Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/397

CHANGES AT ATHENS UNDER PERIKLES. 373 a new law or to repeal a law already in existence ; it could only enact a psepkism, — that is, properly speaking, a decree, applica- ble only to a particular case ; though the word was used at Ath- ens in a very large sense, sometimes comprehending decrees of general as well as permanent application. In reference to laws, a peculiar judicial procedure was established. The thesmothe- tJB were directed annually to examine the existing laws, noting any contradictions or double laws on the same matter ; and in the first prytany (tenth part) of the Attic year, on the eleventh day, an ekklesia was held, in which the first business was to go throuo-h the laws seriatim, and submit them for approval or rejection : first beginning with the laws relating to the senate, next, those of more general import, especially such as determined the functions and competence of the magistrates. If any law was condemned by the vote of the public assembly, or if any citizen had a new law to propose, the third assembly of the prytany was employed, previous to any other business, in the appointment of nomothetae, and in the provision of means to pay their salary. Previous notice was required to be given publicly by every citizen who had new propositions of the sort to make, in order that the time necessary for the sitting of the nomothetse might be measured according to the number of matters to be submitted to their cognizance. Public advocates were farther named to undertake the formal defence of all the laws attacked, and the citizen who proposed to repeal them had to make out his case against this defence, to the satis faction of the assembled nomothetae. These latter were taken from the six thousand sworn dikasts, and were of different num- bers according to circumstances : sometimes we hear of them as five hundred, sometimes as one thousand, and we may be certain that the number was always considerable. The effect of this institution was, to place the making or re- pealing of laws under the same solemnities and guarantees as the trying of causes or accusations in judicature. "We must recollect that the citizens who attended the ekklesia, or public assembly, were not sworn like the dikasts ; nor had they the same solemni- ty of procedure, nor the same certainty of hearing both sides of the question set forth, nor the same full jireliminary notice. How much the oath sworn was brought to act upon the minds of the dikasts, we may see by the frequent appeals to it in the orators.