Constitution of the Athenians

​XXVIII. Now as long as Pericles was at the head of the people, the state of affairs concerning the constitution was better, but when Pericles died, it became much worse. For then, for the first time, the people took a leader who was not held in good repute among the respectable classes; whereas in earlier times, the respectable classes had always continuously led the people. For in the beginning and first of all, Solon became leader of the people, and second was Peisistratus, from among the noble and well-known men; and after the tyranny was overthrown, Cleisthenes, being of the family of the Alcmeonidae, became leader, and he had no rival leader of an opposing faction, since Isagoras and his party had been expelled. After this, Xanthippus was at the head of the people, and Miltiades of the well-known men, and then Themistocles and Aristeides. After them, Ephialtes was leader of the people, and Cimon the son of Miltiades was leader of the wealthy; then Pericles of the people, and Thucydides of the other party, who was a relative by marriage to Cimon. When Pericles died, Nicias, who died in Sicily, was at the head of the distinguished men, and Cleon the son of Cleaenetus was leader of the people, who is thought to have corrupted the people most by his impulses, and was the first to shout out on the rostrum and to use abusive language, and to harangue the people with his cloak tucked up, while the others spoke in an orderly manner. Then, after these men, Theramenes the son of Hagnon was leader of the other party, and Cleophon the lyre-maker of the people, who also first introduced the two-obol payment. And for a certain time it was distributed, but after this, Callicrates of Paeania first put an end to it, by promising to add another obol to the two obols. Now, the people later condemned both of these men to death; for it is customary for the multitude, even if they have been deceived, later to hate those who have led them to do anything that is not right. From Cleophon onwards, the leadership of the people was successively taken over by those who wished most to be audacious and to curry favor with the multitude, looking only to the immediate moment. Nicias, Thucydides, and Theramenes are thought to have been the best of those who engaged in politics at Athens after the ancients. And concerning Nicias and Thucydides, almost everyone agrees that they were not only gentlemen (kaloi kagathoi) but also statesmen who behaved towards the whole city in a fatherly way; but concerning Theramenes, because the constitutions in his time happened to be turbulent, there is a dispute in the judgment of him. However, to those who do not express their opinions superficially, he seems not, as his detractors accuse him, to have destroyed all constitutions, but to have supported all as long as they did nothing illegal, as being capable of acting as a citizen under all of them (which is the duty of a good citizen), while not complying with them when they acted illegally, but incurring their enmity.

​XXIX. Now as long as the state of affairs in the war was evenly balanced, they preserved the democracy. But when, after the disaster that occurred in Sicily, the Lacedaemonians became stronger because of their alliance with the King, they were forced to alter the democracy and establish the constitution of the Four Hundred, Melobius having made the speech before the decree, and Pythodorus of Anaphlystus having drafted the proposal, the multitude being chiefly persuaded because they believed that the King would rather fight on their side if they should establish the government through a few. | And the decree of Pythodorus was as follows: that the people should choose, in addition to the ten pre-existing commissioners, twenty others from those who were over forty years of age, who, after swearing indeed to draft what they believe to be best for the city, should draft proposals for its safety; and that it should be open also to anyone of the others who wished to write, so that they might choose the best from all of them. But Cleitophon wrote that in other respects they should act just as Pythodorus had said, but that those chosen should also search out the ancestral laws which Cleisthenes had established when he set up the democracy, so that after hearing these as well, they might deliberate on the best course, on the ground that the constitution of Cleisthenes was not democratic but very similar to that of Solon. And those chosen first wrote that it should be compulsory for the prytaneis to put to the vote all proposals made concerning safety, and then they abolished indictments for illegal proposals, impeachments, and summonses, so that those of the Athenians who wished might give counsel concerning the matters before them; and if anyone on account of these things should either fine or summon or bring anyone into court, there should be an information against him and arrest before the generals, and the generals should hand him over to the Eleven to be punished with death. After this, they regulated the constitution in the following manner: that it should not be allowed to spend the incoming money on anything else than the war, and that all offices should be held without pay as long as the war should last, except the nine archons and the prytaneis who might be in office; and that these should receive three obols each per day. And they should commit the whole of the rest of the administration to those of the Athenians who were most capable of serving both with their persons and their property, being not less than five thousand, as long as the war should last; and that these should have full authority to make treaties with whomsoever they wished; and they should also choose from each tribe ten men over forty years of age, who, after swearing over full-grown victims, should draw up the list of the five thousand.