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The Constitution of Draco. Aθ. Πολ. ch. iv

James W. Headlam

The Classical Review / Volume 5 / Issue 04 / April 1891, pp 166 - 168 DOI: 10.1017/S0009840X00178898, Published online: 27 October 2009

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0009840X00178898

How to cite this article: James W. Headlam (1891). The Constitution of Draco. Aθ. Πολ. ch. iv. The Classical Review, 5, pp 166-168 doi:10.1017/S0009840X00178898

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Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/CAR, IP address: 147.188.128.74 on 06 Jul 2015 166 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW. he fell ill with the epidemic. This, as Hans than in normal times; so that Gilbert may Delbriick points out, is perhaps the real be right in his belief that Pericles was reason why Thucydides anticipates Pericles' Attica. Whether first ecclesia held after the new generals the play was produced at the Lenaea or at the entered on office. The necessity of creating Great Dionysia, it is clear that the charge of such an officer cannot have been foreseen so embezzlement must be connected with long before the new year as the time of the Pericles' not very successful expedition in elections. Probably Pericles was not made the early summer of 430. It is at least certain o-Tparryyos avroKpdrwp in Hecatombaeon 430, that when Hermippus' play appeared Cleon owing to the opposition now roused against had only come forward as an opponent of him. This would explain why he had no the policy of wearing Sparta out. power to hinder the meeting of the ecclesia Beloch's notion that there was an officer after the Panathenaea of 430 ; for had he called TrpvTavis TO>V orpat^yoiv receives nobeen orpcm^yos avroKptxTiap, he might have countenance from Aristotle. Indeed, it is managed to prevent the bn-^tiporovia taking clear that in ordinary circumstances the place. It also involves the conclusion that sfrrategi had equal power. Still, it is only the famous self-defence was delivered before likely that in the war more cases of a the Panathenaea of 430. yos avTOKpdrwp should have occurred E. C. MARCHANT.

THE CONSTITUTION OF DRACO. 'A0. IIoA. ch. iv.

THIS chapter contains the account of a of the 0eAthens made a code of law. by Draco. As Mr. Kenyon points out, we Speaking of Solon he says : have no other record of any such change, and irp&yrov /lev ovv TOVS &pa.KOvros VO/J.OVS aveikf a well known passage in the Politics (ii. 9, irXrjv TS>V (poviK&v amuras 8ia TTJV xaXtTrorrjTa 9, 1274b, 15) expressly tells us that Draco Koil TO /*eye{?os TSIV e/nrifUiav (ch. xvii.). After did nothing of the sort. It is therefore im- finishing this topic he proceeds in chap, xviii. possible that both these statements can be to give an account of the constitutional due to Aristotle. The latter part of the changes made by Solon. He did not then second book has long been suspected by include constitutional arrangements among critics, but before we accept the new account the Oea-fioi of Draco. it will be well to examine it rather closely (2) Other passages in the TT O A I T e i'a itself to see if it bears internal marks of genuine- support the view taken by Plutarch and the ness. Politics. This is the more necessary because there (a) In chap. vii. speaking of Solon, the writer, is considerable evidence to support the state- who is indeed here followed almost verbally by ment of the Politics—that what Draco did Plutarch, speaks of the Oear/ioloi Draco in con- was not to make a constitution but to pub- nection with the new code of laws made by lish a code of laws in an existing constitu- Solon, and makes no reference to him in tion. speaking of the constitutional innovations of (1) No other writer knows anything of a the latter. constitution attributed to Draco ; not even (J) In chap. xli. he recapitulates the main an author who, as Plutarch did, drew his points of the history which he has just nar- information largely and quoted verbally both rated, and refers to Draco in the following from the irokireia and also apparently from words : the authorities used by Aristotle in compiling /JitTa 8e ravrrjv •q (Trl Apa/covros, iv ij teat vofiovs the TToXinia. For Plutarch when speaking aviypaif/av THE CLASSICAL REVIEW. 167 The characteristic feature of the legislation Chap. vii. I have already referred to : the of Draco is, we are here told, the publication word here is used as synonymous with vd//.os of the law. This agrees with the account of and contrasted with iroAn-etov era^ev. chap, vii., of Plutarch, and of the Politics. We are then I think justified at looking at It is inconsistent with chap. iv. : because the sentence as it stands with great sus- there not a single word is said about the picion. publication of the laws ; and instead we have Let us now turn to the provisions of the described a very remarkable constitution ; constitution. one in some ways, as I shall show, more re- I think I can show that markable than that of Solon. (1) At least one of these could not pos- There is then sufficient reason for sub- sibly have been devised in Draco's time. jecting the statement of chap. iv. to a careful Nearly all of them are very difficult to re- enquiry. concile with what we know of the state of The passage is introduced in the following Athens at the time : and some of them are words: inconsistent with other statements in this fiera Se ravra, ^povov TIVOS OV troXXov 8ie\66vTOS, book. «ir* Apix«v K.T.X. Cf. also 1286a, 3. 10 minae is equal to a 1000 drachmas. This distinction is maintained in this work, The qualification of a ^evym/s was to possess cf. chap. vii. and ix. (the rule however is not land capable of producing 200 /xlSi/xvoi: a invariable, cf. ch. xxxiv.). /xe'St/tvos of corn was worth at this time about This seems to be more true of the word a drachma (Plut. Solon 23, quoting a law Ota-pot. Oea-fnol. is a veryrare word in prose: anofd Solon). Land of this extent must have where it occurs in Attic prose it seems al- been worth not less than 2000 drachmas. ways to refer directly to the deo-pot of Draco According to this men were eligible to the except in a few passsages where it is used archonship who were excluded by Solon from metaphorically. Plato Pliaedrus 248 C uses all office. the expression Ota-fioi rijs 'ASpaareias, and in II. Men are eligible to the office of Pseudo-Arist. n-ept Koo-pov 6, 401a, 10 we read orpanjyds and tinrap^os who possess 100 of dcoyioi rov 6eov. There seems to be no minae, and have children over ten years of other case of its use in Aristotle or Plato age by a wedded wife. (except in the Epistles), and none in the As to this— Orators except in reference to Draco, cf. (a) We have no other record of a-Tparriyoi also Herod, iii. 31. The word and also the at this time : in chap. vii. where a consider- kindred Becrpia are both used more than able list of officials is given they are not once in this work. In the passage of Solon mentioned. quoted p. 31 : (5) The clause that they must have child- fcoytOVS 6' 6/MHOUS Tffl KCLKM Tt KO.yO$&, ren is also quite new. evOetav eis I/caOTov dp/idcras St/ojv, (c) If there were arparqyoi they held only lyp/ an inferior position, and the very high pro- it obviously refers simply to the ordinances perty qualification is unaccountable. of a code of law. In chap. xvi. if Mr. III. In the next sentence the mention of Kenyon's emendation is correct Iv re yap irpvrdveis causes much difficulty. Who were TOIS ^[eo-juots Tros TJV: the use theis y ? Were they the same as the ap^ovres ? the same (but I expect Oeo-fiiois is the word If so, why is this not explained in chap. iii. t here). In chap. xxxv. he says ot rptaKovra TV. The council of 401 is quite new. More- —KaOe'iX.ov—icai TW SOA.<«VOS Oea-fiZv ouoi SWL/J.- over in chap. viii. Aristotle speaking of v\i)s. This does not mean, Solonian code, and not to the constitution. as Mr. Kenyon suggests, that he altered the 168 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW. number of members from 401 to 400, but thought of a particular party ; the reformers ' he set up a council of 400.' The new of this school used to advocate their policy council of 400 is contrasted with the old by maintaining that it really would restore council of the Areopagus. So Plutarch also Athens to the condition in which it was be- took it, chap. xix. : cruo-nyo-a/xevos 8e rijv br fore the democratic changes began. Many 'Apeito irayo) fiovXrjv...Sevripav irpocrKaTevei/xe as we know looked on Solon as the origina- fiovXrjv. tor of the changes which they deplored V. K\r)pov(rOcu 8e /cat TavTrjv Kal Tas aLAAas (Ar. Polit. ii. 9). They would then recom- dp^as TOVS vTrip TpiAitoVTa erq yeyovoYas, Kal 8is mend a constitution of this kind by saying rbv avrbv fir] ap^eiv vpo TOV TraWas irepieXOelv. it was like that which prevailed in Athens The rotation of all in office was a well- before the time of Solon. This has misled known device of later times : but how was some transcriber or editor. After the words it applicable to a large body of citizens, rots Oto-fjioh lOrjKtv, influenced by the expression most of whom lived at a considerable dis- at the beginning of chap. iii. he desiderated tance from Athens 1 It was in fact the mark some account of the constitution in the time of a developed democracy (Ar. Polit. vi. 10, of Draco (it is possible that the expression 3, 1298a, 10). of the Politics xii. 1274 woXiTeia vTrap\6vari VI. The next clause shows that the writer TOUS vo/xovs e&tjKev represents some words imagines that this fiovXrj had the probouleu- which have fallen out of the text) and tic duties of the later fiovXy. Is not this inserted this passage out of some other book. an anachronism 1 If the whole passage be omitted and dea- The fact is that the whole of this consti- /xoi regain its natural meaning of ' a code of tution is a complete anachronism. It shows law,' then the clauses at the end of the in every line the influence of the political chapter will acquire much more point. principles which prevailed among the ' Draco published his code of law, but the moderate aristocratic party at Athens from Areopagus maintained its position and had the end of the 5th century. The only con- to guard the [new] laws. And any person stitutions that we know which really are who had been maltreated could go to the like it are those proposed in the year 411 Areopagus and show them which of the [new] by the party of Theramenes. laws had been broken.' The following resemblances are particu- JAMES W. HEADLAM. larly striking : (1) aVeSeSoTO r/ iroAiTeia rols otrXa Trape^o- ptvoK. Cf. Thuc. viii. 97 : Ar. TOX. T. A0. Ch. 22, p. 60. iKvafitva-av TOVS Iwia. ap- 33: Xen. Hell. ii. 3. Xoiras • • • T0'S fiera TTJV rvpawiSa irpCyrov. (2) The small property qualification for It is scarcely possible to get a satisfactory the archons. sense out of TOIS. TOVS has been proposed : From chap. 29 we learn that in the con- TOTC is as probable an emendation, and TOTC stitution there described the archons and irpSrrov would give a better antithesis to the Prytanes alone were to receive pay: they next clause (oi 8t irporepoi mures rjcrav at- had two obols a day. This implies that no ptroi). high property qualification was required. Ch. 23, p. 66. £7ri Se rr/v a7roo"Tacrtv TTJV TWV The high qualification for the generals 'Iwvcov Kal TT]V TU>V AaKtSai/nowan' (rv/x/xa^iav would be perfectly natural at this later 'ApuTTiiSrjs rjv o irporpei/'as. The sense of this period, but not in 621. passage, as it stands, is in complete conflict (3) The fiovXevrrjs to be fined for non-at- not only with the statements in other authors, tendance. but with the general argument of the writer. The only instance of such a law at Aristides really urged the Athenians to make Athens is given in this work in chap. 30 an alliance with the Ionians, and to draw where the constitution of the 400 is de- apart from the Lacedaemonians. Is it Dot scribed. possible that the transcriber has transposed (4) The mention of irpyrdveis—orpan^yot— airoa-raa-iv and (rv/j.fw.^iav (perhaps because Linrapxoi belongs to a later period ; as does they occurred at the end of two successive the rotation in office, and the relations of lines in his original) ? It is true that Athens the fiovXrjt o the ex/cX^crux. did not at once formally break with the The examination thus completely con- general Greek alliance, but the term aTro- firms the suspicions caused by the absence orao-is might fairly be applied to the division of external support. It also, I think, shows between the Greek states caused by the the origin of the insertion. formation of the separate confederacy. The constitution described betrays the Ch. 28, p. 78. K(il xpovov fiev TWO. 8ie8t'8ov,