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.

EXPLANATION OF TERMS FOR THE ENGLISH READER.

Officers, or offices of state, magistrates, magistracies = ἀρχαί (archae), particularly the chief executive offices of government. I do not often use ‘magistrate’ or ‘magistracy,’ on account of the limited meaning it has got to have in English. Aristotle commonly uses ‘office’ instead of ‘officer.’ Archon (ἄρχων), as will be seen early in the book, is the special designation of the highest officers of state, of whom the senior (Eponymus) gave his name to the year, like the Roman consuls, e.g., ‘in the archonship of Eukleides.’

People, popular party or side = δῆμος (demus) implying the possession of political rights, as will often be clear from the context, even when no specific exercise of such rights is referred to.

The masses = ο[Editor: illegible character] πολλο[Editor: illegible character] (hoi polloi, ‘the many’) and τὸ πλῆθος (to plethos, ‘the multitude’), including ‘the people,’ or ‘popular party,’ and such as are not, or at least may not be, in possession of political rights; a more general term than ‘the people,’ for which, however, in the original it is sometimes used indifferently.

The Council = Βουλή (Boulé), the great council or deliberative assembly of the state, corresponding roughly to the Roman Senate. Its powers and duties are described chap. xlv. foll.

Assembly = Ἐχχλησἱα (ekklesia), the great legislative assembly of the people (or citizens), described chap. xliii. foll.; its Presidents = πρυτάνεις (prytanes); presidency, their office and its tenure, chap. xliii.

Chairmen = πρὀεδροι (proedri), chosen by the ‘presidents’ out of their own number, chap. xliv.

Juror = διχαστής (dikast); not a real equivalent, as the dikasts acted as judges as well as jurors, and sat in very much larger bodies than our juries.

Tyrant, tyranny = τὐραννος (a lord), τυραννίς: a ‘tyrant’ in Greek political language means one who has unconstitutionally usurped power in a free state, like Peisistratus. It does not, as with us, imply the abuse of such power; indeed, Peisistratus’ rule was often spoken of as ‘the Golden Age.’ Chap. xvi.

Talent = τἀλα[Editor: illegible character]τον, about £250 (with a purchasing power sufficient to build a trireme, chap. xxii.); divided into 60 minae, each mina containing 100 drachmae, a drachma being worth about a franc, and containing six obols.