The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Introduction.
• Explanation of Terms For the English Reader.
• The Constitution of Athens.
• Chap. I.: Kylon.
• Chap. II.: The Oligarchical Constitution.
• Chap. III.: Before Draco’s Time.
• Chap. IV.: Draco’s Laws.
• Chap. V.: Civil Dissensions; Solon.
• Chap. VI.: Solon; Charge Against Him.
• Chap. VII.: His Constitution.
• Chap. VIII.: Solon’s Constitution.
• Chap. IX.: How Solon Gave Power to the People.
• Chap. X.: Reforms the Currency, Weights and Measures.
• Chap. XI.: Goes Abroad.
• Chap. XII.: The Testimony of His Own Poems.
• Chap. XIII.: Party Divisions Immediately Following.
• Chap. XIV.: Peisistratus Makes Himself Tyrant; His Exile and Return.
• Chap. XV.: How He Disarmed the People.
• Chap. XVI.: His Government Moderate and Popular.
• Chap. XVII.: Succeeded By His Sons.
• Chap. XVIII.: Harmodius and Aristogeiton.
• Chap. XIX.: Expulsion of the Peisistratidæ.
• Chap. XX.: Isagoras and Kleisthenes.
• Chap. XXI.: The Constitution of Kleisthenes.
• Chap. XXII.: The Times Immediately Following; Ostracism; Building of a Hundred Triremes.
• Chap. XXIII.: Recovery of Power By the Areopagus; Themistokles and Aristides.
• Chap. XXIV.: Athens Lays Claims to the Leadership of Greece.
• Chap. XXV.: Overthrow of the Areopagus By Ephialtes and Themistokles.
• Chap. XXVI.: Growth of the Democracy; Kimon.
• Chap. XXVII.: Perikles.
• Chap. XXVIII.: His Successors; Nikias, Kleon, Thucydides, Theramenes.
• Chap. XXIX.: The Four Hundred; the Proposals of Pythodorus.
• Chap. XXX.: The Constitution As Proposed For the Future.
• Chap. XXXI.: The Constitution As Proposed For the Immediate Present.
• Chap. XXXII.: The Government of the Four Hundred.
• Chap. XXXIII.: It Lasted Four Months, and Was Good.
• Chap. XXXIV.: Arginusæ Ægospotami Lysander and Establishment of the Oligarchy.
• Chap. XXXV.: The Thirty and Their Government.
• Chap. XXXVI.: Protests of Theramenes.
• Chap. XXXVII.: Theramenes Put to Death, and the Lacedæmonans Call Ed In.
• Chap. XXXVIII.: End of the Thirty, and Reconciliation of Parties.
• Chap. XXXIX.: Terms of the Reconciliation.
• Chap. Xl.: Its Conclusion; Action of Archinus.
• Chap. Xli.: Recapitulation of the Preceding Changes; the Sovereign Power of the People.
• Chap. Xlii.: Admission to Citizenship; Training of the Ephebi.
• Chap. Xliii.: Election to Offices, By Lot Or Vote.
• Chap. Xliv.: the Council Continued.
• Chap. Xlv.: Deprived of the Power of Putting to Death.
• Chap. Xlvi.: the Council Continued.
• Chap. Xlvii.: the Treasurers of Athena; the Government-sellers.
• Chap. Xlviii.: the Receivers; Auditors.
• Chap. Xlix.: the Council Holds a Muster of the Knights, Etc.
• Chap. L: Surveyors of Temples; City Magistrates.
• Chap. Li.: Clerks of the Market; Inspectors of Weights and Measures, Etc.
• Chap. Lii.: the Eleven; Suits Decided Within a Month.
• Chap. Liii.: Judicial Officers; Arbitrators.
• Chap. Liv.: Surveyors of Roads; Auditors; Secretaries.
• Chap. Lv.: the Archons; How They Are Appointed.
• Chap. Lvi.: the Archon (eponymus); His Duties.
• Chap. Lvii.: the King Archon; His Duties.
• Chap. Lviii: the Commander-in-chief, Polemarch
• Chap. Lix.: the Thesmothetæ; Their Functions.
• Chap. Lx.: the Directors of Games; the Sacred Oil.
• Chap. Lxi.: Election By Vote to All Offices of War Department.
• Chap. Lxii.: Pay Attached to Offices
• Chap. Lxiii.: Appointment of Jurors.

CHAP. I.

Kylon.

. . . . swearing by sacred objects according to merit. And the guilt of pollution having been brought home to them, their dead bodies were cast out of their tombs, and their family was banished for ever. On this Epimenides the Cretan purified the city.