rest and proceedings. Besides the crimes that came peculiarly under the cognizance of the Areopagites, there were sometimes others brought before them, in which their sentence was not final or decretory, for there lay an appeal to the courts, to which they properly belonged, as Sigonius observes.

The senators of Areopagus were never rewarded with crowns for their services, not being permitted to wear them; but received a sort of maintenance from the public, which they called Chreas, and Meursius has observed out of Lucian, that they had the same pension that was allotted to some other judges, viz. three oboli for every cause, they gave judgment upon. Their authority was preserved to them entire, till the time of Pericles, who, because he could not be admitted amongst them, as never having borne the office of an Archon, employed all his power and cunning against them, and having gained a great interest with the commonalty, so embroiled and routed their senate by the assistance of Ephialtes, that most of the causes and matters, which had been formerly tried there, were discharged from their cognizance. From this time the Athenians, being, in a great measure, freed from the restraint that had been laid upon them, began sensibly to degenerate from their ancient virtue, and in a short time let loose the reins to all manner of licentiousness, whence they are compared by Plutarch to a wild unruly horse, that, having flung his rider, would be governed and kept in no longer. The same vices and excesses that were practised in the city, crept in by degrees among the Areopagites themselves; and therefore Demetrius, one of the family of the Phalerean, being censured by them as a loose liver, told them plainly, that if they designed to make a reformation in the city, they must begin at home, for that even amongst them there were several persons of as bad, and worse lives, than himself, (which was a more unpardonable crime, than any that he had been guilty of) several that debauched and corrupted other men's wives, and were themselves corrupted and seduced by bribes.

Of others Courts of Justice.

Solon, intending to make the Athenians a free people, and wisely considering that nothing would conduce more to secure the common people from the oppression of the nobility than to make them final judges of right and wrong, enacted, that the nine Archons, who till that time had been the supreme and the final judges, in most cases, should in future have little farther power than to examine the causes brought before them; which they were obliged to refer to the determination of the judges of the several courts hereafter to be mentioned.

The judges were chosen out of the citizens without distinction of quality, the very meanest being by Solon admitted to give their voices in the popular assembly, and to determine causes, provided they were arrived at the age of thirty years, and had never been convicted of any notorious crime.

The courts of justice were ten, beside that in Areopagus. Four had cognizance of actions concerning blood. The remaining six of civil matters. These ten courts were all painted with colours, from which names. were given them; whence we read of Batractioun, Phoinikioun, and others. And on each of them were engraven one of the ten following letters, A, B, г, ▲, E, Z, H, O, I, K: whence they are likewise called Alpha, Beta, &c. Such therefore of the Athenians, as were at leisure to hear and determine causes delivered in their names, together with the names of their father and borough inscribed upon a tablet, to the Thesmothetæ : who returned to them with another tablet, whereon was inscribed the letter of one of the courts, as the lots had directed. These tablets they carried to the crier of the several courts, signified by the letters, who thereupon gave to every man a tablet inscribed with his own name, and the name of the court which fell to his lot, and a staff or sceptre. Having received these, they were all admitted to sit in the court. If any person sat

among the judges, who had not obtained one of the forementioned letters, he was fined. It may not be improper to mention in this place, that the wand, sceptre, or staff, was always the ensign of judicial and sovereign power: whence in Homer it is accounted sacred, and the most solemn oaths are sworn by it:

"But this I do with solemn oath declare,

An oath, which I'll by this same sceptre swear,
Which in the wood hath left its native root,
And sapless ne'er shall boast a tender shoot,
Since from its sides relentless steel has torn
The bark, but now by Grecian chiefs is borne,
Chiefs that maintain the laws of mighty Jove,
Committed to their charge."

Sometimes we find the sceptres of kings, and great persons, adorned with studs of silver and gold.

"He cast his sceptre on the ground,
Embossed with studs of gold."

The Athenian judges having heard the causes they were appointed to take cognizance of, went immediately and delivered back the sceptre to the Prytanes, from whom they received the reward due to them. This was sometimes an obolus for every cause they had decided; sometimes three oboli; the salary differing, being sometimes raised higher than at others, by the instigation of men, who endeavoured by that means to become popular. No man was permitted to sit as judge in two courts upon the same day.

Epi-Palladio was a court of judicature instituted in the reign of Domophoon, the son of Theseus, on the following account; some of the Argives, under the conduct of Dremedes, or, as others say, of Agamemnon, being driven in the night, on the coasts of Attica, landed at the haven of Phalerus, and supposing it to be an enemy's country, went out to spoil and plunder it; the Athenians presently took the alarm, and having united. themselves into one body, under the command of Domo

phoon, repulsed the invaders with great loss, killing a great many of them upon the spot, and driving the rest back to their ships; but upon the approach of day, Acamas, the brother of Demophoon, finding, amongst the dead bodies the Palladium, or statue of Minerva, brought from Troy, perceived those they had killed were their friends and allies; whereupon, having first consulted the oracle, they gave them an honourable burial in the place were they were slain; consecrated the goddess's statue, and set it up in a temple erected for her; and instituted a court of justice, in which such were to be tried as were guilty of accidental or involuntary murders. The first that was arraigned in it was Demophoon, who, in his return from the fore-mentioned conflict, killed one of his own subjects by a sudden turn of his horse. Others report that Agamemnon being enraged at the loss of his men, and dissatisfied at Demophoon's rash and hasty attack, referred the quarrel to the decision of fifty Athenians, and as many Argians. The members composing this court were called Epheta.

Afterwards the Argians were excluded, and the number of the Ephetæ reduced to fifty-one by Draco; whom some affirm to have been the first instituter of them, but others, with more probability, contend, that he regulated and reformed them, augmented their power, honoured them with many important privileges, and made them superior to the court of Areopagus. In this state they continued till Solon's time, by whom their power was lessened and their authority restrained; the causes which had formerly been tried by them were discharged from their cognizance, and only questions of man-slaughter and accident, and, as some say, conspiracies against the lives of the citizens, if discovered before they took -effect, were left to them. Fifty of this assembly were appointed by election, five being chosen out of every tribe, but the odd man was appointed by lots. All of them were men of good character and virtuous lives, of severe manners, and a settled gravity of behaviour; and no person under fifty years of age was admitted into their number. Causes were brought into this court by the

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Basileus, and the proceedings of this court were in some things similar to those of the Areopagus; for both the plaintiff and the defendant were obliged to confirm their allegations by solemn oaths and imprecations; and then the advocates having performed their parts, the judges proceeded to give sentence.

The Delphinia, was a court of justice in the temple of Apollo Delphinius and Diana Delphinia. Under its jurisdiction came all causes respecting murders, wherein the prisoner confessed the fact, but pleaded the protection of the law; as in the case of self-preservation, or under some other justifiable circumstance. The first person tried in this court was Theseus, who, in his journey to Athens, had slain the robbers that infested the way between Trazen and that place; and, afterwards, the sons of Pallas, that raised a rebellion against him.

Prytarica was a court of judicature, which had cognizance of murders committed by things without life, or sense, as stones, iron, timber, &c. which if they caused a man's death by accident, or by the direction of an unknown hand, or of a person that had escaped, had judgment passed upon them in this place, and were ordained to be cast out of the territories of Athens. This court was as ancient as Erictheus, and the first thing that was brought to trial in it, was an axe, wherewith one of Jupiter's priests killed an ox (an animal counted very sacred in those days) that had eaten one of the consecrated cakes, and as soon as the fact was committed, secured himself by flight. This place was also the common hall, in which public entertainments were made; and the sacred lamp that burned with a perpetual fire, which was attended to by widows, who having passed the age of marriage, were devoted to the mother of the gods.

A court said to be called after the hero Phreatus, was seated on the sea-shore in the Piræus. The causes heard in this court were such as concerned persons who