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had fled out of their own country for murder; or those that fled for involuntary murder, and had afterwards committed a wilful and deliberate murder. The first person that was tried in this court was Teucer, who, as Lycophron reports, was banished out of Salamis, by his father Telamon, upon a groundless suspicion that he had been accessory to the death of Ajax. In these cases the criminal was not suffered to land, or so much as cast anchor, but pleaded his cause in his bark, and, if found guilty, was committed to the mercy of the winds and the waves, or, as some say, suffered there condign punishment: if innocent, he was only cleared of the second charge, and underwent a year's banishment for the former. From the courts for the trial of capital offences we now turn to those established for the cognizance of civil affairs.

From the numerous causes of litigation that occur in the common affairs of life, these courts were necessarily numerous also, and the provisions made by the laws to meet the various exigencies of civil legislation. To enter into a minute detail of all these would lead me far beyond the limits prescribed to this work, and would be foreign to the professed design of it. I shall therefore content myself with exhibiting some of the most leading features in the civil judicature of the Athenians.

The courts or halls are variously denominated, receiving their names sometimes from the nature of the causes tried in them, and at other times from some local cirTumstance, or even from the form of the building:— Thus one was called the Trigon; probably because of its triangular figure; another was named after the hero Lycus; a third after Metichus, the architect who built it. The judges in all these courts were obliged to take a solemn oath by the paternal Apollo, Ceres, and Jupiter the king, that they would give sentence uprightly and according to law, if a law applicable to the case existed, if not, according to the best of their judgment; which oath, as well as that which was taken by the judges

who officiated in the Helixa, was tendered in a placé near the river Ilissus, called after a hero of that name, who, in a public sedition, reconciled the contending parties, and engaged them to ratify their treaties of peace by mutual oaths in this place. Of all the judicial courts that entertained civil suits, that called Heliæa was by far the greatest and most frequented, and is supposed by some to have been so called on account of the people's thronging so together, or rather from Heliou Acceiure, it was an open place exposed to the sun.

The judges that sat in this court were at least fifty, but the more usual number was from two to five hundred. When causes of great consequence were to be tried, it was customary to call in all the judges of the other courts. Sometimes a thousand were called in, and then two courts are said to have been joined: sometimes fifteen hundred or two thousand, and then three or four courts met together; whence it appears that the judges were sometimes five hundred in other courts. This court decided upon civil affairs of the utmost importance, and the judges were not permitted to enter on business before they had taken a solemn oath, which as we find in Demosthenes ran thus: "I will give sentence according to the laws and the decrees of the people of Athens, and the council of five hundred. I will not consent to place the supreme power in the hands of a single person, or of a few; nor permit any man to dissolve the commonwealth, or so much as to give his vote, or make an oration in defence of such a revolution. I will not endeavour to discharge private debts, nor to make any division of lands or houses. I will not restore persons sent into banishment, nor pardon those that are condemned to die, nor expel any man out of the city contrary to the laws of the people, and the council of five hundred, nor permit any other person to do it. I will not elect any person into any public employ, and in particular I will not create any man, Archon, Hieremnemon, Ambassador, public Herald, or Synedrus; nor consent that he shall be admitted into any of those offices, which are elected by lots upon the same day with

the Archons, who has undergone any former office, and not given in his accounts; nor will I consent that any person shall bear two offices, or be twice elected to the same office in one year. I will not receive gifts myself, nor shall any other for me; nor will I permit any person to do the like by any means, whether direct or indirect, to pervert justice in the court of Heliæa. I am not under thirty years of age; I will hear both the plaintiff and defendant without partiality, and give sentence in all the cases brought before me. I swear this by Jupiter, Neptune and Ceres. If I violate this oath, or any part of it, may I perish, with my whole family, but if I religiously observe it, may we live and prosper.

When a married woman was cited to appear before a magistrate, her husband. was also summoned in this form, such a woman and her lord; because wives, being under the government of their husbands, were not permitted to appear in any court without them. When the judges had taken their places, before the trial commenced, the public crier first commanded all those who had no business to transact, to depart; then to keep the crowds from thronging in upon them, the court was surrounded with a rope, by order of the magistrates, and serjeants were appointed to keep the doors; and lest any of the judges should be wanting, proclamation was made in these words; "If any judge be without doors let him enter;" for if any man came after the discussion of a cause was began, he could not be admitted, as not being capable of giving sentence, because he had not heard all that each party could offer for himself. If the party accused did not make his appearance, judgment was immediately given against him.

Before a trial began, each party was obliged to deposit a certain sum of money, which was termed Prytanæa, into the hands of the magistrates, who entered the cause in the court, who, upon failure of this payment, immediately struck that cause off the list. If the cause in debate amounted to the value of a hundred drachms,

or from that to a thousand, they deposited there three drachms; if its value was more than a thousand and not above ten thousand, they deposited thirty, which after the decision of the cause was divided among the judges, and the person that was cast was obliged besides the payment of other charges, to restore the money thus deposited to his adversary. Of those who sued the commonwealth for confiscated goods, or private persons sueing for the inheritance of heiresses, the former de posited the fifth, the latter the tenth of the estates contended for. In small suits a single drachm was deposited. Those who could not prove the indictment they brought against any one were obliged to pay a sixth part of the value of the object contended for. Altars were erected in all the courts of judicature, on which the witnesses took a solemn oath.

The persons who gave evidence were to be men of credit, free-born and disinterested: for no man's oath was taken in his own cause; and such persons, as by their misconduct had forfeited their privileges, and were infamous, were not thought worthy of belief. Slaves were not permitted to have any concern in public business, and therefore could not be evidences, except they were examined on the rack, nor plead in any court of justice. Nevertheless the testimony of the sojourners and freed men seems to have been received in all causes with one or two exceptions. There were two sorts of evidences, viz. such as swore to what themselves had seen; and those who swore to that which they had re ceived from those who had been eye-witnesses, but were either dead or sick, or in some foreign land, or hindered by some other unavoidable accident from making his appearance; for except in such cases, the allegations of absent persons were never taken for lawful evidence. The witnesses were required by the laws to deliver their testimony in writing, whereby it became impossible for them to recede from what they had onee sworn, and such as had borne false witness were convicted with less difficulty.

But the tablets of those witnesses, who, upon a citation before given, came from home with an intention of giving their testimonies, were different from the tablets of such as came casually into the court; the latter being only composed of wax, and so contrived as to give the witness an opportunity of making such alterations in the matter of his evidence as appeared necessary. The witnesses being sworn, and the plaintiff placed on the left and the defendant on the right hand of the tribunal, each delivered a set oration in his own behalf, these were for the most part composed by some of the orators, which custom was first introduced by Antiphon, a Rhamnusian; sometimes if the parties requested it, the judges granted them advocates to plead for them, and lest these regular pleaders, by the length of their speeches, should weary the judges and engross too much of the time, so as to retard other business, they were limited to a certain time, which was measured by a glass, in which, instead of sand, water was used. When the glass was run out, they were not permitted to speak any longer, they were therefore very careful not to lose one drop of water, and whilst the laws quoted by them were reciting, or if any other matter happened to intervene, they gave orders that the glass should be stopped. But if any person had made an end of speaking before the water in his glass was expended, he was permitted to transfer the remainder to any other that had occasion for it. When both parties had made an end of speaking, the public crier, by command of the presiding magistrate, ordered the judges to bring in their verdict, and in such cases as the laws had made provision, and appointed penalties for a single verdict, whereby the person was declared guilty or not guilty, was sufficient, but in cases wherein the law was not explicit, a second sentence was required, if the person was brought in guilty, to decide on the punishment due to his offence; and here before they proceeded to give sentence as to punishment; the condemned person was asked what damage he thought his adversary had received from him, and what recompence he ought in justice to make him? And the plaintiff's account, which,

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