Aristotle On The Constitution Of Athens

Author : Aristotle
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781537405001
Total Pages : 50 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (5 download)

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Download or read book The Athenian Constitution written by Aristotle and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-09-01 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Athenian Constitution - Aristotle - Translated by Sir Frederic G. Kenyon - The Constitution of the Athenians or the Athenian Constitution refers to two texts from Classical antiquity: one probably by Aristotle or a student of his, the second attributed to Xenophon, but not thought to be his work. The Aristotelian text is contained in two leaves of a papyrus codex discovered at Oxyrhynchus, Egypt in 1879. The other work was traditionally included among the shorter works of Xenophon. Now the ancient constitution, as it existed before the time of Draco, was organized as follows. The magistrates were elected according to qualifications of birth and wealth. At first they governed for life, but subsequently for terms of ten years. The first magistrates, both in date and in importance, were the King, the Polemarch, and the Archon. The earliest of these offices was that of the King, which existed from ancestral antiquity. To this was added, secondly, the office of Polemarch, on account of some of the kings proving feeble in war; for it was on this account that Ion was invited to accept the post on an occasion of pressing need. The last of the three offices was that of the Archon, which most authorities state to have come into existence in the time of Medon. Others assign it to the time of Acastus, and adduce as proof the fact that the nine Archons swear to execute their oaths 'as in the days of Acastus, ' which seems to suggest that it was in his time that the descendants of Codrus retired from the kingship in return for the prerogatives conferred upon the Archon. Whichever way it may be, the difference in date is small; but that it was the last of these magistracies to be created is shown by the fact that the Archon has no part in the ancestral sacrifices, as the King and the Polemarch have, but exclusively in those of later origin. So it is only at a comparatively late date that the office of Archon has become of great importance, through the dignity conferred by these later additions. The Thesmothetae were many years afterwards, when these offices had already become annual, with the object that they might publicly record all legal decisions, and act as guardians of them with a view to determining the issues between litigants. Accordingly their office, alone of those which have been mentioned, was never of more than annual duration