Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/407

CHANGES AT ATHENS UNDER PERIKLES. 383 intentioned. Now the dikasteries established by Perikles wero inaccessible both to corruption and intimidation : their number, attended their lords to parliament, equipped in the same military dress, and even dared sometimes to present themselves before the judge of assize, and to enter the courts of justice, in a hostile manner, — while their principals sat with the judges on the bench, intimidating the witnesses, and influenc- ing the jm-ies by looks, nods, signs and signals." (Treatise concerning Civil Government, p. 337, by Josiah Tucker, D. D. London, 1781.) The whole chapter (pp. 301-355) contains many statutes and much other matter, illustrating the intimidation exercised by powerful men in those days over the course of justice. A passage among the Fragmenta of Sallust, gives a striking picture of the conduct of powerful citizens under the Roman Republic. (Fragm. lib. i, p. 158, ed. Delph.) " At discordia, et avaritia, et ambitio, et cxtera secundis rebus oriri sueta mala, post Carthaginis excidium maxime aucta sunt. Nam injuriie valid- iorum, et ob eas discessio plebis a Patribus, aliaeque dissensiones domi fuere jam inde k principio : neque amplius, qnam rcgibus exactis, dum mctus h Tarquinio et helium grave cum Etruria positum est, aequo et mod- esto jure agitatum : dein, servili imperio patres plebem exercere : de rit^ atque tergo, regio more consulere : agro pellere, et k caeteris expertibus, soli in imperio agere. Quibns servitiis, et maxime fcenoris onere, oppressa plebes, cum assiduis bellis tributum simul et militiam toleraret, armata Montem Sacnim et Aventintmi insedit. Tumque tribunes plebis, et alia sibi jura paravit. Discordiarum et certaminis utrimque finis fuit secundum bellum Punicum." Compare the exposition of the condition of the cities throughout Europe in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, in Hiillmann's Stadte- Wesen des jVIittelalters, especially vol. iii, pp. 196-199, seqq. The memorable institution which spread through nearly all the Italian cities during these centuries, of naming as podesta, or supreme magistrate, a person not belonging to the city itself, to hold office for a short time, — was the expedient which they resorted to for escaping the extreme perver- sion of judicial and administrative power, arising out of powerful family con- nections. The restrictions which were thought necessary to guard against either favor or antipathies on the part of the podesta, are extremely singu- lar. (Hiillmann, vol. iii, pp. 252-261, seqq.) " The proceedings of the patrician families in these cities (observes Hiill mann) in respect to the debts which they owed, was among the worst of the many oppressions to which the trading classes were exposed at their hands, one of the greatest abuses which they practised by means of their superior position. How often did they even maltreat their creditors, who came to demand merely what was due to them ! " (Stadte-Wesen, vol. ii, p. 229.) Machiavcl's Histoiy of Florence illustrates, throughout, the inveterate habit of the powttful fiimilies to set themselves above the laws and iudicial