DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.13851#0085
OF THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT Of ATHENS.
63
Akkoi <T' dvS'finrkS'ieris ti'Ssvts <f~e Saith &«,\utur.
The Grecian Chiefs, by bart'ring of their ware,
Their choice provisions and their wine prepare;
Some brass exchange, some iron, some beasts' hides,
Some slaves of war, some cattle.-1— j. a.
Whence it appears, that the barbarous oppression and cruelty used to-
wards sl ives was not an effect ot the pride of later ages, but practised in
the most primitive and simple times : how long it continued is not certain.
Adrian is said to have been the first that took away from masters the
power of putting their slaves to death without being called to account for
it. And in the reign of Nero, and other cruel emperors of Rome, the
masters were forced to give them civil treatment, for fear they should ac-
cuse them as persons disaffected to the government.
But the growth of Christianity in the world seems to have put a final
period to that unlimited power that lords in former ages claimed over
their slaves ; for the christains behaved themselves with abundance of
mildness and gentleness towards them ; partly to encourage them to em-
brace the christian religion, the-propagating of which they aimed at more
than the promotion of their own private interests ; and partly, because
they thought it barbarous and unnatural, that persons endued by nature
with the same powers and faculties, the same tempers and inclinations,
with themselves, should be treated with no more kindness than those crea-
tures which are without reason, and have no power to reflect on their
own condition, nor to be sensible of the miseries they lie under.
CHAP. XI.
OF THE ATHENIAN MAGISTRATES.
The magistrates of Athens are divided by iEschines (1) into three
sorts ; the ground of which distinction is taken from the different methods
of their election and promotion.
1. XsigoTevjjTo*, were such as received their dignity from the people,
met together in a lawful assembly, which on this occasion was held in the
Pnyx ; and were so called from the manner of their election, in which
the people gave their votes by holding up their hands.
2. K.X?)£»<ra<, were those that owed their promotion to lots, which were
drawn by the thesmotheta? in < heseus's temple. But it must be observ-
ed, that no person was permitted to try his fortune by the lots, unless he
had been first approved by the people, who likewise reserved to them-
selves a power to appoint whom they pleased, without referring the de-
cisions to lots ; and thus Aristides was nominated to the office of archon.
The manner of casting lots was thus :—The name of every candidate in-
scribed upon a table of brass being put into an urn, together with beans,
the choice fell upon those persons whose tablets were drawn out with
white beans. If any man threw more than one tablet into the urn, he
suffered capital punishment (2).
(1) Orat. in Ctesiphont. Ulpian. in Androttana.
(2) Demosth Orat. in Bceotum de Nomina
63
Akkoi <T' dvS'finrkS'ieris ti'Ssvts <f~e Saith &«,\utur.
The Grecian Chiefs, by bart'ring of their ware,
Their choice provisions and their wine prepare;
Some brass exchange, some iron, some beasts' hides,
Some slaves of war, some cattle.-1— j. a.
Whence it appears, that the barbarous oppression and cruelty used to-
wards sl ives was not an effect ot the pride of later ages, but practised in
the most primitive and simple times : how long it continued is not certain.
Adrian is said to have been the first that took away from masters the
power of putting their slaves to death without being called to account for
it. And in the reign of Nero, and other cruel emperors of Rome, the
masters were forced to give them civil treatment, for fear they should ac-
cuse them as persons disaffected to the government.
But the growth of Christianity in the world seems to have put a final
period to that unlimited power that lords in former ages claimed over
their slaves ; for the christains behaved themselves with abundance of
mildness and gentleness towards them ; partly to encourage them to em-
brace the christian religion, the-propagating of which they aimed at more
than the promotion of their own private interests ; and partly, because
they thought it barbarous and unnatural, that persons endued by nature
with the same powers and faculties, the same tempers and inclinations,
with themselves, should be treated with no more kindness than those crea-
tures which are without reason, and have no power to reflect on their
own condition, nor to be sensible of the miseries they lie under.
CHAP. XI.
OF THE ATHENIAN MAGISTRATES.
The magistrates of Athens are divided by iEschines (1) into three
sorts ; the ground of which distinction is taken from the different methods
of their election and promotion.
1. XsigoTevjjTo*, were such as received their dignity from the people,
met together in a lawful assembly, which on this occasion was held in the
Pnyx ; and were so called from the manner of their election, in which
the people gave their votes by holding up their hands.
2. K.X?)£»<ra<, were those that owed their promotion to lots, which were
drawn by the thesmotheta? in < heseus's temple. But it must be observ-
ed, that no person was permitted to try his fortune by the lots, unless he
had been first approved by the people, who likewise reserved to them-
selves a power to appoint whom they pleased, without referring the de-
cisions to lots ; and thus Aristides was nominated to the office of archon.
The manner of casting lots was thus :—The name of every candidate in-
scribed upon a table of brass being put into an urn, together with beans,
the choice fell upon those persons whose tablets were drawn out with
white beans. If any man threw more than one tablet into the urn, he
suffered capital punishment (2).
(1) Orat. in Ctesiphont. Ulpian. in Androttana.
(2) Demosth Orat. in Bceotum de Nomina