Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/328

 306 HISTORY OF GREECE. years afterwards, to serve with Agesilaus in Asia, at a time when the Lacedaemonians required from Athens a contingent of cavalry ;' the Demos being well pleased to be able to provide for them an honorable foreign service. But the general body of knights suf- fered so little disadvantage from the recollection of the Thirty, that many of them in after days became senators, generals, hip- parchs, and occupants of other considerable posts in the state. 2 Although the decree of Tisamenus prescribing a revision of the laws without delay, and directing that the laws, when so revised, should be posted up for public view, to form the sole and exclu- sive guide of the dikasteries had been passed immediately after the return from Peiraeus and the confirmation of the amnesty, yet it appears that considerable delay took place before such enact- ment was carried into full effect. A person named Nikomachus was charged with the duty, and stands accused of having per- formed it tardily as well as corruptly. He, as well as Tisamenus, 2 was a scribe, or secretary ; under which name were included a class of paid officers, highly important in the detail of business at Athens, though seemingly men of low birth, and looked upon as filling a subordinate station, open to sneers from unfriendly orators. The boards, the magistrates, and the public bodies were so frequently changed at Athens, that the continuity of public business could only have been maintained by paid secretaries of this character, who devoted themselves constantly to the duty .4 1 Xenoph. Hellen. iii, 1. 4. 8 Lysias, Or. xvi, pro Mantitheo, sects. 9, 10 ; Lysias, cont. Evandr. Or. xxvi, sects. 21-25. "We see from this latter oration (sect. 26) that Thrasybulus helped some of the chief persons, who had been in the city, and had resisted the return of the exiles, to get over the difficulties of the dokimasy, or examination into character, previously to being admitted to take possession of any office, to which a man had been either elected or drawn by lot, in after years. Hfi spoke in favor of Evander, in order that the latter might be accepted as king-archon. 3 1 presume confidently that Tisamenus the scribe, mentioned in Lysiag cont. Kikomach. sect. 37, is the same person as Tisamenus named in An- dokides de Mysteriis (sect. 83) as the proposer of the memorable psephism. 4 See M. Boeckh's Public Economy of Athens, b. ii, c. 8, p. 186, Eng. Tr., for a summary of all that is known respecting these -ypapiia-eic, or secretaries The expression in Lysias cont. Nikomach. sect. 38, on viroypapuarEvoat !' l&ari dlf rbv avTbv Ty upxy Ty avrfj, is correctly explained by M. Boeckb.