Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/89

 JUDICIAL ATTRIBUTES OF THE AGORA. 73 In one of the compartments of the shield of Achilles, the details of a judicial scene are described. "While the agora is full of an eager and excited crowd, two men are disputing about the fine of satisfaction for the d'-ath of a murdered man, one averring, the other denying, that llie fine had already been paid, and both demanding an inquest The gerontes are ranged on stone seats, 1 in the holy circle, whli two talents of gold lying before them, to be awarded to such ot the litigants as shall make out his case to their satisfaction. The heralds with their sceptres, repressing the warm sympathies of the crowd in favor of one or other of the parties, secure an alternate hearing to both. 2 This interest- ing picture completely harmonizes with the brief allusion of Hesiod to the judicial trial doubtless a real trial between himself and his brother Perses. The two brothers disputed about their paternal inheritance, and the cause was carried to be tried by the chiefs in agora ; but Perses bribed them, and ob- tained an unjust verdict for the whole. 3 So at least Hesiod affirms, in the bitterness of his heart ; earnestly exhorting his brother not to waste a precious time, required for necessary la- bors, in the unprofitable occupation of witnessing and abetting litigants in the agora, for which (he adds) no man has proper leisure, unless his subsistence for the year beforehand be safely treasured up in his garners. 4 He repeats, more than once, his complaints of the crooked and corrupt judgments of which the Kings were habitually guilty ; dwelling upon abuse of justice as were much abridged, the trial of accusations of intentional homicide and wounding. Respecting the judicial functions of the early Roman kings, Dionys. Hal. A. R. x. 1. T6 fjtsv apxaiov ol paoiAeif ey' O.VTUV erarrov rot? 6eofj.cvoif rue i5(/caf, Kal TO diKaiu&cv v~' exeivuv, TOVTO vo/j,of r/v (compare iv. 25 ; and Cicero, Republic, v. 2 ; Rubino, Untersuchungen, i. 2, p. 122). 1 Iliad, xviii. 504. 01 6e -yepovTEf E?ar' em ZeaTotai /Utfoic, lepiJ kvl KVK^I,). Several of the old northern Sagas represent the old men, assembled for the purpose of judging, as sitting on great stones in a circle, called the Urthe- ilsring, or Gerichtsring (Leitfaden der 'Nordischen Altertlrimer, p. 31, Copenhag. 1837). 2 Homer, Iliad, xviii. 497-5 0. * Hesiod, Opp. Bi. 37 4 Hesiod, Opp Di. 27-33. TOL. II. 4