A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

124 Athens
had proved incapable in war; hence they had sent for Ion
on an occasion of especial need. The last was the archonship.
. , . The thesmothetae were for the first time
chosen many years later—when the magistrates had already
come to be elected annually—in order that they might
record the customary laws and keep them for the trial
of offenders. Therefore this alone of the offices has never
been longer than a year in duration. Thus much do they
precede one another in the time (of their institution). . . .
They had absolute power to settle cases without appeal,
and not as now merely to hold a preliminary trial. These,
then, were the regulations regarding the offices. And the
council of the Areopagus had the function of watching
over the laws; but in fact it managed the most numerous
and important public affairs with full power to chastise
and fine all who acted disorderly. Birth and wealth were
required of those who were elected archons; and from them
the Areopagites were constituted. Hence the office of
the latter has alone remained lifelong to the present day.
11. The Timocracy
Constitution Such is an outline of the original constitution. No long
of Draco. time afterward in the archonship of Aristaechmus, Draco
lb. 4. drew up his laws. But the constitution itself [as it then
existed] had the following character. The franchise had
already been granted to those who could furnish a panoply.
They elected the nine archons and the treasurers
from such as possessed an estate worth not less than ten
minas free from encumbrance, and the other, less important
offices from those who had the franchise. The
generals and hipparchs must show an estate free from
encumbrance, worth no less than a hundred minas, and