Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

ARCIIITHEORUS.

34

ARCHON.

to its development. Magnificent temples
sprung u]i in all the principal Greek cities ;
and while the Doric order was brought al-
most, if not quite, to perfection, in Greece
Proper, in the Doric colonies of Asia Minor,
and in Central Italy and Sicily, the Ionic
order appeared, already perfect at its first
invention, in the great temple of Artemis at
Ephesus. The ruins still existing at Paestum,
Syracuse, Agrigentum, Selinus, Aegina, and
other places, are imperishable monuments of
this period. To it also belong the great works
of the Roman kings. The commencement of
the third and most brilliant period of the art
was signalized by the rebuilding of Athens,
the establishment of regular principles for
the laying out of cities by Ilippodamus of
Miletus, and the great works of the age of
Pericles, by the contemporaries of Phidias, at
Athens, Klcusis, and Olympia. The first part
of the fourth period saw the extension of the
Greek architecture over the countries con-
quered by Alexander, and, in the West, the
commencement of the new style, which arose
from the imitation, with some alterations, of
the Greek forms by Roman architects, to
which the conquest of Greece gave, of course,
a new impulse. By the time of Augustus,
Home was adorned with every kind of public
and private edifice, surrounded by villas, and
furnished with roads and aqueducts; and
these various erections were adorned by the
forms of Grecian art; but already Yitruvius
begins to complain that the purity of that art
is corrupted by the intermixture of hetero-
geneous forms. This process of deterioration
went on rapidly during the fifth period,
though combined at first with increasing
magnificence in the scale and number of the
buildings erected. The early part of this
period is made illustrious by the numerous
works of Augustus and his successors, espe-
cially the Flavii, Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian,
and the Antonines, at Rome and in the pro-
vinces ; but from the time of the Antonines
the decline of the art was rapid and decided.
In one department a new impulse was given
to architecture by the rise of Christian
churches, which were generally built on the
model of the Roman Basilica. One of the
most splendid specimens of Christian archi-
tecture is the church of S. Sophia at Constan-
tinople, built in the reign of Justinian, a.d.
537, and restored, after its partial destruction
by an earthquake, in 554. But, long before
this time, the Greco-Roman style had become
thoroughly corrupted, and that new style,
which is called the Byzantine, had arisen out
of the mixture of Roman architecture with
ideas derived from the Northern nations.
-VRCIIlTIIEnRUS (ipx'Oe'woos). [Telia.]

ARCHON (apxaiv). The government of
Athens began with monarchy, and, after pass-
ing through a dynasty * and aristocracy, ended
in democracy. Of the kings of Athens, con-
sidered as the capital of Attica, Theseus may
be said to have been the first; for to him,
whether as a real individual or a representa-
tive of a certain period, is attributed the
union of the different and independent states
of Attica under one head. The last was
Codrus; in acknowledgment of whose pa-
triotism in meeting death for his country,
the Athenians are said to have determined
that no one should succeed him with the
title of king (iSacriAevs). It seems, however,
equally probable that it was the nobles who
availed themselves of the opportunity to
serve their own interests, by abolishing the
kingly power for another, the possessors of
which they called ArcTwntes (apxopres) or
rulers. These for some time continued to be
like the kings of the house of Codrus, ap-
pointed for life : still an important point was
gained by the nobles, the office being made
accountable (vnevOvyo^), which of course im-
plies that the nobility had some control over
it. This state of things lasted for twelve
reigns of archons. The next step was to
limit the continuance of the office to ten
years, still confining it to the Medontidae, or
house of Codrus, so as to establish what the
Greeks called a dynasty, till the archonship
of Eryxias, the last archon of that family
elected as such. At the end of his ten years
(b. c. 084), a much greater change took place :
the archonship was made annual, and its
various duties divided among a college of
nine, chosen by suffrage (xetporoi't'a) from the
Eupatridae, or Patricians, and no longer
elected from the Medontidae exclusively. This
arrangement lasted till the time of Solon, who
still continued the election by suffrage, but
made the qualification for office depend, not
on birth, but property. The election by lot
is believed to have been introduced by Cleis-
thenes (b. c. 508). The last change is sup-
posed to have been made by Aristides, who
after the battle of Plataeae (b. c. 479) abo-
lished the property qualification, throwing
open the archonship and other magistracies
to all the citizens; that is, to the Thetes, as
well as the other classes, the former of whom
were not allowed by Solon's laws to hold any
magistracy at all. Still, after the removal of
the old restrictions, some security was left to
insure respectability ; for, previously to an
archon entering on office, he underwent an
examination, called the anacrisis (ai'a/cpio-is),
as to his being a legitimate and a good citizen,

* Fy this is mennt th;it the supreme power, though not
monarchical, a us confined to one lamil).