And although really in regard to certain of these features, the Council and the election of magistrates, [1274a] Solon seems merely to have abstained from destroying institutions that existed already, he does appear to have founded the democracy by constituting the jury-courts from all the citizens.[loeb_subsection_3] For this he is actually blamed by some persons, as having dissolved the power of the other parts of the community by making the law-court, which was elected by lot, all-powerful. For as the law-court grew strong, men courted favor with the people as with a tyrant, and so brought the constitution to the present democracy; and Ephialtes and Pericles docked the power of the Council on the Areopagus, while Pericles instituted payment for serving in the law-courts, and in this manner finally the successive leaders of the people led them on by growing stages to the present democracy. But this does not seem to have come about in accordance with the intention of Solon, but rather as a result of accident [loeb_subsection_4] (for the common people having been the cause of the naval victories at the time of the Persian invasion became proud and adopted bad men as popular leaders when the respectable classes opposed their policy); inasmuch as Solon for his part appears to bestow only the minimum of power upon the people, the function of electing the magistrates and of calling them to account (for if even this were not under the control of the populace it would be a mere slave and a foreign enemy), whereas he appointed all the offices from the notable and the wealthy, the Five-hundred-bushel classand the Teamsters and a third property-class called the Knighthood; while the fourth class, the Thetes, were admitted to no office.For Solon’s classification of the citizens by the annual income of their estates see Aristot. Ath. Pol. 7.
[loeb_subsection_5] Laws were givenPerhaps 664 B.C. by Zaleucus to the Epizephyrian Zephyrium, a promontory in S. Italy. Locrians and by CharondasSee 1252b 14. of Catana to his fellow-citizens and to the other Chalcidic citiesColonies from Chalcis in Euboea. on the coasts of Italy and Sicily. Some persons try to connect Zaleucus and Charondas together: they say that Onomacritus first arose as an able lawgiver, and that he was trained in Crete, being a Locrian and travelling there to practise the art of soothsaying, and Thales became his companion, and Lycurgus and Zaleucus were pupils of Thales, and Charondas of Zaleucus; but these stories give too little attention to the dates. [loeb_subsection_6] Philolaus of Corinth also arose as lawgiver at Thebes. Philolaus belonged by birth to the Bacchiad family; he became the lover of Diocles the winnerIn 728 B.C. at Olympia, but when Diocles quitted the city because of his loathing for the passion of his mother Alcyone, he went away to Thebes, and there they both ended their life. Even now people still show their tombs, in full view of each other and one of them fully open to view in the direction of the Corinthian country but the other one not; [loeb_subsection_7] for the story goes that they arranged to be buried in this manner, Diocles owing to his hatred for his misfortune securing that the land of Corinth might not be visible from his tomb, and Philolaus that it might be from his.
[1274b] It was due then to a reason of this nature that they went to live at Thebes; but Philolaus became the Thebans’ lawgiver in regard to various matters, among others the size of families,—the laws called by the Thebans laws of adoption; about this Philolaus enacted special legislation, in order that the number of the estates in land might be preserved. [loeb_subsection_8] There is nothing special in the code of Charondas except the trials for false witness (for he was the first to introduce the procedure of denunciation), but in the accuracy of his laws he is a more finished workman even than the legislators of today. (Peculiar to PhaleasDealt with already in 4. is the measure for equalizing properties; to Plato,Above, 1-3 community of wives and children and of property, and the common meals for the women, and also the law about drunkenness, enacting that sober persons are to be masters of the drinking-bouts, and the regulation for military training to make men ambidextrous during drill, on the ground that it is a mistake to have one of the two hands useful but the other useless.) [loeb_subsection_9] There are laws of Draco,Author of the first written code at Athens, 621 B.C. (though in Aristot. Ath. Pol. 4, his legislation is hardly mentioned; he appears there as the framer of the constitution). but he legislated for an existing constitution, and there is nothing peculiar in his laws that is worthy of mention, except their severity in imposing heavy punishment. PittacusOf Mitylene in Lesbos, one of the Seven Sages, dictator 589-579 B.C. also was a framer of laws, but not of a constitution; a special law of his is that if men commit any offence when drunk,they are to pay a larger fine than those who offend when sober; because since more men are insolent when drunk than when sober he had regard not to the view that drunken offenders are to be shown more mercy, but to expediency. AndrodamasOtherwise unknown. of Rhegium also became lawgiver to the Chalcidians in the direction of Thrace, Chalcidice, the peninsula in the N. Aegean, was colonized from Chalcis in Euboea. and to him belong the laws dealing with cases of murder and with heiresses; however one cannot mention any provision that is peculiar to him.
Let such be our examination of the constitutional schemes actually in force and of those that have been proposed by certain persons.
[1274b] [loeb_section_1] [loeb_subsection_1] For the student of government, and of nature and characteristics of the various forms of constitution, almost the first question to consider is in regard to the state: what exactly is the essential nature of a state? As it is, this is a matter of dispute: a public act is spoken of by some people as the action of the state, others speak of it as the action not of the state but of the oligarchy or the tyrant in powerSo we speak of an action planned and carried by the party in power as an Act of Parliament, and technically as an act of the sovereign.; and we see that the activity of the statesman and lawgiver is entirely concerned with a state as its object, and a constitution is a form of organization of the inhabitants of a state. [loeb_subsection_2] But a state is a composite thing, in the same sense as any other of the things that are wholes but consist of many parts; it is therefore clear that we must first inquire into the nature of a citizen; for a state is a collection of citizens,