But in addition to this, observing that the people
were becoming turbulent and unruly, in consequence of their relief from
debt, he formed a second senate, consisting of a hundred men selected
from each of the four tribes, to deliberate on measures in the first
instance, and he permitted no measures to be proposed before the general
assembly, which had not been previously discussed in this senate. The
upper senate he intended to exercise a general supervision, and to
maintain the laws, and he thought that with these two senates as her
anchors, the ship of the state would ride more securely, and that the
people would be less inclined to disorder. Most writers say that Solon
constituted the senate of the Areopagus, as is related above; and this
view is supported by the fact that Drakon nowhere mentions or names the
Areopagites, but in all cases of murder refers to the Ephetai. However,
the eighth law on the thirteenth table of the laws of Solon runs thus:--
"All citizens who were disfranchised before the magistracy of Solon
shall resume their rights, except those who have been condemned by the
Areopagus, or by the Ephetai, or by the king--archons, in the prytaneum,
for murder or manslaughter, or attempts to overthrow the government and
who were in exile when this law was made."
This again proves that the senate of the Areopagus existed before the
time of Solon; for who could those persons be who were condemned by the
court of the Areopagus, if Solon was the first who gave the senate of
the Areopagus a criminal jurisdiction; though perhaps some words have
been left out, or indistinctly written, and the law means "all those
who had been condemned on the charges which now are judged by the court
of the Areopagus, the Ephetai, or the Prytanies, when this law was made,
must remain disfranchised, though the others become enfranchised?" Of
these explanations the reader himself must consider which he prefers.
Pages:
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248