The Athenian Constitution   

from primeval times. However, the story of the popular party
is by far
the most probable. A man who was so moderate and public-spirited in
all his other actions, that when it was within his power to put his
fellow-citizens beneath his feet and establish himself as tyrant, he
preferred instead to incur the hostility of both parties by placing
his honour and the general welfare above his personal
aggrandisement, is not likely to have consented to defile
his hands by
such a petty and palpable fraud. That he had this absolute power is,
in the first place, indicated by the desperate condition the
country; moreover, he mentions it himself repeatedly in his
poems, and
it is universally admitted. We are therefore bound to consider this
accusation to be false.

Part 7

Next Solon drew up a constitution and enacted new laws; and the
ordinances of Draco ceased to be used, with the exception of those
relating to murder. The laws were inscribed on the wooden stands,
and set up in the King's Porch, and all swore to obey them; and the
nine Archons made oath upon the stone, declaring that they would
dedicate a golden statue if they should transgress any of them. This
is the origin of the oath to that effect which they take to the
present day. Solon ratified his laws for a hundred years; and the
following was the fashion in which he organized the constitution. He
divided the population according to property into four classes, just
as it had been divided before, namely, Pentacosiomedimni, Knights,
Zeugitae, and Thetes. The various magistracies, namely, the nine
Archons, the Treasurers, the Commissioners for Public Contracts
(Poletae), the Eleven, and Clerks (Colacretae), he assigned to the
Pentacosiomedimni, the Knights, and the Zeugitae, giving offices to
each class in proportion to the value of their rateable property. To
who ranked among the Thetes he gave nothing but a place in the
Assembly and in the juries. A man had to rank as a
Pentacosiomedimnus if he made, from his own land, five hundred
measures, whether liquid or solid. Those ranked as Knights who made
three hundred measures, or, as some say, those who were able to
maintain a horse. In support of the latter definition they adduce
the name of the class, which may be supposed to be derived from this
fact, and also some votive offerings of early times; for in the
Acropolis there is a votive offering, a statue of Diphilus, bearing
this inscription:

The son of Diphilus, Athenion hight,
Raised from the Thetes and become a knight,
Did to the gods this sculptured charger bring,
For his promotion a thank-offering.

And a horse stands in evidence beside the man, implying that this
was what was meant by belonging to the rank of Knight. At the same
time it seems reasonable to suppose that this class, like the
Pentacosiomedimni, was defined by the possession of an income of a
certain number of measures. Those ranked as Zeugitae who made two
hundred measures, liquid or solid; and the rest ranked as Thetes,
and were not eligible for any office. Hence it is that even at the
present day, when a candidate for any office is asked to
what class he
belongs, no one would think of saying that he belonged to the Thetes.

Part 8

The elections to the various offices Solon enacted should