20 HISTORY AND ETHNOLOGY. 



subjected to actual bondage. They met with a kinder treatment in Athens 

 than in the other states. 



By the Athenian constitution the administration of the government was 

 vested in the Assembly of the People, the Archons, the Grand Council, and 

 the Areopagus. 



The Grand Council consisted of 400 members, chosen annually, by lot, 

 from the citizens. They were required to be of unimpeachable integrity, and 

 -It least thirty years of age. On them devolved the actual charge of the 

 government. They also proposed laws, but had to give an account to the 

 people every year, and to undergo the penalty which the assembly of the 

 people had a right to impose upon them in case of bad administration. 



The Archons, who before the time of Solon had been almost as kings, 

 under his code only exercised judicature in special branches of juris- 

 diction. 



The Areopagus had existed ever since the most ancient times as a kind 

 of tribunal for capital crimes ; but Solon assigned to it the charge of 

 supervising the management of the state, the conduct of public officers, and 

 the observance of laws and morals, &c. This court even acquired the 

 power of rejecting decrees of the popular assembly, when it deemed 

 them unjust or unlawful. Thus it formed a barrier to the people's passions 

 and thoughtlessness. The Areopagus was chosen from former archons 

 whose administration had given no cause for complaint. It numbered 

 more than 300 members, who, when once elected, retained their dignity 

 for life. They held their sessions publicly in the open air, which gave 

 their proceedings an air of authority and solemnity. PL 8, fig. 5, the 

 Areopagus in session. 



Solon had paid particular attention to the administration of justice, 

 and laid it down as a principle to let the greatest possible number of 

 judges vote in cases of litigation. Besides this, the power lay in the 

 people to ostracize or banish for ten years a man whose ambition appeared 

 to threaten the liberties of the state. The Athenians, finally, had a written 

 system of jurisprudence, which was highly prized. Part of it was even 

 subsequently incorporated in the laws of the Roman and other nations. 



An account of all matters relating to Grecian warfare will be given 

 under the head of Military Sciences, and the religious ceremonies will be 

 treated of under Mythology. Here we only refer to pi. 27, figs. 19, 20, 

 Greek War-leaders. 



The laws of Lycurgus prohibited the Spartan citizens from carrying on 

 any trade. War and hunting constituted honorable employments. The 

 helots (slaves) tilled the soil, and also provided for the necessaries of life. 

 Rough iron, and sometimes iron coin, constituted the sole currency. 

 Simplicity of manners, and frugality of living, continued to characterize 

 the Spartans up to the close of the Peloponnesian war ; but after that 

 date, when an intercourse began to grow up between Asia and Greece, the 

 infection of eastern luxury reached even to Sparta, and the early poverty 

 was succeeded by a season of private and public wealth. 



The wealthy Athenian citizens had always devoted themselves more 

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