Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

AREIOPAGUS. AREIOPAGUS. 127
called'H acow $ovAXi, to distinguish it from the Solon is said to have formed the two councils, the
senate of Five IIundred,which sat in the Cerameicus senate and the Areiopagus, to be a check upon the
within the city. That it Was a body of very remote democracy; that, as he himself expressed it, "the
antiquity, acting as a criminal tribunal, was evi- state, riding upon them as anchors, might be less
dently believed by the Athenians themselves. In tossed by storms." Nay, even after the archons
proof of this, we may refer to the express assertions were no longer elected by suffrage but by lot, and
of the orators, and the legend of Orestes having the office was thrown open by Aristeides to all the
been tried before the council for the murder of his Athenian citizens, the " upper council" still remother —a trial which took place before Athena, tained its former tone of feeling. We learn, inand which Aeschylus represents as the origin of deed, from Isocrates (Areiop. p. 147), that no one
the court itself. Again, we find that even before was so bad as not to put off his old habits on bethe first Messenian war (B. C. 740) began, the coming an Areiopagite; and though this may refer
Messenians offered to refer the points in dispute to to private rather than public conduct, we may not
the Argive Amphictiony, or the Athenian Areio- unreasonably suppose that the political principles
pagus (Paus. iv. 5. ~ 1; Thirlwall, Hist. Greece, of the younger would always be modified by the
vol. i. p. 345), because this body was believed to older and more numerous members-a modification
have had jurisdiction in cases of manslaughter which, though continually less in degree, would
(6alcas poYmKds), " from of old." still be the same in direction, and make the AreioThere is sufficient proof, then, that the Areiopa- pagus what Pericles found it, a counteracting force
gus existed before the time of Solon, though he is to the democracy. Moreover, besides these changes
admitted to have so far modified its constitution in its constitution, Solon altered and extended its
and sphere of duty, that he might almost be called functions. Before his time it was only a criminal
its founder. What that original constitution was, court, trying cases of " wilful murder and woundmust in some degree be left to conjecture, though ing, of arson and poisoning " (Pollux, viii. 117;
there is every reason to suppose that it was Dem. c. Arist. p. 627), whereas he gave it extensive
aristocratical, the members being taken, like powers of a censorial and political nature. Thus
the Ephetae, from the noble patrician families we learn that he made the council an "overseer
(&pLO'Tivarl ). We may remark that, after the time of everything, and the guardian of the laws," emof Solon, the Ephetae, fifty-one in number, sat powering it to inquire how any one got his living,
collectively in four different courts, and were and to punish the idle. (Plutarch. Solon. c. 22;
charged with the hearing of such cases of acci- Isoc. 1. c.)
dental or justifiable homicide as admitted of or re- We learn from other authorities that the
quired expiation, before the accused could resume Areiopagites were " superintendents of good order
the civil and religious rights he had lost: a re- and decency," terms rather unlimited and undesumption impossible in cases of wilful murder, the fined, as it is not improbable Solon wished to
capital punishment for which could only be escaped leave their authority. There are, however, reby banishment for life, so that no expiation was corded some particular instances of its exertion.
required or given. (MiUller, Eumen. ~ 64; Pollux, (Athen. iv. pp.167, c.-168, b. vi.p. 245, c. ed. Dinviii. 125.) Now the Ephetae formerly adminis- dorf; Pollux, viii. 112.) Thus we find that they
tered justice in five courts, cid for this and other called persons to account for extravagant and disreasons it has been conjectured that they and the solute living, and that too even in the later days
Areiopagus then formed one court, which decided of Athenian history. On the other hand, they ocin all cases of murder, whether wilful or accidental. casionally rewarded remarkable cases of industry,
In support of this view, it has been urged that the and, in company with certain officers called
separation of functions was rendered necessary by yuvvamtov6muol, made domiciliary visits at private enthat change of Solon which made the Areiopagus tertainments, to see that the number of guests
no longer an aristocratic body, while the Ephetae was not too large, and also for other purposes.
remained so, and as such were competent to ad- But their censor ial and political authority was not
minister the rights of expiation, forming, as they confined to matters of this subordinate character.
did, a part of the sacred law of Athens, and there. We learn from Aristotle (Plut. Thsemis. c. 10; see
fore left in the hands of the old patricians, even Bickh, vol. i. p. 208), that at the time of the
after the loss of their political privileges. On this Median invasion, when there was no money in
point we may remark, that the connection insisted the public treasury, the Areiopagus advanced eight
on may to a great extent be true; but that there drachmae a man to each of the sailors-a statement
was not a complete identity of functions is proved which proves that they had a treasury of their
by Plutarch (Solon. c. 19), in a quotation from the own, rather than any control over the public
laws of Solon, showing that even before that legis- finances, as some have inferred from it. (Thirlwall,
lator the Areippagites and Ephetae were in some HBlst. Greece, vol. iii. app. 1.) Again, we are told
cases distinct. (Lycurg. c. Leoc. p. 154) that at the time of the
It has been observed, in the article AnCHON, battle of Chaeroneia, they seized and put to death
that the principal change introduced by Solon in those who deserted their country, and that they
the constitution of Athens, was to make the quali- were thought by some to have been the chief prefication for office depend not on birth but property; servation of the city.
also that, agreeably to his reforms, the nine archons, It is probable that public opinion supported
after an unexceptionable discharge of their duties, them in acts of this kind, without the aid of which
"went up " to the Areiopagus, and became mem- they must have been powerless for any such obbers of it for life, unless expelled for misconduct. jects. In connection with this point, we may add
(Deinar. c. Demnosts. p. 97; Plut. Sol. c. 18.) that when heinous crimes had notoriously been
The council then, after his time, ceased to be committed, but the guilty parties were not known,
aristocratic in constitution; but, as we learn from or no accuser appeared, the Areiopagus inquired
Attic writers, continued so in spirit. In fact, into the subject, and reported (a&rvopaovl,) to the