The Athenian Constitution   

be by lot,
out of candidates selected by each of the tribes. Each tribe
selected ten candidates for the nine archonships, and among these
the lot was cast. Hence it is still the custom for each tribe to
choose ten candidates by lot, and then the lot is again cast among
these. A proof that Solon regulated the elections to office
according to the property classes may be found in the law still in
force with regard to the Treasurers, which enacts that they shall be
chosen from the Pentacosiomedimni. Such was Solon's legislation with
respect to the nine Archons; whereas in early times the Council of
Areopagus summoned suitable persons according to its own
judgement and
appointed them for the year to the several offices. There were four
tribes, as before, and four tribe-kings. Each tribe was divided into
three Trittyes [=Thirds], with twelve Naucraries in each; and the
Naucraries had officers of their own, called Naucrari, whose duty it
was to superintend the current receipts and expenditure. Hence,
among the laws of Solon now obsolete, it is repeatedly written that
the Naucrari are to receive and to spend out of the Naucraric fund.
Solon also appointed a Council of four hundred, a hundred from each
tribe; but he assigned to the Council of the Areopagus the duty of
superintending the laws, acting as before as the guardian of the
constitution in general. It kept watch over the affairs of the state
in most of the more important matters, and corrected offenders, with
full powers to inflict either fines or personal punishment. The
money received in fines it brought up into the Acropolis, without
assigning the reason for the mulct. It also tried those who
conspired for the overthrow of the state, Solon having enacted a
process of impeachment to deal with such offenders. Further, since
he saw the state often engaged in internal disputes, while
many of the
citizens from sheer indifference accepted whatever might turn up, he
made a law with express reference to such persons, enacting that any
one who, in a time civil factions, did not take up arms with either
party, should lose his rights as a citizen and cease to have any
part in the state.

Part 9

Such, then, was his legislation concerning the magistracies. There
are three points in the constitution of Solon which appear to be its
most democratic features: first and most important, the
prohibition of
loans on the security of the debtor's person; secondly, the right of
every person who so willed to claim redress on behalf of any one to
whom wrong was being done; thirdly, the institution of the appeal to
the jurycourts; and it is to this last, they say, that the
masses have
owed their strength most of all, since, when the democracy is master
of the voting-power, it is master of the constitution.
Moreover, since
the laws were not drawn up in simple and explicit terms (but like
the one concerning inheritances and wards of state), disputes
inevitably occurred, and the courts had to decide in every matter,
whether public or private. Some persons in fact believe that Solon
deliberately made the laws indefinite, in order that the final
decision might be in the hands of the people. This, however, is not
probable, and the reason no doubt was that it is impossible to
attain ideal perfection when framing a law in general terms; for we
must judge of his intentions, not from the actual results in the
present day, but from the general tenor of the rest of his
legislation.

Part 10