Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/89

ShNAlK OF AREOPAGUS. 73 of the naukrari were taken. That llie senate of areopagus was formed of members of the same order, we may naturally presume : the nine archons all passed into it at the expiration of their year of office, subject only to the condition of having duly passed the test of accountability ; and they remained members for life. These are the only political authorities of whom we hear in the earliest imperfectly known period of the Athenian government, after the discontinuance of the king, and the adop- tion of the annual change of archons. The senate of areopagus seems to represent the Homeric council of old men ;' and there were doubtless, on particular occasions, general assemblies of the people, with the same formal and passive character as the Homeric agora, at least, we shall observe traces of such assem blies anterior to the Solonian legislation. Some of the writers of antiquity ascribed the first establishment of the senate of areopagus to Solon, just as there were also some who con sidered Lykr.rgus as having first brought together the Spartan gerusia. But there can be little doubt that this is a mistake, and that the senate of areopagus is a primordial institution, of immemorial antiquity, though its constitution as well as its functions underwent many changes. It stood at first alone as a permanent and collegiate authority, originally by the side of the kings and afterwards by the side of the archons : it would then of course be known by the title of The Boule, TJie Senate, or council ; its distinctive title, " Senate of Areopagus, " borrowed from the place where its sittings were held, would not be bestow- ed until the formation by Solon of the second senate, or council, from which there was need to discriminate it. This seems to explain the reason why it was never mentioned in the ordinances of Drako, whose silence supplied one argument in favor of the opinion that it did not exist in his time, and that it was first constituted by Solon. 2 We hear of the senate of areopagus chiefly as a judicial tribunal, because it acted in this character constantly throughout Athenian history, and because 1 Meier und Schomann, Der Attische Prozcsr. Einleitung. p. 10. Plutarch. Solon, c. 19 ; Aristotle, Polit. ii ; 9, 2 ; Cicero, De Offic. i. 22 Pollux seems to follow the opinion that Solon first instituted the senate of s (viii, I'^o). VOL. III. 4