A Handbook Of Greek Constitutional History

Text extracted from opening pages of book: of s antt & ntiqtutirs A HANDBOOK GREEK CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY A HANDBOOK GREEK CONSTITUTIONAL HISTOBY A. PL J. - aEEEKLDGE, M. A. LATE lECTURER AND 1' KLLOW OK ItEfiTlrtmb ( JOLLfitiK, A. ND crURER IN ANCIENT IIIbTORY AT BRAhKNUblil ( JOLLLGU, OAKOIlD MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON 1914 TO MY FA THEE PEEFAGE THIS little book Is meant to be of assistance to those who find difficulty in mastering what I have often found regarded as the least attractive, probably because it is the least understood, portion of Greek history. The merest glance at its pages will be sufficient to show how little it attempts to compete with such standard works on Greek Political Antiquities as some of those mentioned in the brief bibliography which I have given on page xv. My debt to the works of Hermann, Schomann, Gilbert, and to the scholars who have written in Handbooks or in Dictionaries of Antiquities, is very great indeed \ for no one can move a step in Greek Constitutional Law without consult ing authorities as remarkable for the fulness as for the accuracy of their detail. But, apart from the obviously smaller compass of this treatise, my object has been somewhat different from that of most of these writers. Completeness of detail could not be aimed at in a work of this size; such an attempt would have changed what professes to be a History into a too con cise, and therefore almost unintelligible, Manual of Political Antiquities. My purpose has been to give in a brief narrative form the main lines of development of Greek Public Law, to represent the different types of states in the order of their development, and to pay more attentionto the working than to the mere structure of constitutions. I have attempted, in the introductory chapter of this work, to offer some considera viii OUTLINES OF GREEK CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY tions which justify a separate study of Greek political institu tions, so rarely attempted in this country; consequently it is needless to anticipate at this point the reasons for a procedure which, perhaps, does not need defence. Throughout the work I have cited the original passages from ancient authors on which every fact or assertion of any degree of importance is based. Considerations of space forbade more ample quotations from the texts of the original authorities or a fuller discussion of passages which have given rise to differences of interpretation. In citing inscriptions references have been given to the Handbooks which I believed to be most easily accessible to students. In no case have I referred to the Corpus Inscriptiomm Graecarum or the Corpus Inscriptionum AUkarwn where I knew that the inscription was to be found in the Manuals of Hicks, Dittenberger, and Cauer. My thanks are due to my wife for valuable suggestions in the correction of the proofs, for a great share of the labour in preparing the Index, and for the map which accompanies this voln e - A. R J. G. OXFOTID, June 1896. CONTENTS ( The references are to the pages) CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY SECT. The constitutional aspect of Greek History, 1. Primary political COP captions, 4; the State and the Constitution, 4; political office, 6; the Citizen, 7; the Law, 8; public and piivate law, 9; authoritative character of law, 10. CHAPTER II EARLY DEVELOPMENT OP THE GREEK CONSTITUTIONS THROUGH MONARCHY, ARISTOCRACY, AND TYRANNY TOCONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT Origin of the city-state; the tribe and the clan, 12. Origin of Greek monarchy, 14; character of the heroic monarchy, 15; downfall of this monarchy, 17. Transfer of government to the clans, 19; nature of the clan, 20, The early aristocracies, 21; tendency to oligarchic govern ment, 22. Impulse to colonisation, 24. Early Greek tyranny, 25; its origin, 25; the tyrants, 27; character of their government, 30; how far was it constitutional, 31; political and social consequences of their rule, 32; downfall of tyranny, 33. Rise of con