Chapter XLVI

CONSTITUTIONAL AND JUDICIAL CHANGES AT ATHENS UNDER PERIKLES.

First establishment of the democratical judicial system
at Athens. — Union, in the same hands, of functions both
administrative and judicial in early Athens — great powers of the
magistrates, as well as of the senate of Areopagus. — Magistrates
generally wealthy men — oligarchical tendencies of the senate of
Areopagus — increase of democratical sentiment among the bulk
of the citizens. — Political parties in Athens. — Periklês and
Ephialtês democratical: Kimon, oligarchical or conservative. —
Democratical Dikasteries, or Jury-courts, constituted by Periklês
and Ephialtês. — How these dikasteries were arranged. — Pay
to the dikasts introduced and made regular. — The magistrates
are deprived of their judicial and confined to administrative
functions. — Senate of Areopagus — its antiquity — semi-religious
character — large and undefined controlling power. — Large powers
of the senate of Areopagus, in part abused, became inconsistent
with the feelings of the people after the Persian invasion. —
New interests and tendencies then growing up at Athens. — Senate
of Areopagus — a centre of action for the conservative party and
Kimon. — Opposition between Kimon and Periklês — inherited from
their fathers. — Character and working of Periklês. — Reserved,
philosophical, and business-like habits of Periklês — his little
pains to court popularity — less of the demagogue than Kimon. —
Ephialtês belonging to the democratical party, and originally
equal to Periklês in influence. — Efforts of Ephialtês against
magisterial abuse. — Kimon and his party, more powerful than
Ephialtês and Periklês, until the time when the Athenian troops
were dismissed from Laconia. — Ostracism of Kimon. — Measures
carried by Ephialtês and Periklês to abridge the power of the
senate of Areopagus as well as of individual magistrates. —
Institution of the paid dikasteries. — Separation of judicial
from administrative functions. — Assassination of Ephialtês by
the conservative party. — Commencement of the great ascendency of
Periklês, after the death of Ephialtês. Compromise between him
and Kimon. — Brilliant success of Athens, and era of the maximum
of her power. — Other constitutional changes. — The Nomophylakes.
— The Nomothetæ — distinction between laws and psephisms,
or special decrees — process by which laws were enacted and
repealed. — Procedure in making or repealing of laws assimilated
to the procedure in judicial trials. — Graphê Paranomôn —
indictment against the mover of illegal or unconstitutional
propositions. — Working of the Graphê Paranomôn. — Conservative
spirit in which it is framed. — Restraint upon new propositions,
and upon the unlimited initiative belonging to every citizen.
— Abusive extension of the Graphê Paranomôn afterwards. — It
was often used as a simple way of procuring the repeal of an
existing law — without personal aim against the author of the
law. — Numbers and pay of the dikasts, as provided by Periklês.
— The Athenian democracy, as constituted by Periklês, remained
substantially unaltered afterwards down to the loss of Athenian
independence — excepting the temporary interruptions of the Four
Hundred and the Thirty. — Working of the numerous dikasteries
— their large numbers essential to exclude corruption or
intimidation — liability of individual magistrates to corruption.
— The Athenian dikasteries are jury-trial applied on the broadest
scale — exhibiting both its excellences and its defects in
an exaggerated form. — The encomiums usually pronounced upon
the theory of jury-trial would apply yet more strongly to the
Athenian dikasteries. — Imperfections of jury-trial — exaggerated
in the procedure of the dikasteries. — Powerful effects of the
dikasteries in exercising and stimulating the intellect and
feelings of individual citizens. — Necessity of learning to speak
— growth of professional teachers of rhetoric — professional
composers of speeches for others. — Rhetors and Sophists. —
Polemics of Sokratês, himself a sophist, against the sophists
generally. — Sophists and rhetors were the natural product of
the age and of the democracy. — The dikasteries were composed,
not exclusively of poor men, but of middling and poorer citizens
indiscriminately.
352-407

HISTORY OF GREECE.