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ARCHON (apywv, ruler)
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See also:ARCHON (apywv, ruler) , the See also:title of the highest See also:magistrate in many See also:ancient See also:Greek states. It is only in See also:Athens that we have any detailed knowledge of the See also:office, and even in this one See also:case the See also:evidence presents problems of the first importance which are incapable of decisive See also:solution. There is no doubt that the archons represented the ancient See also:kings, whose See also:absolutism, under conditions which we can only infer, yielded in See also:process of See also:time to the See also:power of the See also:noble families, supported no doubt by the fighting force of the See also:state. As to the process by which this See also:change was effected there are two accounts. Traditionally, the See also:monarchy after the See also:death of See also:Codrus (?io68 B.C.) gave See also:place to the See also:life archon whose See also:tenure of office was limited afterwards to ten years and then to one See also:year. See also:Aristotle's Constitution of Athens (q.v.) speaks of five stages: (1) the institution of the polemarch who took over the military duties of the See also: In these cases it is the old royal See also:house thatretains the royal title and the semblance of power, while the real authority passes into new hands. In Athens, the new civil office is vested in the old royal See also:family, while the old title along with its religious functions is transferred. The early history of the thesmothetae is not clear, but this much is certain that there is no adequate See also:reason for supposing, as many historians do, that in early times, they, with the three chief archons, constituted a collective or collegiate magistracy. It is true See also:Thucydides (i. 126) states that, in the time of the Cylonian See also:conspiracy (? 63 2 B.C.), " the nine archons were (i.e. collectively) the See also:principal officials," but at the same time the responsibility for the See also:action then taken attached to the See also:Alcmaeonidae alone, because one of their number, Megacles, was at that time the archon (i.e. responsibility was See also:personal, not collective). Again, the Constitution of Athens says that down to See also:Solon's time the archons had no official See also:residence, but that afterwards they used the Thesmotheteion. It is a reasonable inference from this statement that the thesmothetae had previously sat together apart from the See also:superior archons and that it was only after Solon that collegiate responsibility began. See also:Evolution of the Office.—The history of the democratization of the archonship is beset with equal difficulty. In the early days, the importance of the office (confined as it was to the highest class) must have been immense; there was no See also:audit, no written See also:law, no executive See also:council. The popular See also:assembly was See also:ill-organized and probably summoned by the archons themselves. The only control came from the See also:Areopagus which elected them and would generally be favourably disposed, and from the fact that the military and civil powers were not vested in the same hands. Although the institution of the popular courts by Solon had within it the germ of democratic supremacy, it is clear that the immediate result was small; thus, in the next See also:decade anarchia was continuous and Damasias held the archonship for more than two years in See also:defiance of the new constitution; the prolonged dissension in this See also:matter shows that the office of archon still retained its supreme importance. Gradually, however, the archonship lost its power, especially in judicial matters, until it retained merely the right of holding the preliminary investigation and the formal direction of the popular courts. Its administrative powers, See also:save those wielded by the polemarch (see below and cf. See also:STRATEGUS), dwindled away into matters of routine. We know that See also:Peisistratus ruled by See also:con-trolling the archonship, which was always held by members of his family, and the archonship of Isagoras was clearly an important party victory; we know further the names of three important men who held the office between See also:Cleisthenes' reform and the See also:Persian See also:War (See also:Hipparchus, See also:Themistocles (q.v.), See also:Aristides) from which we infer that the office was still the See also:prize of party competition. On the other See also:hand, after 487 B.C. the See also:list of archons contains no name of importance. Presumably this is due to the growing importance of the Strategus and to the institution of sortition (see below), which, whether as cause or effect, is presumably by the 5th See also:century indicative of diminished importance. There can, on these assumptions, be no doubt that, from the early years of the 5th century B.C., the archonship was of practically no importance. Furthermore we find that (probably after the Persian War) the office is thrown open to the second class, and finally in 457 B.C. we meet an archon, Mnesitheides, of the third, or Zeugite, class. See also:Plutarch (Aristides, 22) says that after the See also:great struggle of the Persian War Aristides threw open the office to all the citizens. But in fact the members of the See also:fourth class were not formally admitted even in the 4th century (though by a fiction they were allowed to pose for the time as Zeugites). Furthermore it is not till 457 that even a Zeugite archon is known, according to the Constitution of Athens (c. 26), which See also:dates the change as five years after the death of Ephialtes and does not connect it with Aristides. Soriition.—The next question constitutes perhaps the most important problem in Greek See also:political development. At what date was See also:election by See also:lot, or sortition, introduced for the archon-See also:ship? From the Constitution of Athens (c. 22) we gather that from the fall of the Tyranny to 487 B.C. the archons were aiperoL, not KA11PWTOL (i.e. chosen by See also:vote, not by lot), and that in 487, limited sortition was introduced, whereby fifty candidates were elected by each tribe, and from these the archons and their " secretary " were chosen by lot. But against this must be set the statement by the same authority that this See also:double method was See also:part of the Solonian reform. The solution of the See also:dilemma is a matter of inference. Three indications favour the former view: (I) the "anarchia" which occurred so often between Solon and Peisistratus shows that the office was at that time a question of party (i.e. elective); (2) the statement that Solon invented sortition for the office is put as the basis of a comparison (69ev, Qnµe.ov) and, therefore, may fairly be regarded as a See also:hypothesis; (3) there is no indication that the change made in 487 B.C. was a return to an obsolete method, and on the same See also:argument it is See also:odd that Solon's alleged See also:system should not have been revived at the end of the Tyranny. On the other hand See also:Herodotus (vi. 109) states that, in 490, before the See also:battle of See also:Marathon, the polemarch was chosen by lot. If this be true, it follows that the office of polemarch must have lost its military importance, which was not the case, inasmuch as the polemarch at Marathon gave the casting vote in favour of immediate battle. Whether, therefore, Solon or Aristides was the first to introducesortition, it is perfectly clear that the lot was not used between the Tyranny and 487 B.C. and that after 487 the lot was always used (see J. E. See also:Sandys, Constitution of Athens c. 8 See also:note 1, c. 22 § 5, note); in fact, at a date not known the mixed system of Aristides gave place to double sortition, in which the first nomination also was by lot. To enter here into the theory of the lot is impossible. It should, however, be observed that in the somewhat material See also:atmosphere of constitutional Athens the religious significance of the lot had vanished; no important office in the 5th and 4th centuries was entrusted to its decision. The real effect of sortition was to equalize the chances of See also:rich and poor without civil strife. Now it is perfectly clear that it could not have been this See also:object which impelled Solon to introduce sortition; for in his time the archonship was not open to the See also:lower classes, and, therefore, election was more democratic than sortition, whereas later the case was reversed. It should further be mentioned that, before the See also:discovery of the Aristotelian Constitution in 1891, See also:Grote, C. F. See also:Hermann, Busolt and others had maintained that the lot was not used in Athens before the time of Cleisthenes; and in spite of the See also:treatise, it must be admitted that there is no satisfactory evidence, See also:historical or inferential, that their theory was unsound. Qualifications and Functions.—It remains to give a brief See also:analysis of the qualifications and functions of the archons after the year 487 B.C. After election (in the time of Aristotle in the See also:month Anthesterion; in the 3rd century in Munychion) a See also:short time had to elapse before entering on office to allow of the dokimasia (examination of fitness). In this the whole life of the nominee was investigated, and each had to prove that he was physically without flaw. Failure to pass the See also:scrutiny involved a certain loss of civic rights (e.g. that of addressing the See also:people). The successful See also:candidate had to take an See also:oath to the people (that he would not take bribes, &c.) and to go through certain preliminary See also:rites. Any See also:citizen could bring an See also:impeachment (eisangelia) against the archons. Any delinquency involved a trial before the Heliaea. Finally an examination took place at the end of the year of office, when each archon had to See also:answer for his actions with person and possessions; till then he could not leave the See also:country, be adopted into another family, dispose of his See also:property, nor receive any " See also:crown of See also:honour." A similar investigation took place with regard to the assessors (paredri) whom the three See also:senior archons See also:chose to assist them. The archons at the end of their year of office (some say on entering upon office) became members of the Areopagus, which was, therefore, a See also:body composed of ex-archons of tried probity and See also:wisdom. The archons as a body retained some duties such as the See also:appointment of jurymen, the sortition of the athlothetae, &c. (but see See also: On entering upon office the archon (archon eponymus) made See also:proclamation by his See also:herald that he would not interfere with private property. His official residence was the See also:Prytaneum where he presided over all questions of family, e.g. the See also:protection of parents against See also:children and See also:vice versa, protection of widows, wardship of heiresses and orphans, See also:divorce; in religious matters he superintended the See also:Dionysia, the See also:Thargelia, the processions in honour. of See also:Zeus the Saviour and Asclepius. The archon basileus superintended the See also:holy places, the mysteries, the Lampadephoria (See also:Torch See also:race), &c., questions of See also:national religion and certain cases of bloodguiltiness. His official residence was the See also:Stoa Basileios, and his wife, as officially representing the wife of See also:Dionysus, was called Basilinna. The polemarch, who was at any See also:rate titular See also:commander down to about 487 B.C. (see above; and See also:Herod. vi. 109, ivSEKaros 4liOtSoOpos), became in the 5th century a sort of See also:consul who watched over the rights of See also:resident aliens (meloeci) in their family and legal affairs. He offered sacrifices to See also:Artemis Agrotera and Enyalios, superintended epitaphia and arranged for the annual honours paid to the tyrannicides. His official residence was the Epilyceum (formerly called the Polemarcheion). See also:BIBLIOGRAPIIv.—G. Gilbert, Constitutional Antiquities (Eng. trans., 1895) ; Eduard See also:Meyer's Geschichte See also:des Alterthums, ii. See also:sect. 228 ; A. H. J. Greenidge, Handbook of Greek Constitutional Hist. (1895); J. W. Headlam, Election by Lot in Athens (Camb., 1891); and authorities quoted under See also:GREECE: History, ancient, and ATHENS: History. (J. M. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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