[660] A case of such deposition of an archon by vote of the public assembly, even before the year of office was expired, occurs in Demosthenês, cont. Theokrin. c. 7: another, the deposition of a stratêgus, in Demosthen. cont. Timoth. c. 3.
[661] Æschinês (cont. Ktesiphont, c. 9, p. 373) speaks of the senate of Areopagus as ὑπεύθυνος, and so it was doubtless understood to be: but it is difficult to see how accountability could be practically enforced against such a body. They could only be responsible in this sense,—that, if any one of their number could be proved to have received a bribe, he would be individually punished. But in this sense the dikasteries themselves would also be responsible: though it is always affirmed of them that they were not responsible.
[662] Respecting the procedure of arbitration at Athens, and the public as well as private arbitrators, see the instructive treatise of Hudtwalcker, Ueber die öffentlichen und Privat-Schiedsrichter (Diaeteten) zu Athen: Jena, 1812.
Each arbitrator seems to have sat alone to inquire into and decide disputes: he received a small fee of one drachma from both parties: also an additional fee when application was made for delay (p. 16). Parties might by mutual consent fix upon any citizen to act as arbitrator: but there were a certain number of public arbitrators, elected or drawn by lot from the citizens every year: and a plaintiff might bring his cause before any one of these. They were liable to be punished under εὔθυναι, at the end of their year of office, if accused and convicted of corruption or unfair dealing.
The number of these public diætetæ, or arbitrators, was unknown when Hudtwalcker’s book was published. An inscription, since discovered by Professor Ross, and published in his work, Über die Demen von Attika, p. 22, records the names of all the diætetæ for the year of the archon Antiklês, B. C. 325, with the name of the tribe to which each belonged.
The total number is one hundred and four: the number in each tribe is unequal; the largest number is in Kekropis, which furnishes sixteen; the smallest in Pandionis, which sends only three. They must have been either elected or drawn by lot from the general body of citizens, without any reference to tribes. The inscription records the names of the diætetæ for this year B. C. 325, in consequence of their being crowned or receiving a vote of thanks from the people. The fragment of a like inscription for the year B. C. 337, also exists.
[663] Public Economy of the Athenians, book ii, chap. xiv, p. 227. Engl. transl.
M. Boëckh must mean that the whole six thousand, or nearly the whole, were employed every day. It appears to me that this supposition greatly overstates both the number of days and the number of men actually employed. For the inference in the text, however, a much smaller number is sufficient.
See the more accurate remark of Schömann, Antiquit. Juris Public. Græcor., sect. lxxi, p. 310.
[664] Aristotel. Politic. ii, 9, 3. Καὶ τὴν μὲν ἐν Ἀρείῳ πάγῳ βουλὴν Ἐφιάλτης ἐκόλουσε καὶ Περικλῆς· τὰ δὲ δικαστήρια μισθοφόρα κατέστησε Περικλῆς· καὶ τοῦτον δὴ τὸν τρόπον ἕκαστος τῶν δημαγωγῶν προήγαγεν, αὔξων εἰς τὴν νῦν δημοκρατίαν. Φαίνεται δ’ οὐ κατὰ τὴν Σόλωνος γενέσθαι τοῦτο προαίρεσιν, ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον ἀπὸ συμπτώματος. Τῆς ναυαρχίας γὰρ ἐν τοῖς Μηδικοῖς ὁ δῆμος αἴτιος γενόμενος ἐφρονηματίσθη, καὶ δημαγωγοὺς ἔλαβε φαύλους, ἀντιπολιτευομένων τῶν ἐπιεικῶν· ἐπεὶ Σόλων γ’ ἔοικε τὴν ἀναγκαιοτάτην ἀποδιδόναι τῷ δήμῳ δύναμιν, τὸ τὰς ἀρχὰς αἱρεῖσθαι καὶ εὐθύνειν· μηδὲ γὰρ τούτου κύριος ὢν ὁ δῆμος δοῦλος ἂν εἴη καὶ πολέμιος.