J 340 eternal miseries. The just, on the contrary, of whatever conditon, were conducted into the blessed abodes of peace and joy, to partake of a felicity tha should have no end. Who does not see that the poets, under the cover of these fictions, ingenious indeed, but little to the honour of the gods, intended to give us the model of an accomplished prince, whose first care is to render justice to his people; and to represent the extraordinary happiness which Crete enjoyed under the wise government of Minos? This happiness did not expire with him. The laws which he established subsisted in all their vigour even in Plato's time; that is to say, more than nine hundred years after. And they were considered the effect of his long conversations for many years with Jupiter,† who had condescended to become his teacher, to enter into a familiarity with him as with a friend, and to form him in the great art of reigning, with a secret complacency, as a favourite disciple, and a tenderly beloved son. It is in this manner Plato explains these words of Homer: Diós μegály o agisns; the most exalted praise, according to him, that can be given to a mortal, and which that poet ascribed only to Minos. Notwithstanding his exalted and real merit, the theatres of Athens resounded continually with imprecations against the memory of Minos; and Socrates, in the dialogue of Plato which I have already often cited, observes upon, and gives a reason for them: but first he makes a reflection well worthy of being considered. "When either the praise or dispraise of great men is in question, it is infinitely proper," says he, to treat them with circumspection and wisdom; because upon that depends the idea which men form to themselves of virtue and vice, and the distinction they ought to make between the good and the bad. For," adds he, "God conceives a just indignation, when a person is blamed who resembles himself, as well as when another is praised who is the reverse of him. We must not believe that nothing is sacred but brass and marble; (he speaks of the statues that were worshipped): the just man is the most sacred, and the wicked the most detestable, of all beings in this world." After this reflection, Socrates observes, that the source and cause of the hatred of the Athenians towards Minos, was the unjust and cruel tribute he imposed upon them, in obliging them to send him, every nine years, seven young men, and as many maids, to be devoured by the Minotaur; and he could not avoid reproaching that prince, with having drawn upon himself the abhorrence of a city like Athens, abounding with learned men, and of having sharpened the tongues of the poets against him; a dangerous and formidable race of men, from the poisoned shafts which they never fail to discharge against their enemies. It appears from what I have repeated, that Plato imputes to Minos the imposition of that cruel tribute. Apollodorus, Strabo, and Plutarch, seem to be of the same opinion. Monsieur the Abbé Banier alledges and proves that they are mistaken, and confound the first Minos, of whom we speak, with a second, his grandson, who reigned after him in Crete, and, to avenge the death of his son Androgeus, killed in Attica, declared war against the Athenians, and imposed that tribute to which Theseus put an end by killing the Minotaur. It would indeed be difficult to reconcile so inhuman and barbarous a conduct with what all antiquity relates of the goodness, lenity, and equity of Minos; and with the magnificent praises it bestows upon the polity and institutions of Crete. It is true that the Cretans degenerated very much from their ancient reputation, which at length they absolutely lost by an entire change of their manners, becoming avaricious and self-interested, to such a degree as to think that ne gain was base, enemies of labour and regularity of life, professed liars and knaves; so that to Cretise became a proverb among the Greeks, implying to *Plat. in Min. p. 321. Et Jovis arcanis Minos admissus.-Hornt. This poetical fiction is perhaps taken from the holy Scriptures, which say of Moses, "and the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend."-Exod. xxxiii. 11. Plat. in Min. p. 319. Odyss. ver. 179. Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscrip. Vol. III. le and to deceive. Every body knows that St. Paul* cites against them as truth, the testimony of one of their ancient poets, supposed to be Epimenides, who paints them in colours much to their dishonour; but this change of manners, in whatever time it might happen, does not at all affect the probity of the ancient Cretans, nor the glory of Minos their king. The most certain proof of that legislator's wisdom, as Plato observe, is the solid and lasting happiness, which was the effect of the sole imitation of his laws by Sparta. Lycurgus had regulated the government of that city upon the plan and idea of that of Crete, and it subsisted in an uniform manner for many ages, without experiencing the vicissitudes and revolutions so common in all other states of Greece.t ARICLE II.-OF THE GOVERNMENT OF ATHENS. THE government of Athens was neither so permanent nor so uniform as that of Sparta; but suffered various alterations according to the diversity of times and circumstances. Athens, after having long been governed by kings, and afterwards by archons, assumed entire liberty, which gave place, however, for some years to the tyrannic power of the Pisistratides, but was soon after reestablished, and subsisted with splendour till the defeat in Sicily, and the taking of the city by the Lacedæmonians. These subjected them to the thirty tyrants, whose authority was not of long duration, and gave place again to liberty, which continued amid various events, during a long series of years, till the Roman power had subdued Greece, and reduced it into a province. I shall consider in this place only the popular government, and shail examine in particular five or six heads: the foundation of government according to So lon's establishment; the different parts of which the republic consisted; the council or senate of the five hundred; the assemblies of the people; the different tribunals for the administration of justice, and the revenues or finances of the republic. I shall be obliged to be more extensive upon what regards the government of Athens than I have been upon that of Sparta, because the latter is almost sufficiently known from what has been said of it in the Life of Lycurgus.‡ SECTION 1.-FOUNDATION OF THE GOVERNMENT OF ATHENS. SOLON was not the first who established the popular government at Athens. Theseus long before him had traced out the plan, and began the execution of it. After naving united the twelve towns into one city, he divided the inhabitants into three bodies; that of the nobility, to whom the superintendence in religious affairs and all offices were confided; the labourers or husbandmen ; and artisans. He had proposed the establishment of a kind of equality between the three orders; for if the nobles were considered by their honours and dignities, the husbandmen had the advantage of their utility to the public, and the necessity there was for their labours; and the artisans had the superiority to both the other bodies in their number. Athens, to speak properly, did not become a popular state till the establishment of the nine archons, whose authority continued only for one year, whereas before it was for ten; and it was not till many years after, that Solon, by the wisdom of his laws, instituted and confirmed this form of government.§ Solon's great principle was to establish as much as possible a kind of equality among his citizens, which he regarded with reason as the foundation and essential point of liberty. He resolved therefore to leave the public employments in the hands of the rich, as they had been till then, but to give the poor also some share in the government, from which they were excluded. For this reason he made an estimation of what each individual was worth. Those who were found to have an annual revenue of five hundred measures, as well in grain as liquid things, were placed in the first class, and called the pentacosiomedimni * Κρῆτες ἀεὶ ψεύσαι, κακὰ θηρία, γαστέρες αργαί.—Tit. i. 12. that is, those who had a revenue of five hundred measures. The second class was composed of such as had three hundred, and could maintain a horse for war; these were called horsemen, or knights. Those who had only two hundred, were in the third class, and were called zugitæ.* Out of these three classes only, the magistrates and commanders were chosen. All the other citizens, who were below those three classes, and had less revenues, were comprised under the name of theti, hirelings, or workmen labouring with their hands. Solon did not permit them to hold any office, and granted them only the right of giving their suffrages in the assemblies and trials of the people, which at first seemed a very slight privilege, but at length was found to be a very great advantage, as will appear hereafter. I do not know whether Solon foresaw it; but he used to say that the people were never more obedient and submissive, than when they possessed neither too much nor too little liberty :† which comes very near Galba's expression, when, to incline Piso to treat the Roman people with goodness and lenity, he desires him to remember," that he was going to command men who were incapable of bearing either entire liberty or absolute subjection.”§ The people of Athens, becoming more haughty after their victories over the Persians, pretended to have a right to share in all the public offices and the magistracy; and Aristides, to prevent the disorders which a too tenacious opposition might have occasioned, thought proper to give way to them in this point. It appears however from a passage in Xenophon, that the people contented themselves with the offices from whence some profit arose, and left those which related more particularly to the government of the state in the hands of the rich. T The citizens of the three first classes paid every year a certain sum of money, to be laid up in the public treasury ;** the first a talent,ff the knights half a talent, and the zugitæ ten minæ.‡‡ As the proportion of revenue determined the order of the classes, when their revenues augmented, the people were allowed to rise to a superior class. If Plutarch may be believed, Solon formed two councils, which were a kind of double limitation to check and regulate the assemblies of the people. The first was the Areopagus: but it was much more ancient than his institutions; and he only reformed it, and gave it a new lustre by augmenting its power The second was the council of the four hundred, that is, a hundred of each tribe; for Cecrops, the first king of the Athenians, had divided the people into four tribes. Clisthenes long after him changed that order, and established ten. It was in this council of the four hundred that all affairs were considered before they were proposed to the assembly of the people, as we shall soon explain.§§ I do not mention here another division of the people into three parties or factions, which till the time of Pisistratus were a continual source of troubles and seditions. One of these three parties was formed out of those who inhabited the high lands, and favoured popular government; the other out of those who lived in the plains, and they were for oligarchy; and the third out of the people upon the coast, and these held the mean between both. It is necessary, for the better understanding what we have now said, to enter into a more particular account of the Athenian people. SECTION II.-OF THE INHABITANTS OF ATHENS. THERE were three sorts of inhabitants at Athens; citizens, strangers, and servants. In the account taken by Demetrius Phalereus in the 116th Olympiad, their number amounted to twenty-one thousand citizens, ten thousand strangers, It is believed they were so called from their being ranked between the knights and the theti; as in the gafleys those who rowed in the middle were termed zugita; their place was between the thalamita and thranite. ↑ Plut. in Solon. p. 110. Tarit. Hist. l. x. c. 16. Imperaturus es hominibus, qui nec totam servitutem pati possunt, nec totam libertatem. Plut. in Aristid. p. 332. TXenoph. de Rep. Athen. p. 691. ** Pollux. 1. viii. c 10. tt About one thousand dollars. Nearly one bundred dollars. il Salon. P. 88. A. M. 3690. Ant. J. C. 314. Athen. 1. vi. p. 272. and forty thousand servants.* The number of citizens was almost the same in the time of Cecrops, but less under Pericles. 1.OF THE CITIZENS. A CITIZEN Could only be such by birth or adoption. To be a natural denizen of Athens, it was necessary to be born of a father and mother both free, and Athenians. We have seen that Pericles restored this law to all its force, which had not been exactly observed, and which he himself some short time after infringed. The people could not confer the freedom of the city upon strangers; and those whom they had so adopted, enjoyed almost the same rights and privileges as the natural citizens. The quality of citizen of Athens was sometimes granted in honour and gratitude to those who had rendered great services to the state, as to Hippocrates; and even kings have sometimes obtained that title for themselves and their children. Evagoras, King of Cyprus, thought it much to his honour.† When the young men attained the age of twenty, they were enrolled upon the list of citizens, after having taken an oath; and it was only in virtue of that public and solemn act that they became members of the state. The form of this oath is exceedingly remarkable, which Stobæus and Pollux have preserved in the following words: "I will never dishonour the profession of arms, nor save my life by a shameful flight. I will fight to my last breath for the religion and civil interests of the state, in concert with the other citizens, and alone if occasion should require. I will not bring my country into a worse condition than I found it, but will use my utmost endeavours to make it most happy and flourishing. I will always subunit myself to the laws and magistrates, and to all that shall be ordained by the common consent of the people. If any one shall violate or make void the laws, I will not disguise or conceal such an attempt, but will oppose it, either alone or in conjunction with my fellow-citizens; and I will constantly adhere to the religion of my forefathers. To all which I call to witness Agraulis, Enyalus, Mars, and Jupiter." I leave the reader to his own reflections upon this august ceremony, well adapted to inspire the love of country into the hearts of the young citizens. The people had at first been divided into four tribes, and afterwards into ten. Each tribe was subdivided into several parts, which were called A, Pagi. It was by these two titles the citizens were described in the public acts. litus, e tribu Cecropide, e pago Pitthensi." II. OF THE STRANGERS. Me I DISTINGUISH by this name, those who being of a foreign country, came to settle at Athens, or in Attica, either on account of commerce, or exercising any trade. They were termed ur inquilini. They had no share in the government, nor vote in the assembly of the people, and could not be admitted into any office. They put themselves under the protection of some citizen, as we find from a passage of Terence,§ and upon that account were obliged to render him certain duties and services, as the clients did at Rome to their patrous. They were bound to observe all the laws of the republic, and to conforin entirely to all its customs. They paid a yearly tribute to the state of twelve drachmas; and in default of payment were made slaves, and exposed to sale. Xenocrates, the celebrated, but poor philosopher, was very near experiencing this misfortune, and was carried to prison; but Lycurgus the orator having paid the tax, released him from the farmers of the public revenues; a kind of men who in all times have paid very little respect to merit, with the exception of an exceeding few of their number. That philosopher meeting some time after the sons of his deliverer, told them, "I pay your father the The text says. pugiadas reσoagánovra, four hundred thousand, which is a manifest error. Thais patri se commendavit in clientelam et fidem; nobis dedit sese.-Eunuch, Act. 5. scer. ult. favour he has done me with usury, for all the world praises him upon my account."* III. OF THE SERVANTS. THERE were two kinds of them. The one, who were free, and not able to get their bread by their work, were obliged by the bad state of their affairs to go into service; and their condition was easy, and not laborious. The service of the other was forced and unavoidable; these were slaves, who had either been taken prisoners in war, or bought of such as trafficked publicly in them. They constituted a part of the estate of their master, who disposed of them at pleasure, but generally treated them with great humanity. Demosthenes observes, in one of his harangues, that the condition of servants was infinitely more gentle in Athens than any where else. There was in that city an asylum and place of refuge for slaves, where the bones of Theseus had been interred; and that asylum subsisted in Plutarch's time. How glorious was it for Theseus, that his tomb should do that twelve hundred years after his death, which he had done himself during his life, and continue the protector of the oppressed, as he had been!t When the slaves were treated with too much rigour and inhumanity, they had their action against their masters, who were obliged to sell them to others, if the fact were sufficiently proved. They could ransom themselves even against their masters' consent, when they had laid up money enough for that purpose. For out of what they got by their labour, after having paid a certain proportion to their masters, they kept the remainder for themselves, and made a stock of it at their own disposal. Private persons, when they were satisfied with their services, often gave these slaves their liberty, when the necessity of the times obliged the state to arm and enlist them for war among the citizens.§ The humane and equitable usage with which the Athenians treated their servants and slaves, was an effect of the good temper natural to that people, and very remote from the austere and cruel severity of the Lacedæmonians in re gard to their Helots, which often brought their republic to the very brink of destruction. Plutarch, with great reason, condemns this rigour. He thinks it proper to habituate one's self always to mercy, even with regard to beasts, were it only, says he, to learn by that means to treat them well, and for the sake of becoming humane and benevolent. He relates upon this occasion a very singular fact, and very proper to explain the character of the Athenians. After having finished the temple called Hecatonpedon, they set all the beasts of bur den at liberty that had been employed in the work, and assigned them fat pas turages as consecrated animals. And it was said, that one of these beasts having come to offer itself at the work, and put itself at the head of those that drew the carriages to the citadel, walking foremost as if to exhort and encourage them, the Athenians ordained by a decree, that the creature should be maintained at the public expense till its death.|| SECTION III.-OF THE COUNCIL OR SENATE OF FIVE HUNDRED. IN consequence of Solon's institutions, the people of Athens had a great share and authority in the government. Appeals might be brought to their tribunal in all causes; they had a right to cancel the old laws, and establish new ones; in a word, all important affairs, whether relating to war or peace, were decided in their assemblies. In order to their determinations being made with more wisdom and maturity, Solon had instituted a council, composed of four hundred senators, one hundred out of each tribe, which were then four in number; they prepared and digested the affairs which were to be laid before the people, as we shall soon explain more at large. Clisthenes, about one hundred years after Solon, having increased the number of tribes to ten, augmented also that of the Plut. in Flamin. p. 375. ↑ Philip. 3. Plut. de Superstit. p. 160 Plut. in Catone, p. 338, 339. |
