Page:The City-State of the Greeks and Romans.djvu/128

104 probably relieved him of some of the judicial work which must have been his chief civil duty.

Then came a time when the Basileus had so far sunk in reputation in comparison with these two magistracies that it was possible and advisable to deprive him entirely of his military functions, and also to leave him only a part of his judicial power. There remained to him only the sacrificial duties which were traditionally associated with the title of Basileus, and the cognisance of certain crimes of a religious character. To take these from him would be a violation of divine law; but no such scruple need be felt in passing his other prerogatives into alien hands. As the most important of these were no doubt the judicial, it is the Archon who now rises to the first place in consideration, with the Polemarch below him as General, while the Basileus occupies a place midway between the two. The Archon, however, is not to step into the place which the kingly family held; he henceforward holds his position not for life, but for a period of ten years. At first it seems that both he and the Basileus, if not the Polemarch too, were selected from the family of the Medontidæ; for it was not easy to get rid of the idea that the "ruler" must be a person qualified by the divine right of descent, as well as by ability or prowess. But at a date which is usually fixed as 752 B.C., the Archonship at least came to be thrown open to all the noble families. And in the seventh century (682 B.C.) we find the constitution passing without further difficulty into a real republican form of government;