Five-minute digest
The Athenian Constitution
Summary
The Athenian Constitution (Athenaion Politeia) is a short treatise in two parts on the government of Athens, written in the 330s or 320s BC by Aristotle or by a member of his school as one of the 158 constitutions the Lyceum is said to have collected. It was known only from quotations until a papyrus roll, copied on the back of farm accounts from Roman Egypt, was acquired by the British Museum and identified by Frederic G. Kenyon, who published the text and his translation in 1891. The beginning is lost, and the text opens in the middle of the trial of the Alcmeonidae for the sacrilege committed against the followers of Cylon. Parts 1 to 41 are a constitutional history. The author describes the early oligarchy, in which the poor were serfs (Hectemori) of the rich and could be enslaved for debt, and the constitution under Draco. Solon, chosen as mediator and archon, cancels debts and forbids loans on the security of the person (the Seisachtheia), divides citizens into four property classes, reforms the courts, and refuses both the redistribution of land demanded by the poor and the restoration hoped for by the rich; his own poems are quoted at length as evidence. After strife, Pisistratus seizes power three times and rules mildly, and his sons Hippias and Hipparchus follow until the murder of Hipparchus by Harmodius and Aristogeiton and the expulsion of Hippias. Cleisthenes then reorganizes the people into ten tribes, creates the Council of Five Hundred and introduces ostracism. The Areopagus leads after the Persian wars, until Ephialtes strips it of power; Pericles introduces pay for jurors; and the demagogues who follow lead the city through defeat in the Peloponnesian War, the oligarchy of the Four Hundred in 411, the Thirty imposed by Lysander in 404, and the democratic restoration of 403 under Thrasybulus with its amnesty. Part 41 lists eleven changes of constitution and concludes that the people have made themselves masters of everything. Parts 42 to 69 describe the institutions of the author's own day: the enrolment of citizens at eighteen and the two years' training of the ephebes; the Council and its prytanies; the archons, generals and many boards of magistrates, most chosen by lot; and, in detail, the selection of jurors and the procedure of the law courts, ending with the counting of the bronze ballots. The book is the most important single source for Athenian institutions and for the reforms of Solon and Cleisthenes. The library text is Kenyon's translation as reprinted by Project Gutenberg.
Top Lessons
Solon's middle course
Solon freed the poor from debt slavery but refused to redistribute land, and his poems show him standing between the parties with his shield held over both. The book presents him as a model of the moderate legislator who disappoints everyone and saves the city.
A constitution is a history
The author counts eleven changes of constitution from Ion and Theseus to the restoration of 403. Athenian government is shown not as a single design but as a long series of reforms, revolutions and restorations.
Institutions designed against corruption
The second half shows how Athens used the lot, large juries, rotation, audits and secret ballots to keep officials and courts from being bought. The author approves the transfer of judgment to large bodies because small ones are easier to corrupt.
Reconciliation after civil war
After the rule of the Thirty, the restored democracy swore an amnesty for all but a few. The author praises the Athenians for the way they handled past wrongs, contrasting them with cities that took revenge.
Verified Quotes
“Solon, who was the first to appear as the champion of the people.”
“There are three points in the constitution of Solon which appear to be its most democratic features”
Frequently cited
“So I stood with my shield outstretched, and both were safe in its sight, And I would not that either should triumph, when the triumph was not with right.”
“His administration was temperate, as has been said before, and more like constitutional government than a tyranny.”
“Cleisthenes, being beaten in the political clubs, called in the people by giving the franchise to the masses.”
“The democracy has made itself master of everything and administers everything by its votes in the Assembly and by the law-courts, in which it holds the supreme power.”
“since small bodies are more open to corruption, whether by actual money or influence, than large ones.”
Medical Lens
The second half of the treatise records two features of Athenian civic life relevant to the history of public health and welfare. Part 49 describes a law under which citizens worth less than three minas and so disabled that they cannot work receive two obols a day from the state after examination by the Council, with a treasurer chosen by lot to manage the payments; this is one of the earliest recorded public provisions for the disabled. Part 50 assigns the city commissioners the duty of keeping streets clear of obstructions and drains discharging into the street and of removing the bodies of those who die in the streets, and Part 51 charges the market commissioners with ensuring that goods for sale are pure and unadulterated. The text describes these as administrative duties; it does not discuss medicine.
- Part 49
The Council examines disabled paupers, who receive a state allowance of two obols a day.
- Part 50
City commissioners prevent building into the streets and drains emptying into them, and remove corpses from the streets with public slaves.
- Part 51
Market commissioners see that goods offered for sale are pure and unadulterated.