Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/148

 132 HISTORY OF GKKKCK. of one of bis comedies, by Solon and Drako, whose wooden tablets (of laws) are now employed by people to roast their barley." The laws of Solon respecting penal offences, respect- ing inheritance and adoption, respecting the private relations generally, etc., remained for the most part in force ; his quadri- partite census also continued, at least for financial purposes until the archonship of Nausinikus in 377 B. c. ; so that Cicero and others might be warranted in affirming that his laws still pre- vailed at Athens : but his political and judicial arrangements had undergone a revolution 1 not less complete and memorable than the character and spirit of the Athenian people generally. The choice, by way of lot, of archons and other magistrates, and the distribution by lot of the general body of dikasts or jurors into pannels for judicial business, may be decidedly considered as not belonging to Solon, but adopted after the revolution of Kleis- thenes ; 2 probably, the choice of senators by lot also. The lot was a symptom of pronounced democratical spirit, such as we must not seek in the Solonian institutions. It is not easy to make out distinctly what was the political po- sition of the ancient gentes and phratries, as Solon left them. The four tribes consisted altogether of gentes and phratries, in- somuch that no one could be included in any one of the tribes who was not also a member of some gens and phraty. Now the new pro-bouleutic or pre-considerate senate consisted of four hun dred members, one hundred from each of the tribes : persons not with that under which he lived ; but in the Orat. vii (Areopagitic.) he con- nects the former with the names of Solon and Kleisthenes, while in the Orat. xii (Panathenaic.), he considers the former to have lasted from the days of Theseus to those of Solon and Peisistratus. In this latter oration he describes pretty exactly the power which the people possessed under the Solonian constitution, rov ruf up%uc KaraaTfjaai ical hapeiv 6'iKrjv Trap<l TUV IZafiapravovTuv, which coincides with the phrase of Aristotle ruf upxaf alpela-daL Kal evftiiveiv, supposing upxovruv to be understood as the substantive of t^a^apravovruv. Compare Isokrates, Or. vii, p. 143 (p. 192 Bck.) and p. 150 (202 Bek.) and Orat. xii, pp. 260-264 (351-356 Bek.). 1 Cicero, Orat. pro Sext. Roscio, c. 25 ; .(Elian, V. H. viii, 10. 3 This seems to be the opinion of Dr. Thirlwall, against Wachsmuth though he speaks with doubt. (History of Greece, vol. ii, ch. 11, p. 48 2ded.)