DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.13851#0113
of the civil government op athens»
91
CHAP. XIX.
of the senate and court of areopagus.
The name of this senate was taken from the place in which it was
wont to be assembled, being a hill not far distant from the citadel (1 ),
called 'Apswxayos or a^siog vrayog, that is, Mars's hill, from Mars, the god of
war and blood, because all wilful murders came under the cognizance of
this court (f) ; or, as fables tell us, from the arraignment of Mars, who
was the first criminal that was tried in it (3) ; or, lastly, because the
Amazons, whom the poets feign to have been the daughters of Mars,
when they besieged Athens, pitched their camps, and offered sacrifices
to the god of war in this place (4).
When this court was first instituted is uncertain. Some make it as an-
cient as the Cecrops, the first founder of Athens ; others think it was
begun in the reign of Cranaus ; and lastly, others bring it down as low as
the times of Solon. But this opinion, though defended by authors of no
less credit than Plutarch (5), and Cicero (6), is in express terms contra-
dicted by Aristotle (7), and one of Solon's laws cited by Plutarch him-
self, wherein there is mention of judgments made in this court before
Solon had reformed the commonwealth. What seems most probable, is,
that the senate of areopagus was first instituted a long time before Solon,
but was continued, regulated, and augmented by him ; was by him made
superior to the ephetae, another court instituted by Draco (8), ai d invest-
ed with greater power, authority, and larger privileges, than ever it had
enjoyed before.
The number of the persons that composed this venerable assembly is
not agreed upon ; by some it is restrained to nine, by others enlarged to
thirty-one, by others to fifty-one, and by some to more. Maximus tells
us it consisted of fifty-one, tXijv eg evtfurgiS&v xai ■x'Khtcp xai /3i'w tfa^ovs
^a^ovTwn, besides such of the nobility as were eminent for their virtue
and riches ; by which words he seems to mean the nine archons, who
were the constant seminary of this great assembly, and having discharged
their several offices, passed every year into it (9) ; others affirm, that
not all the nine archons, but only the thesmothetae were admitted into
the areopagus (10). This was the reason why their number was not
always the same, but more or less according as those persons happened
to continue a greater or lesser time in the senate. Therefore, when So-
crates was condemned by this court, (as the nature of his crime makes it
evident it was,) we find no less than two hundred fourscore and one giv-
ing their votes against him, besides those who voted for his absolution ;
and in an ancient inscription upon a column in the citadel at Athens,
erected to the memory of Rufus Festus, proconsul of Greece, the senate
of areopagus is said to consist of three hundred.
All that had undergone the office of an archon were not taken into this
senate, but only such of them as had behaved themselves well in the dis-
(1) Herodot. lib. viii. (2) Suidas. (7) Polit. lib. ii.
(3) Pausan. Aristid. Panath. Suidas. (8) Pollux, lib. viii. cap. 10.
(4) iEschyl. Eurnenidib. Etymol. Auctor. (9) Plut. Sblone, et Pericle.
(5) Solone. (6) De offic. lib. i. ^10) Libanius in Argumento Androtiansp,
91
CHAP. XIX.
of the senate and court of areopagus.
The name of this senate was taken from the place in which it was
wont to be assembled, being a hill not far distant from the citadel (1 ),
called 'Apswxayos or a^siog vrayog, that is, Mars's hill, from Mars, the god of
war and blood, because all wilful murders came under the cognizance of
this court (f) ; or, as fables tell us, from the arraignment of Mars, who
was the first criminal that was tried in it (3) ; or, lastly, because the
Amazons, whom the poets feign to have been the daughters of Mars,
when they besieged Athens, pitched their camps, and offered sacrifices
to the god of war in this place (4).
When this court was first instituted is uncertain. Some make it as an-
cient as the Cecrops, the first founder of Athens ; others think it was
begun in the reign of Cranaus ; and lastly, others bring it down as low as
the times of Solon. But this opinion, though defended by authors of no
less credit than Plutarch (5), and Cicero (6), is in express terms contra-
dicted by Aristotle (7), and one of Solon's laws cited by Plutarch him-
self, wherein there is mention of judgments made in this court before
Solon had reformed the commonwealth. What seems most probable, is,
that the senate of areopagus was first instituted a long time before Solon,
but was continued, regulated, and augmented by him ; was by him made
superior to the ephetae, another court instituted by Draco (8), ai d invest-
ed with greater power, authority, and larger privileges, than ever it had
enjoyed before.
The number of the persons that composed this venerable assembly is
not agreed upon ; by some it is restrained to nine, by others enlarged to
thirty-one, by others to fifty-one, and by some to more. Maximus tells
us it consisted of fifty-one, tXijv eg evtfurgiS&v xai ■x'Khtcp xai /3i'w tfa^ovs
^a^ovTwn, besides such of the nobility as were eminent for their virtue
and riches ; by which words he seems to mean the nine archons, who
were the constant seminary of this great assembly, and having discharged
their several offices, passed every year into it (9) ; others affirm, that
not all the nine archons, but only the thesmothetae were admitted into
the areopagus (10). This was the reason why their number was not
always the same, but more or less according as those persons happened
to continue a greater or lesser time in the senate. Therefore, when So-
crates was condemned by this court, (as the nature of his crime makes it
evident it was,) we find no less than two hundred fourscore and one giv-
ing their votes against him, besides those who voted for his absolution ;
and in an ancient inscription upon a column in the citadel at Athens,
erected to the memory of Rufus Festus, proconsul of Greece, the senate
of areopagus is said to consist of three hundred.
All that had undergone the office of an archon were not taken into this
senate, but only such of them as had behaved themselves well in the dis-
(1) Herodot. lib. viii. (2) Suidas. (7) Polit. lib. ii.
(3) Pausan. Aristid. Panath. Suidas. (8) Pollux, lib. viii. cap. 10.
(4) iEschyl. Eurnenidib. Etymol. Auctor. (9) Plut. Sblone, et Pericle.
(5) Solone. (6) De offic. lib. i. ^10) Libanius in Argumento Androtiansp,