The Athenian Constitution
By Aristotle
()
About this ebook
Aristotle
Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher and scientist whose works have profoundly influenced philosophical discourse and scientific investigation from the later Greek period through to modern times. A student of Plato, Aristotle’s writings cover such disparate topics as physics, zoology, logic, aesthetics, and politics, and as one of the earliest proponents of empiricism, Aristotle advanced the belief that people’s knowledge is based on their perceptions. In addition to his own research and writings, Aristotle served as tutor to Alexander the Great, and established a library at the Lyceum. Although it is believed that only a small fraction of his original writings have survived, works such as The Art of Rhetoric, Nicomachean Ethics, Poetics, and Metaphysics have preserved Aristotle’s legacy and influence through the ages.
Read more from Aristotle
Aristotle's Art of Rhetoric Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYale Required Reading - Collected Works (Vol. 1) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Aristotle's Politics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNichomachean Ethics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRhetoric: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art Of Rhetoric Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Politics of Aristotle Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Tell a Story: An Ancient Guide to the Art of Storytelling for Writers and Readers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAristotle's Nicomachean Ethics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Art of Rhetoric Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAristotle: Complete Works (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings30+ Classic Philosophy Book Collection: The Art of War, Poetics, The Republic, The Meditations, The Prince and others Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNicomachean Ethics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Aristotle's Ethics: Writings from the Complete Works - Revised Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Yale Classics (Vol. 1) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPocket Aristotle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Categories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Organon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to The Athenian Constitution
Related ebooks
Failed Democratization in Prewar Japan: Breakdown of a Hybrid Regime Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Mueller Report: Volumes I and II Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsElecting Judges: The Surprising Effects of Campaigning on Judicial Legitimacy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRoots of Freedom: A Primer on Modern Liberty Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Thorstein Veblen: Theorist of the Leisure Class Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsScientific Method of Elections. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConflict for Space: A Focus on Identity Duality Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Rational Theology, as Taught by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Lost Translators of 1808 and the Birth of Civil Law in Louisiana Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCato Supreme Court Review, 2012-2013 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSlouching Towards Sirte: NATO's War on Libya and Africa Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBrennan and Democracy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHarmful Thoughts: Essays on Law, Self, and Morality Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Collected Works of Rene Descartes: The Complete Works PergamonMedia Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Ideology in the Supreme Court Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Why of Things: Causality in Science, Medicine, and Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsZeno's Motion Paradoxes: Essay #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Contest in America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNotes on Democracy. Illustrated Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPublic Finance in Democratic Process: Fiscal Institutions and Individual Choice Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConstitutional Conservatism: Liberty, Self-Government, and Political Moderation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Federalist Papers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPublic Opinion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Science of Right Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 1: 1760 to 1776 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReconstruction (1865-1877) (SparkNotes History Note) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Life of Roman Republicanism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Constitutional Law For You
U.S. Constitution For Dummies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Constitutional Law For Dummies Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Constitution Explained: A Guide for Every American Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFederal Tax Returns Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe 1987 Constitution: To Change or Not to Change? Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Student's Guide to the Study of Law Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Constitutional Law Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An Introduction To Ineffective Assistance of Counsel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConstitutional Law: Essential Law Self Teaching Guide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Bill of Rights Primer: A Citizen's Guidebook to the American Bill of Rights Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Matter of Interpretation: Federal Courts and the Law - New Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Figures of Speech: First Amendment Heroes and Villains Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Supreme Court: 20 Cases that Changed America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLies the Government Told You: Myth, Power, and Deception in American History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5From Covid To Communism: Chronicling the Global Assault on Our Freedom and What to Do About It. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnwarranted: Policing Without Permission Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Supremes' Greatest Hits: The 44 Supreme Court Cases That Most Directly Affect Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Liberty and Sexuality: The Right to Privacy and the Making of Roe v. Wade Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We the People: A Progressive Reading of the Constitution for the Twenty-First Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Federalist Papers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLoaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The U.S. Constitution and Related Documents Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReason in Law Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGangs of America: The Rise of Corporate Power and the Disabling of Democracy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Constitutional Law, Law Essentials: Governing Law for Law School and Bar Exam Prep Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJustice Corrupted: How the Left Weaponized Our Legal System Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Constitution of the United States: Including The Declaration of Independence and The Bill of Rights Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5An Introduction to Legal Reasoning Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Reviews for The Athenian Constitution
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Athenian Constitution - Aristotle
The Athenian Constitution
By Aristotle
SMK Books
Copyright © 2014 SMK Books
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ISBN 978-1-63384-176-5
Table of Contents
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13
Part 14
Part 15
Part 16
Part 17
Part 18
Part 19
Part 20
Part 21
Part 22
Part 23
Part 24
Part 25
Part 26
Part 27
Part 28
Part 29
Part 30
Part 31
Part 32
Part 33
Part 34
Part 35
Part 36
Part 37
Part 38
Part 39
Part 40
Part 41
Part 42
Part 43
Part 44
Part 45
Part 46
Part 47
Part 48
Part 49
Part 50
Part 51
Part 52
Part 53
Part 54
Part 55
Part 56
Part 57
Part 58
Part 59
Part 60
Part 61
Part 62
Part 63
Part 64
Part 65
Part 66
Part 67
Part 68
Part 69
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 out of their graves and their race banished for evermore. In view of this expiation, Epimenides the Cretan performed a purification of the city.
Part 2
After this event there was contention for a long time between the upper classes and the populace. Not only was the constitution at this time oligarchical in every respect, but the poorer classes, men, women, and children, were the serfs of the rich. They were known as Pelatae and also as Hectemori, because they cultivated the lands of the rich at the rent thus indicated. The whole country was in the hands of a few persons, and if the tenants failed to pay their rent they were liable to be haled into slavery, and their children with them. All loans secured upon the debtor’s person, a custom which prevailed until the time of Solon, who was the first to appear as the champion of the people. But the hardest and bitterest part 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 their lot; for, to speak generally, they had no part nor share in anything.
Part 3
Now the ancient constitution, as it existed before the time of Draco, was organized as follows. The magistrates were elected according to qualifications of birth and wealth. At first they governed for life, but subsequently for terms of ten years. The first magistrates, both in date and in importance, were the King, the Polemarch, and the Archon. The earliest of these offices was that of the King, which existed from ancestral antiquity. To this was added, secondly, the office of Polemarch, on account of some of the kings proving feeble in war; for it was on this account that 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 authorities state to have come into existence in the time of Medon. Others assign it to the time of Acastus, and adduce as proof the fact that the nine Archons swear to execute their oaths ‘as in the days of Acastus,’ which seems to suggest that it was in his time that the descendants of Codrus retired from 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 was the last of these magistracies to be created is shown by the fact that the Archon has no part in the ancestral sacrifices, as the King and the Polemarch have, but exclusively in those of later origin. So it is only at a comparatively late date that the office of Archon has become of great importance, through the dignity conferred by these later additions. The Thesmothetae were many years afterwards, when these offices had already become annual, with the object that they might publicly record all legal decisions, and act as guardians of them with a view to determining the issues between litigants. Accordingly their office, alone of those which have 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 occupied the building now known as the Boculium, near the Prytaneum, as may be seen from the fact that even to the present day the marriage of the King’s wife to Dionysus takes place there. The Archon lived in the Prytaneum, the Polemarch in the Epilyceum. The latter building was formerly called the Polemarcheum, but after Epilycus, during his term of office as Polemarch, had rebuilt it and fitted it up, it was called the Epilyceum. The Thesmothetae occupied the Thesmotheteum. In the time of Solon, however, they all came together into the Thesmotheteum. They had power to decide cases finally on their own authority, not, as now, merely to hold a preliminary hearing. Such then was the arrangement of the magistracies. The Council of Areopagus had as its constitutionally assigned duty the protection of the laws; but in point of fact it administered the greater and most important part of the government of the state, and inflicted personal punishments and fines summarily upon all who misbehaved themselves. This was the natural consequence of the facts that the Archons were elected under qualifications of birth and wealth, and that the Areopagus was composed of those who had served as Archons; for which latter reason the membership of the Areopagus is the only office which has continued to be a life-magistracy to the present day.
Part 4
Such was, in outline, the first constitution, but not very long after the events above recorded, in the archonship of Aristaichmus, Draco enacted his ordinances. Now his constitution had the following form. The franchise was given to all who could furnish themselves with a military equipment. The nine Archons and the Treasurers were elected by this body from persons possessing an unencumbered property of not less than ten minas, the less important officials from those who could furnish themselves with a military equipment, and the generals [Strategi] and commanders of the cavalry [Hipparchi] from those who could show an unencumbered property of not less than a hundred minas, and had children born in lawful wedlock over ten years of age. These officers were required to hold to bail the Prytanes, the Strategi, and the Hipparchi of the preceding year until their accounts had been audited, taking four securities of the same class as that to which the Strategi and the Hipparchi belonged. There was also to be a Council, consisting of four hundred and one members, elected by lot from among those who possessed the franchise. Both for this and for the other magistracies the lot was cast among those who were over thirty years of age; and no one might hold office twice until every one else had had his turn, after