chus, and slew him before his guards could come to his assistance. When his guards came up they killed Harmodius, and a little time afterwards Aristogeiton was taken prisoner. News was brought to Hippias that his brother was murdered before any of the armed procession knew of it. He acted with the greatest presence of mind. He asked the armed Athenians to lay aside their weapons and meet him at a certain place, as if he had something to communicate to them. Then he directed the arms to be seized and examined, and all persons carrying daggers were arrested. Aristogeiton was put to death with frightful tortures, and he is said to have avenged himself by accusing the truest friends which Hippias possessed.

Thus the conspiracy of Harmodius and Aristogeiton proved a total failure. Four years afterwards, as we shall presently see, Hippias was driven from power. Curiously enough, the Athenians, in their love for the memory of Harmodius and Aristogeiton, and their detestation for that of Hippias, confused the two sets of events, and in unhistoric, uncritical times, believed that the two friends had overthrown despotism and effected the liberation of their country. This is seen in a famous Skolion, or popular song, which was to free Athens what "God save the Queen" is to ourselves; it assigned the patriots a place in the Islands of the Blessed with Achilles and Tydides. The song commenced with an allusion to the daggers concealed in the myrtle boughs at the festival :—

"In myrtle wreath my sword I sheath,
Thus his brand Harmodius drew,
Thus Aristogeiton slew

The tyrant lord in freedom's cause,
And gave to Athens equal laws."

But, as Thucydides explained to his countrymen, this was an anachronism. It was subsequent events which gave to Athens equal laws.' Those events will now

66

be related.

After the assassination of Hipparchus, the cruelty of Hippias became intolerable. He no longer ruled by any other motives than those of fear. A reign of terror set

in. The worst form of tyranny was developed, and manifested in frequent executions and in crushing taxation. He also formed a sort of connection with Darius, king of Persia, as a means of strengthening his position. When his own countrymen were thoroughly alienated, a formidable combination abroad sought his ruin. The Alcmæonid family, though they had been perpetually banished by Pisistratus in the third period of his power, were strong abroad in influence, wealth, and various resources. They were eagerly watching their opportunity to reinstate themselves in their native land. They had succeeded in making an ally of the oracle at Delphi. The temple at Delphi had been destroyed, and this powerful family had arranged with the Amphictyons to rebuild it, on certain terms. This they did most munificently, and in the front of the temple they substituted Parian marble for common stone. This politic liberality raised their reputation throughout Greece, and earned the gratitude of the Delphians. The head of the family was now Cleisthenes, the son of Megacles, who by costly presents won over the Pythia or priestess still further to his purposes. Whenever the Spartans sent to consult the Oracle, there was always one unwavering answer, "Athens must be liberated."

The Spartans themselves had none other than friendly feeling towards Pisistratus and his family. But they were in the highest degree superstitious, and, under the reiterated warnings of the Oracle, resolved to liberate Athens. They first sent a small force, which was successfully repulsed. Next they sent a considerable army under the command of Cleomenes, one of their two coordinate kings. Hippias, unable to face so large a force, took refuge in the Acropolis. There was every probability that the contest might be indefinitely prolonged. But it so happened that his children fell into the hands of the enemy as they were being conveyed out of the country. Then the Spartans were enabled to dictate their own terms. They agreed to restore to Hippias his children on condition that he should leave Athens for ever within five days. Then Hippias sailed away to Sigeum in the Troad, where he possessed a private principality which his father, Pisistratus, had won in

war. Nothing could exceed the joy of the Athenians at their deliverance. They condemned the family of the tyrants to perpetual banishment, and took the severest measures against their adherents. The warmest gratitude was evinced towards the memory of Harmodius and Aristogeiton. Their statues were erected in the markets, and their successors were declared for ever free from all public burdens. Whenever, in aftertime. the Athenian orators wished to adduce an example of the highest patriotism and the best service towards the state, they appealed to the immortal memory of Harmodius and Aristogeiton. So thoroughly had those four latter years of misrule by Hippias engrained in the Athenian mind an impassioned love for liberty, and a hatred of the name and reality of tyranny.

CHAPTER XI.

THE ERA OF CLEISTHENES.

CLEISTHENES and the Alcmeonid family now triumphantly returned to Athens. But there was always in Athens a strong party of nobles opposed to the popular element which Cleisthenes represented. These ranged themselves under the leadership of Isagoras. Cleisthenes perceived that under the constitution of Solon the real supremacy must rest with the nobles, and that his party could only rule by a transfer of political power to the people. He therefore proposed and carried into effect various fundamental changes in the Solonian constitution. The general tendency of these was to give the people a leading share in the government. "He took the people into partnership," says Herodotus, "who had been before excluded from everything." He is, in truth, the real author of the Athenian democracy.

It will be remembered that the Athenian citizenship had hitherto been confined to the members of the four Ionian tribes. There was now a considerable population in Attica, who did not belong to the close families which made up the tribes. Cleisthenes abolished the ancient division, and created instead ten new tribes, and a name

was assigned to each derived from some Attic hero. Each of these ten tribes was broken up into ten townships, one hundred townships in all, which expanded in the course of time-we are not distinctly told how -into an hundred and seventy townships. Each of these townships had its local magistrates and its regular assemblies. The township, in fact, corresponded to an English parish, and every Athenian citizen was obliged to be enrolled in one. There was a peculiar feature in this institution. A group of townships did not make up a tribe as in England a set of parishes make up a county. The ten townships which made up a tribe were scattered all over Attica. The object of this legislation seems to have been that the local and provincial feeling, which had caused so much disaster and unhappiness in the feuds of the Mountain, the Coast, and the Plain, should be effectually obviated. A material alteration was made in the senate. Hitherto it had consisted of four hundred members, but the number was now enlarged to five hundred. This number was made up of fifty persons selected from each tribe. The year was divided into ten portions, each portion consisting of thirty-five or thirty-six days, and each of the tribes, in succession, occupied the presidency for that time. As the sittings were permanent, the presiding tribe of fifty members were divided into five sections of ten, and each of these subdivisions presided over one out of the five weeks given up to the tribe as a whole. Therefore every day a set of ten senators was in session-and the chairman for the time being was always an officer of peculiar importance to whom were intrusted the guardianship of the acropolis, the treasury, and the public seal.

The duties of the senate had chiefly been those of a preliminary character the discussion and preparation of measures to be submitted to the assembly. A considerable amount of administrative work was now attached to it. During each prytany, the space of time in which a tribe was presiding, the assembly used to meet four times. According to the original arrangement of Cleisthenes, the assembly (the Ecclesia) probably met only once in each prytany, but afterwards the

1 The Attic year consisted of twelve lunar months, or 354 days.

regular number was four times. The proceedings were conducted in the most orderly way. Whoever happened to be chairman of the senate was also chairman of the ecclesia, but, later, the nine representatives of the nine non-presiding tribes seemed to share with the chairman in taking the general direction of the proceedings. The assembly became the school in which the great Athenian orators were formed, and afforded the greatest freedom of debate to all its members, whom it trained to be patriots and legislators.

The legal and military relations of the state were also materially altered by the constitution of Cleisthenes. Each Athenian citizen was trained to the functions of juror and judge. Cleisthenes ordained that all public crimes should be tried by the whole body of citizens above thirty years of age. Necessarily these were soon divided off into separate sworn panels for trying different cases. In course of time ten distinct courts were constituted, and each juror or dikast came to receive a small payment, each day, after the sitting.

As regards the military arrangements there were now ten generals (Strategi) for the ten tribes, chosen annually. The Polemarch still retained a right of command along with them. In process of time their functions became greatly extended, embracing the general direction of foreign affairs. The strategi-inasmuch as special qualifications were needed for their office-were not chosen by lot, but elected by the citizens by show of hands. It is most probable that all the five hundred senators were elected by lot from the different tribes, and in subsequent times the principle of choice by lot became more extensively applied.

The institution of ostracism has also been assigned to Cleisthenes. Much more may be urged on behalf of this institution than until recently was thought possible. It was designed to obviate some of the worst evils to which a democracy, like that of Athens, could be exposed. By ostracism a citizen could be banished, without trial, for a period of ten years, which was subsequently limited to five. Any citizen could write upon a shell the name of any other whom he thought it would be for the advantage of the state to