duties divided among a college of nine, chosen by suffrage (xεipоTovia) from the Eupatridae, or Patricians, and no longer elected from the Medontidae exclusively. This arrangement lasted till the time of Solon, who still continued the election by suffrage, but made the qualification for office depend, not on birth, but property. The election by lot is believed to have been introduced by Cleisthenes (B. c. 508). The last change is supposed to have been made by Aristeides, who after the battle of Plataea (B. C. 479) abolished the property qualification, throwing open the archonship and other magistracies to all the citizens; that is, to the Thetes, as well as the other classes, the former of whom were not allowed by Solon's laws to hold any magistracy at all.

Still, after the removal of the old restrictions, some security was left to insure respectability; for, previously to an archon entering on office, he underwent an examination, called the anacrisis (ȧváкpioiç), as to his being a legitimate and a good citizen, a good son, and qualified in point of property, but the latter limitation was either done away with by Aristeides, or soon became obsolete. Yet, even after passing a satisfactory anacrisis, each of the archons, in common with other magistrates, was liable to be deposed on complaint of misconduct made before the people, at the first regular assembly in each prytany. On such an occasion the epicheirotonia (EIXEIроTovía), as it was called, took place: and we read that in one case the whole college of archons was deprived of office (άñоxεiротоνεῖσθαι).

In consequence of the democratical tendency of the assembly and courts of justice established by Solon, the archons lost the great political power which they at one time possessed. They became, in fact, not as of old directors of the government, but merely municipal magistrates, exercising functions and bearing titles described below.

It has been already stated, that the duties of the single archon were shared by a college of nine. The first, or president of this body, was called Archon, by way of pre-eminence, or Archon Eponymus (άрxwv ¿πúvνμoç), from the year being distinguished by and registered in his name. The second was styled Archon Basileus (upxwv Baoiλevs), or the King Archon; the third Polemarchus (поλέμарxоç), or commander-in-chief; the remaining six, Thesmothetae (Ocoμoléraι), or legislators. As regards the duties of the archons, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish what belonged to them individually, and what collectively.

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It seems that a considerable portion of the judicial functions of the ancient kings devolved upon the Archon Eponymus, who was also constituted a sort of state protector of those who were unable to defend themselves. Thus he was to superintend orphans, heiresses, families losing their representatives, widows left pregnant, and to see that they were not wronged in any way. This archon had also the superintendence of the greater Dionysia, and the Thargelia.

The functions of the King Archon were almost all connected with religion; his distinguishing title shows that he was considered a representative of the old kings in their capacity of high priest, as the Rex Sacrificulus was at Rome. Thus he presided at the Lenaea, or older Dionysia; superintended the mysteries and the games called Lampadephoriae, and had to offer up sacrifices and prayers in the Eleusinium, both at Athens and Eleusis. Moreover, indictments for impiety, and controversies about the priesthood, were laid before him; and, in cases of murder, he brought the trial into the court of the areiopagus, and voted with its members. His wife, also, who was called Basilissa (Bací

ooa), had to offer certain sacrifices, and therefore it was required that she should be a citizen of pure blood, without stain or blemish.

The Polemarch was originally, as his name denotes, the commander-in-chief, and we find him discharging military duties as late as the battle of Marathon, in conjunction with the ten Strategi; he there took, like the kings of old, the command of the right wing of the army. This, however, seems to be the last occasion on record of this magistrate appointed by lot being invested with such important functions; and in after ages we find that his duties ceased to be military, having been, in a great measure, transferred to the protection and superintendence of the resident aliens, so that he resembled in many respects the praetor peregrinus at Rome. Thus, all actions affecting aliens, the isoteles and proxeni were brought before him previously to trial. Moreover, it was the polemarch's duty to offer the yearly sacrifice to Diana, in commemoration of the vow made by Callimachus, at Marathon, and to arrange the funeral games in honour of those who fell in war.

The six Thesmothetae were extensively connected with the administration of justice, and appear to have been called legislators, because in the absence of a written code, they might be said to make laws, or thesmi (Oɛopoí), in the ancient language of Athens, though in reality they only explained them. They were

Drawing the Bow.

AREA (λws, or 2wá), the threshingfloor, was a raised place in the field, open on all sides to the wind. Great pains were taken to make this floor hard; it was sometimes paved with flint stones, but more usually covered with clay and smoothed with a roller.

AREIO PAGUS (ó 'Aрειos пúуoç, or hill of Mars), was a rocky eminence, lying to the west of, and not far from the Acropolis at Athens. It was the place of meeting of the council ('H v 'Apeiw náуw ẞov2n), which was sometimes called The Upper Council (Ἡ ἄνω βουλή), to distinguish from the senate of Five-hundred, which sat in the Cerameicus within the city.

It was a body of very remote antiquity, acting as a criminal tribunal, and existed long before the time of Solon, but he so far modified its constitution and sphere of duty, that he may almost be called its founder. What that original constitution was, must in some degree be left to conjecture, though there is every reason to suppose that it was aristocratical, the members being taken, like the ephetae, from the noble patrician families. [EPHETAE.]

By the legislation of Solon the Areiopagus was composed of the ex-archons, who, after an unexceptionable discharge of their duties, "went up" to the Areiopagus, and became members of it for life, unless expelled for misconduct. As Solon made the qualification for the office of archon to depend not on birth but on property, the council after his time ceased to be aristocratic in constitution; but, as we learn from Attic writers, continued so in spirit. In fact, Sólon is said to have formed the two councils, the senate and the Areiopagus, to be a check upon the democracy; that, as he himself expressed it, "the

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state riding upon them as anchors might be less tossed by storms." Nay, even after the archons were no longer elected by suffrage but by lot, and the office was thrown open by Areisteides to all the Athenian citizens, the "upper council" still retained its former tone of feeling.

Moreover, besides these changes in its constitution, Solon altered and extended its functions. Before his time it was only a criminal court, trying cases of "wilful murder and wounding, of arson and poisining," whereas he gave it extensive powers of a censorial and political nature. Thus we learn that he made the council an "Overseer of every thing, and the guardian of the laws," empowering it to inquire how any one got his living, and to punish the idle; and we are also told that the Areiopagites were "superintendents of good order and decency," terms rather unlimited and undefined, as it is not improbable Solon wished to leave their authority. When heinous crimes had notoriously been committed, but the guilty parties were not known, or no accuser appeared, the Areiopagus inquired into the subject, and reported to the demus. The report or information was called apophasis. This was a duty which they sometimes undertook on their own responsíbility, and in the exercise of an old established right, and sometimes on the order of the demus. Nay, to such an extent did they carry their power, that on one occasion they apprehended an individual (Antiphon), who had been acquitted by the general assembly, and again brought him to a trial, which ended in his condemnation and death. Again, we find them revoking an appointment whereby Aeschines was made the advocate of Athens before the Amphictyonic council, and substituting Hyperides in his room.

They also had duties connected with religion, one of which was to superintend the sacred olives growing about Athens, and try those who were charged with destroying them; and in general it was their office to punish the impious and irreligious. Independent, then, of its jurisdiction as a criminal court in cases of wilful murder, which Solon continued to the Areiopagus, its influence must have been sufficiently great to have been a considerable obstacle to the aggrandizement of the democracy at the expense of the other parties in the state. Accordingly, we find that Pericles, who was opposed to the aristocracy, resolved to diminish its power and circumscribe its sphere of action. His coadjutor in this work was Ephialtes, a statesman of inflexible integrity, and also a military commander. They experienced

much opposition in their attempts, not only in the assembly, but also on the stage, where Aeschylus produced his tragedy of the Eumenides, the object of which was to impress upon the Athenians the dignity, sacredness, and constitutional worth of the institution which Pericles and Ephialtes wished to reform. Still the opposition failed: a decree was carried by which, as Aristotle says, the Areiopagus was "mutilated," and many of its hereditary rights abolished, though it is difficult to ascertain the precise nature of the alterations which Pericles effected.

The jurisdiction of the Areiopagus in case of murder was still left to them. In such cases the process was as follows:-The king archon brought the case into court, and sat as one of the judges, who were assembled in the open air, probably to guard against any contamination from the criminal. The accuser first came forward to make a solemn oath that his accusation was true, standing over the slaughtered victims, and imprecating extirpation upon himself and his whole family, were it not so. The accused then denied the charge with the same solemnity and form of oath. Each party then stated his case with all possible plainness, keeping strictly to the subject, and not being allowed to appeal in any way to the feelings or passions of the judges. After the first speech, a criminal accused of murder might remove from Athens, and thus avoid the capital punishment fixed by Draco's Thesmi, which on this point were still in force. Except in cases of parricide, neither the accuser nor the court had power to prevent this; but the party who thus evaded the extreme punishment was not allowed to return home, and when any decree was passed at Athens to legalize the return of exiles, an exception was always made against those who had thus left

their country.

The Areiopagus continued to exist, in name at least, till a very late period. Thus we find Cicero mentions the council in his letters; and an individual is spoken of as an Areiopagite under the emperors Gratian and Theodosius (A. D. 380).

The case of St. Paul is generally quoted as an instance of the authority of the Areiopagus in religious matters; but the words of the sacred historian do not necessarily imply that he was brought before the council. It may, however, be remarked, that the Areiopagites certainly took cognizance of the introduction of new and unauthorized forms of religious worship, called &πί0εтa iɛpá, in contradistinction to the rárpia or older rites of

the state.

ARGENTARII.

ARENA. [AMPHITHEATRUM.] ARETA LOGI, persons who amused the company at the Roman dinner tables.

A'RGEI, the name given by the pontifices to the places consecrated by Numa for the celebration of religious services. Varro calls them the chapels of the argei, and says they were twenty-seven in number, distributed in the different districts of the city. There was a tradition that these argei were named from the chieftains who came with Hercules, the Argive, to Rome, and occupied the Capitoline, or, as it was anciently called, Saturnian hill. It is impossible to say what is the historical value or meaning of this legend; we may, however, notice its conformity with the statement that Rome was founded by the Pelasgians, with whom the name of Argos was connected.

The name argei was also given to certain figures thrown into the Tiber from the Sublician bridge, on the Ides of May in every year. This was done by the pontifices, the vestals, the praetors, and other citizens, after the performance of the customary sacrifices. The images were thirty in number, made of bulrushes, and in the form of men. Ovid makes various suppositions to account for the origin of this rite: we can only conjecture that it was a symbolical offering, to propitiate the gods, and that the number was a representative either of the thirty patrician curiae at Rome, or perhaps of the thirty Latin townships.

ARGENTA RII, bankers or money-changers at Rome. The public bankers, or mensarii, are to be distinguished from the argentarii. The highest class of mensarii, the mensarii quinqueviri or triumviri were a sort of extraordinary magistrates; their business was to regulate the debts of the citizens, and to provide and distribute specie on emergency. [MENSARII.] The argentarii, on the contrary, were private bankers. Almost all money transactions were carried on through their intervention, and they kept the account-books of their customers. Hence, all terms respecting the relation between debtor and creditor were borrowed from banking business; thus, rationem accepti scribere ("to put down on the debtor's side in the banker's book") means "to borrow money;" rescribere, "to pay it back again;" nomen (an item in the account) is "a debt," or even "a debtor." These books of account have given rise to the modern Italian system of bookkeeping by double-entry.

The functions of the argentarii, besides their original occupation of money-changing (permutatio argenti) were as follows:-1. At

ARIES.

ARMA.

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The shops of the bankers were in the cloisters round the forum; hence, money borrowed from a banker is called aes circumforaneum; and the phrases foro cedere, or abire, foro mergi, &c., mean " to become bankrupt." The argentarii at Rome were divided into corporations (societates), and formed a collegium. The argentarius was necessarily a freeman.

ARGENTUM (apyvpoç), silver. According to Herodotus, the Lydians were the first people who put a stamp upon silver; but, according to the testimony of most ancient writers, silver money was first coined at Aegina, by order of Pheidon, about B. c. 748.

Silver was originally the universal currency in Greece, and it was not till a comparatively late time that copper or gold was coined in that country. [AES; AURUM.] Accordingly we find that all the words connected with money are derived from άργυρος, as-καταρ γυρόω, "to bribe with money;" apyvpauoiBóc, "a money changer;" &c.; and apyvpos is itself not unfrequently used to signify money in general, as aes in Latin.

Silver was not coined at Rome till B. c. 269, five years before the first Punic war. The principal silver coins among the Greeks and Romans were respectively the drachma and denarius. [DRACHMA; DENARIUS.]

ARGYRA SPIDES (άруvрáσπidεç), a division of the Macedonian army, who were so called because they carried shields covered with silver-plates.

A'RIES (кptóç), the battering-ram, was used to batter down the walls of besieged cities. It consisted of a large beam, made of the trunk of a tree, especially of a fir or an ash. To one end was fastened a mass of bronze or iron (κεφαλή, ἐμβολή, προτομή), which resembled in its form the head of a ram. The upper figure in the annexed cut shows the aries in its simplest state, and as it was borne and impelled by human hands, without other assistance.

In an improved form, the ram was surrounded with iron bands, to which rings were attached for the purpose of suspending it by ropes or chains from a beam fixed transversely

D

Aries, Battering Ram.

relieved from the necessity of supporting the weight of the ram, and they could with ease give it a rapid and forcible motion backwards and forwards.

The use of this machine was further aided by placing the frame in which it was suspended upon wheels, and also by constructing over it a wooden roof, so as to form a "testudo," which protected the besieging party from the defensive assaults of the besieged.

ARMA, ARMATURA (ἔντεα, τεύχεα, Hom.; ör2a), arms, armour.

Homer describes in various passages an entire suit of armour, and we observe that it consisted of the same portions which were used by the Greek soldiers ever after. Moreover, the order of putting them on is always the same. The heavy-armed warrior, having already a tunic around his body, and preparing for combat, puts on-1. his greaves (kvnuides, ocreae); 2. his cuirass (Oúpa, lorica), to which belonged the μirpη underneath, and the zone (ζώνη, ζωστήρ, cingulum), above ; 3. his sword (Sipos, ensis, gladius), hung on the left side of his body by means of a belt which passed over the right shoulder; 4. the large round shield (σáкoç, άoñíç, clipeus, scutum), supported in the same manner; 5. his helmet (Kópus, Kvvén, cassis, galea); 6. he took his spear (eyxos, dópy, hasta), or, in many cases, two spears. The form and use of these portions are described in separate