fittedhim to win the hearts of both. Moreover, the laws in reference to tyrantsat that time in force at Athens were very mild, especially the one whichapplies more particularly to the establishment of a tyranny. The law ranas follows: 'These are the ancestral statutes of the Athenians; if anypersons shall make an attempt to establish a tyranny, or if any personshall join in setting up a tyranny, he shall lose his civic rights, bothhimself and his whole house.'
Part 17
Thus did Pisistratus grow old in the possession of power, and hedied a natural death in the archonship of Philoneos, three and thirty yearsfrom the time at which he first established himself as tyrant, during nineteenof which he was in possession of power; the rest he spent in exile. Itis evident from this that the story is mere gossip which states that Pisistratuswas the youthful favourite of Solon and commanded in the war against Megarafor the recovery of Salamis. It will not harmonize with their respectiveages, as any one may see who will reckon up the years of the life of eachof them, and the dates at which they died. After the death of Pisistratushis sons took up the government, and conducted it on the same system. Hehad two sons by his first and legitimate wife, Hippias and Hipparchus,and two by his Argive consort, Iophon and Hegesistratus, who was surnamedThessalus. For Pisistratus took a wife from Argos, Timonassa, the daughterof a man of Argos, named Gorgilus; she had previously been the wife ofArchinus of Ambracia, one of the descendants of Cypselus. This was theorigin of his friendship with the Argives, on account of which a thousandof them were brought over by Hegesistratus and fought on his side in thebattle at Pallene. Some authorities say that this marriage took place afterhis first expulsion from Athens, others while he was in possession of thegovernment.
Part 18
Hippias and Hipparchus assumed the control of affairs on groundsalike of standing and of age; but Hippias, as being also naturally of astatesmanlike and shrewd disposition, was really the head of the government.Hipparchus was youthful in disposition, amorous, and fond of literature(it was he who invited to Athens Anacreon, Simonides, and the other poets),while Thessalus was much junior in age, and was violent and headstrongin his behaviour. It was from his character that all the evils arose whichbefell the house. He became enamoured of Harmodius, and, since he failedto win his affection, he lost all restraint upon his passion, and in additionto other exhibitions of rage he finally prevented the sister of Harmodiusfrom taking the part of a basket-bearer in the Panathenaic procession,alleging as his reason that Harmodius was a person of loose life. Thereupon,in a frenzy of wrath, Harmodius and Aristogeiton did their celebrated deed,in conjunction with a number of confederates. But while they were lyingin wait for Hippias in the Acropolis at the time of the Panathenaea (Hippias,at this moment, was awaiting the arrival of the procession, while Hipparchuswas organizing its dispatch) they saw one of the persons privy to the plottalking familiarly with him. Thinking that he was betraying them, and desiringto do something before they were arrested, they rushed down and made theirattempt without waiting for the rest of their confederates. They succeededin killing Hipparchus near the Leocoreum while he was engaged in arrangingthe procession, but ruined the design as a whole; of the two leaders, Harmodiuswas killed on the spot by the guards, while Aristogeiton was arrested,and perished later after suffering long tortures. While under the torturehe accused many persons who belonged by birth to the most distinguishedfamilies and were also personal friends of the tyrants. At first the governmentcould find no clue to the conspiracy; for the current story, that Hippiasmade all who were taking part in the procession leave their arms, and thendetected those who were carrying secret daggers, cannot be true, sinceat that time they did not bear arms in the processions, this being a custominstituted at a later period by the democracy. According to the story ofthe popular party, Aristogeiton accused the friends of the tyrants withthe deliberate intention that the latter might commit an impious act, andat the same time weaken themselves, by putting to death innocent men whowere their own friends; others say that he told no falsehood, but was betrayingthe actual accomplices. At last, when for all his efforts he could notobtain release by death, he promised to give further information againsta number of other persons; and, having induced Hippias to give him hishand to confirm his word, as soon as he had hold of it he reviled him forgiving his hand to the murderer of his brother, till Hippias, in a frenzyof rage, lost control of himself and snatched out his dagger and dispatchedhim.
Part 19
After this event the tyranny became much harsher. In consequenceof his vengeance for his brother, and of the execution and banishment ofa large number of persons, Hippias became a distrusted and an embitteredman. About three years after the death of Hipparchus, finding his positionin the city insecure, he set about fortifying Munichia, with the intentionof establishing himself there. While he was still engaged on this work,however, he was expelled by Cleomenes, king of Lacedaemon, in consequenceof the Spartans being continually incited by oracles to overthrow the tyranny.These oracles were obtained in the following way. The Athenian exiles,headed by the Alcmeonidae, could not by their own power effect their return,but failed continually in their attempts. Among their other failures, theyfortified a post in Attica, Lipsydrium, above Mt. Parnes, and were therejoined by some partisans from the city; but they were besieged by the tyrantsand reduced to surrender. After this disaster the following became a populardrinking song:
Ah! Lipsydrium, faithless friend!
Lo, what heroes to death didst send,
Nobly born and great in deed!
Well did they prove themselves at need
Of noble sires a noble seed.
Having failed, then, in very other method, they took the contractfor rebuilding the temple at Delphi, thereby obtaining ample funds, whichthey employed to secure the help of the Lacedaemonians. All this time thePythia kept continually enjoining on the Lacedaemonians who came to consultthe oracle, that they must free Athens; till finally she succeeded in impellingthe Spartans to that step, although the house of Pisistratus was connectedwith them by ties of hospitality. The resolution of the Lacedaemonianswas, however, at least equally due to the friendship which had been formedbetween the house of Pisistratus and Argos. Accordingly they first sentAnchimolus by sea at the head of an army; but he was defeated and killed,through the arrival of Cineas of Thessaly to support the sons of Pisistratuswith a force of a thousand horsemen. Then, being roused to anger by thisdisaster, they sent their king, Cleomenes, by land at the head of a largerforce; and he, after defeating the Thessalian cavalry when they attemptedto intercept his march into Attica, shut up Hippias within what was knownas the Pelargic wall and blockaded him there with the assistance of theAthenians. While he was sitting down before the place, it so happened thatthe sons of the Pisistratidae were captured in an attempt to slip out;upon which the tyrants capitulated on condition of the safety of theirchildren, and surrendered the Acropolis to the Athenians, five days beingfirst allowed them to remove their effects. This took place in the archonshipof Harpactides, after they had held the tyranny for about seventeen yearssince their father's death, or in all, including the period of their father'srule, for nine-and-forty years.
Part 20
After the overthrow of the tyranny, the rival leaders in the statewere Isagoras son of Tisander, a partisan of the tyrants, and Cleisthenes,who belonged to the family of the Alcmeonidae. Cleisthenes, being beatenin the political clubs, called in the people by giving the franchise tothe masses. Thereupon Isagoras, finding himself left inferior in power,invited Cleomenes, who was united to him by ties of hospitality, to returnto Athens, and persuaded him to 'drive out the pollution', a plea derivedfrom the fact that the Alcmeonidae were suppposed to be under the curseof pollution. On this Cleisthenes retired from the country, and Cleomenes,entering Attica with a small force, expelled, as polluted, seven hundredAthenian families. Having effected this, he next attempted to dissolvethe Council, and to set up Isagoras and three hundred of his partisansas the supreme power in the state. The Council, however, resisted, thepopulace flocked together, and Cleomenes and Isagoras, with their adherents,took refuge in the Acropolis. Here the people sat down and besieged themfor two days; and on the third they agreed to let Cleomenes and all hisfollowers de art, while they summoned Cleisthenes and the other exilesback to Athens. When the people had thus obtained the command of affairs,Cleisthenes was their chief and popular leader. And this was natural; forthe Alcmeonidae were perhaps the chief cause of the expulsion of the tyrants,and for the greater part of their rule were at perpetual war with them.But even earlier than the attempts of the Alcmeonidae, one Cedon made anattack on the tyrants; when there came another popular drinking song, addressedto him:
Pour a health yet again, boy, to Cedon; forget not this duty todo,
If a health is an honour befitting the name of a good man andtrue.
Part 21
The people, therefore, had good reason to place confidence in Cleisthenes.Accordingly, now that he was the popular leader, three years after theexpulsion of the tyrants, in the archonship of Isagoras, his first stepwas to distribute the whole population into ten tribes in place of theexisting four, with the object of intermixing the members of the differenttribes, and so securing that more persons might have a share in the franchise.From this arose the saying 'Do not look at the tribes', addressed to thosewho wished to scrutinize the lists of the old families. Next he made theCouncil to consist of five hundred members instead of four hundred, eachtribe now contributing fifty, whereas formerly each had sent a hundred.The reason why he did not organize the people into twelve tribes was thathe might not have to use the existing division into trittyes; for the fourtribes had twelve trittyes, so that he would not have achieved his objectof redistributing the population in fresh combinations. Further, he dividedthe country into thirty groups of demes, ten from the districts about thecity, ten from the coast, and ten from the interior. These he called trittyes;and he assigned three of them by lot to each tribe, in such a way thateach should have one portion in each of these three localities. All wholived in any given deme he declared fellow-demesmen, to the end that thenew citizens might not be exposed by the habitual use of family names,but that men might be officially described by the names of their demes;and accordingly it is by the names of their demes that the Athenians speakof one another. He also instituted Demarchs, who had the same duties asthe previously existing Naucrari,-the demes being made to take the placeof the naucraries. He gave names to the demes, some from the localitiesto which they belonged, some from the persons who founded them, since someof the areas no longer corresponded to localities possessing names. Onthe other hand he allowed every one to retain his family and clan and religiousrites according to ancestral custom. The names given to the tribes werethe ten which the Pythia appointed out of the hundred selected nationalheroes.
Part 22
By these reforms the constitution became much more democratic thanthat of Solon. The laws of Solon had been obliterated by disuse duringthe period of the tyranny, while Cleisthenes substituted new ones withthe object of securing the goodwill of the masses. Among these was thelaw concerning ostracism. Four year after the establishment of this system,in the archonship of Hermocreon, they first imposed upon the Council ofFive Hundred the oath which they take to the present day. Next they beganto elect the generals by tribes, one from each tribe, while the Polemarchwas the commander of the whole army. Then, eleven years later, in the archonshipof Phaenippus they won the battle of Marathon; and two years after thisvictory, when the people had now gained self-confidence, they for the firsttime made use of the law of ostracism. This had originally been passedas a precaution against men in high office, because Pisistratus took advantageof his position as a popular leader and general to make himself tyrant;and the first person ostracized was one of his relatives, Hipparchus sonof Charmus, of the deme of Collytus, the very person on whose account especiallyCleisthenes had enacted the law, as he wished to get rid of him. Hitherto,however, he had escaped; for the Athenians, with the usual leniency ofthe democracy, allowed all the partisans of the tyrants, who had not joinedin their evil deeds in the time of the troubles to remain in the city;and the chief and leader of these was Hipparchus. Then in the very nextyear, in the archonship of Telesinus, they for the first time since thetyranny elected, tribe by tribe, the nine Archons by lot out of the fivehundred candidates selected by the demes, all the earlier ones having beenelected by vote; and in the same year Megacles son of Hippocrates, of thedeme of Alopece, was ostracized. Thus for three years they continued toostracize the friends of the tyrants, on whose account the law had beenpassed; but in the following year they began to remove others as well,including any one who seemed to be more powerful than was expedient. Thefirst person unconnected with the tyrants who was ostracized was Xanthippusson of Ariphron. Two years later, in the archonship of Nicodemus, the minesof Maroneia were discovered, and the state made a profit of a hundred talentsfrom the working of them. Some persons advised the people to make a distributionof the money among themselves, but this was prevented by Themistocles.He refused to say on what he proposed to spend the money, but he bade themlend it to the hundred richest men in Athens, one talent to each, and then,if the manner in which it was employed pleased the people, the expenditureshould be charged to the state, but otherwise the state should receivethe sum back from those to whom it was lent. On these terms he receivedthe money and with it he had a hundred triremes built, each of the hundredindividuals building one; and it was with these ships that they foughtthe battle of Salamis against the barbarians. About this time Aristidesthe son of Lysimachus was ostracized. Three years later, however, in thearchonship of Hypsichides, all the ostracized persons were recalled, onaccount of the advance of the army of Xerxes; and it was laid down forthe future that persons under sentence of ostracism must live between Geraestusand Scyllaeum, on pain of losing their civic rightsirrevocably.
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