Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/446

 440 THE KE VOLUTIONS. BOOK iV, Afterwards came the magistrates specially created for the demociacy, who were not jiriests, and who watched over the material interests of the city. First were the strategi, who attended to affairs of war and politics; then followed the ten astynonii, who had charge of the police; the ten agoranomi, who watched over the markets of the city and of the Piraeeus ; the fifteen sitophylaces, who superintended the sales of grain; the fifteen metronomi, who controlled weights and measures ; ten guards of the treasury ; the ten re- ceivers of the accounts ; the eleven who were chai-ged with the execution of sentences. In addition to this, the greater part of these magistracies were repeated in each tribe and in each deme. The smallest group of ])eople in Attica had its archon, its priest, its secretary, its re- ceiver, its military chief. One could hardly take a step in the city or in the country without meeting an official. These offices were annual; so that there was hardly a man who might not hope to fill some one of them in his turn. The magistrate-priests were chosen by lot. The magistrates who attended only to public order were elected by the people. Still there was a precau- tion against the caprices of the lot, as well as against that of universal suffrage. Every newly elected official was subjected to an examination, cither before the sen- ate, or before the magistrates going out of office, or, lastly, before the Areopagus — not that they demanded proofs of capacity or talent, but an inquiry was made concerning the probity of the man, and concerning his family ; every magistrate was also required to have a property in real estate. It would seem that these magistrates, elected by the suffrages of their equals, named for only a single year,