CMS 231/ History 231
Litigation in Ancient Athens
Week 2 Class 2 Lecture
Athenian
Constitution
Athens the
City-State
Athenian Constitution
- Oligarchy
- Council = Areopagus
- retired archons [magistrates] automatic
members
- tried homicide cases and heard political trials
- supervised magistrates and politicians
- made policy
- Archons:
- originally, three main (with a number of subsidiary)
[number grew as constitution became more democratic]
- King Archon
- religious affairs
- tried religious cases
- Eponymous Archon
- Polemarch
- in charge of military
- military suits
- had to be a member of the Eupatridai to be eligible
- Political Assembly
- obviously was one [e.g. Board of Chairmen of the 48
naukrariai]
- but we know nothing about them/what they did
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- Solon's consitution
- Councils:
- Areopagus
- continued same functions, except, policy increasingly
in hands of Boule (Council of 400)
- Council of 400 [Boule]
- included 100 members from each of 4 tribes
- policy: prepared agenda of matters decided by
assembly
- Archons [Magistrates]
- Solon organized the Athenian population into classes of
wealth based on income. Originally only top two classes
eligible for archonships.
- because the economic division was not based on land
ownership (as was the typical case in the ancient world);
the political elite in Athens was a more open group (in
terms of social origins)
- Courts
- Heliaia - assemblies of citizens which sit as courts of
appeal from decisions of archons in lawsuits [also
evidence that they were courts of original jurisdiction -
but for what kind of cases is not clear]
- all citizens (not just victims) could prosecute lawsuits
[except for homicide]
- Assembly [Ekklesia]
- codified exisitng laws
- the number of citizens eligible to participate
increases
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- Kleisthenes
- Councils
- Areopagus
- loses some of its oversight of magistrates functions
to Council of 500
- loses jurisdiction of political trials to
Assembly
- Council of 500
- replaces Solon's Boule
- 50 members from each of 10 new tribes
- b4 Kleisthenes
- 4 tribe
- each tribe w/ 3 ridings/trittyes & 12
naukrariai
- each tribe also divided into phratries, and
phratries into gene
- after Kleisthenes
- Attica divded into 3 regions [city, country
& coast]
- each region divided into 10 ridings
- each riding included a variable number
(1-10) demes [which K invented]
- deme
- was a natural geographic unit
- was a political unit [all members
residing in deme were made members of it - but,
remained members even when you moved] - 139
in all
- deme membership was required for
citizenship
- 10 new tribes [old 4 abolished]
- each tribed made up of a city, country and
cost riding (assigned by lot)
- each tribe sent units drawn up from its
members to army
- phratries and gene continue as social
organization but not political
- presidency of Council rotated through tribes;
individual presiding officers (who managed actual
meetings of Assembly) chosen by lot from tribe in whose
month it was to serve)
- Archons
- polemarch replaced by a Board of Elected Generals
- After 487, archons selected by lot from an elected short
list
- Assembly
- hears political trials
- determines ostracism
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- Ephialtes [circa 460]
- Councils
- Areopagus loses all of its powers except homicide
jurisdiction (Boule, Dikasteria and Ekklesia obtain
different powers)
- a very controversial and radically democratic move
for which Ephialtes was murdered
- Archons
- more citizens [top 3 income classes] eligible to
become archon. Eventually even thetes started serving in
magistracies. Technically they weren't supposed to, but
everyone tolerated it.
- Courts
- Assembly
- Pericles (circa 450)
- Councils
- Archons
- Courts
- pay for service in jury (eventually, pay for service as
archon or on Council)
- Assembly
- father had to be a citizen of Athens; mother had to be
the daughter of a citizen of Athens
- restriction of citizenship unusual for a
democracy
- had the effect of sparing Athens land redistribution
problems that plagued other democracies of age
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- The Oligarchic Revolutions
- oligarchs of 410/411
- phase 1 [first 4 months]
- a council of 400 chosen by oligarchs - to run things
[?combine function of council and assembly?]
- phase 2 [last 6 months]
- a citizen list of 5,000 based on wealth would form
assembly
- 9 proedroi would organize agendas
- The Thirty
- claimed to perform services of Council; elected as law
revisers
- citizenship reduced to 3,000 based on wealth
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Athens the
City-State
- population
- organized by legal status
- citizens [+ their wives, daughters and minor
children]
- born a citizen; or Assembly passed a law making
you a citizen [6,000 quorum required]
- proven by registration in phratry and deme
- principal privileges were political (Assembly,
jury, magistracies); economic (right to buy land;
right to hold licenses for state economic activities;
right for pay for political service; right to receive
theatre money; right to receive a state pension and
state food distributions); legal (law cared more about
what happened to citizens than anyone else; citizens
couldn't be tortured or physically punished; couldn't
be sold into slavery for debts)
- principal duties were military and economic
(taxes- eisphora - but only the wealthier
citizens paid it; and liturgies - only very wealthiest
paid it ); no requirement that citiens exercise
political rights
- military: ephebia at 18-20; liable for service
until the age of 59
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- metics [free adults who were not Athenian
citizens but were registered as residents of Attika]
- had right to sue and be a witness
- had to perform festival liturgies
- had to have an Athenian citizen as sponsor
- had to perform military service
- had to pay a metic's tax
- had to pay eisphora and perform festival
liturgies
- slaves [non free adults or children]
- could be a witness, but only if tortured
first
- property of owner ("animal tool")
- could not be arbitrarily killed (but difficult to
enforce if owner was killer)
- could seek sanctuary and asked to be sold to
another master
- could own no property
- could marry only with owner's consent; children
belonged to owner
- could enter temples and take part in religious
festivals
- status inherited and could be improved or lost
[atimia]
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- these orders did not necessarily correspond to economic
classes, social spheres or religious spheres
- many wealthy metics and poor citizens
- often metics and wealthy citizens were in the same
social circles
- poor metics, slaves and poor citizens would often
work side by side
- religious organizations and rituals often included
metics and slaves, sometimes in positions of respect
- these orders are of crucial importance in the political
sphere
- organized by age
- adults (for citizens) = 18; registry in deme
- nb, in 4th century, citizenship rights only accrue at
20 [after completion of military training in
ephebate]
- had to be 30 to be a juror, archon or legislator
(some offices required holders to be even older)
- organized by gender
- census
- 450 - probably around 60,000 citizens [nb, much too
big to be a polis]
- 322 - probably around 30,000 citizens (+ 30K children
and 30K women); 40,000 metics; 150,00 slaves
- ancient sources are notoriously difficult to use
- modern estimates have to be based on models drawn
from different historical periods
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