[158] Aristotle, Constitution of Athens, 22.
[159] Aristotle, Constitution of Athens, 23. The drachma contained the same weight of silver as a modern franc.
[160] For the effects of Salamis see Aristotle, Politics V. 4. 8. Welldon, p. 353.
[161] The Areopagus was deprived of power in the archonship of Conon, i.e. 463-2 B.C. Aristotle, Constitution of Athens, 25.
[162] Plutarch (Aristides, 22) says that Aristides proposed to the assembly a resolution that the archonship should be thrown open to all Athenian citizens: and he seems to imply that the resolution was passed, and that thenceforth any Athenian citizen, whether he was a Pentacosiomedimnus, a Hippeus, a Zeugites, or a Thês, was legally qualified to hold the office. It is however certain that no such extensive change in the constitution was made in the lifetime of Aristides: for Aristides died about 468 B.C. (see Clinton, Fasti Hellenici under the years 469, 468, 429), and Aristotle, in his Constitution of Athens, chapter 26, tells us that it was not till 457 B.C. that the Zeugitæ were admitted to the archonship. If then Aristides carried any resolution that altered the law, it did not go beyond throwing open the office to the Hippeis or Horsemen. The Thêtes or Labourers were never formally declared eligible: but in Aristotle's time there was nothing to prevent a Thês from becoming an archon, provided that on announcing his candidature he did not declare that he belonged to the class of Thêtes. Aristotle, Constitution of Athens, chapter 7.
[163] Pericles proposed and passed the payment of dicasts, during the lifetime of Cimon, probably about 450 B.C. Aristotle, Constitution of Athens, 27.
[164] Aristotle, Constitution of Athens, 24.
[165] The place of meeting is proved by Aristophanes, Acharnians, line 20, ἡ πνὺξ αὑτηί, Knights, line 42, Δῆμος πυκνίτηςand many other passages: the number of ordinary meetings by Aristotle, Constitution of Athens, 43.
[166] I do not know any evidence which proves directly that this rule was in force at the time of the Peloponnesian war. But we have already seen (page 60) that the rule was made by Solon, and it was certainly in force in the time of Demosthenes (366 B.C.-322 B.C.): see Demosthenes, contra Androtionem, p. 594, and contra Timocratem, p. 715, especially the words πρῶτον μὲν ... πρὸς τὴν βουλήν, εἶτα τῷ δήμῳ. Smith, Dictionary of Antiquities, article Boulê.
[167] The events of 411 B.C. prove clearly that the procedure by Graphê Paranomôn was then an established part of the Athenian constitution: see Thucydides VIII. 67, Aristotle, Constitution of Athens, 29: and further on in the present chapter, p. 93.