Show THE REPUBLIC OF ATHENS TUB ahm valuable collection of ancient manuscripts in the british museum london has recently been augmented with a relic of more than common COMMOD interest it consists of two long strips of yellow colored papyrus covered with ancient greek characters written in ink and supposed to be a faithful copy of aristotle s treatise on the constitution of athens this work has hitherto been known to scholars from fragmentary quotations fund f und in the writings of other authors where the manuscript was wag found and how are incidents which we are withheld from the public NO bu able critics are am satisfied of its genuineness and consider its date to be 78 A D or thereabouts the treatise is of great interest it shows shows the exp eap mience of a little nation awl existing eting more than two thousand years ago it to Is a picture of the rise development and decay of democracy in that age outlined by one of the greatest est philosophers that ever lived aud and all the more instructive because it Is ie free from any undue coloring the great writer lays before his big readers the facts as his mastermind perceived them and leaves the reader to draw his own conclusions through the defects of the manuscript the description of the condition of athens athene under the rule of kluge kings is lost but we can easily understand that the people gradually grew tired of autocratic rule and demanded some voice tin in the government conditions similar to those in russia at present may be imagined the first stop step towards demo democracy dracy was the institution of the office of or commander in chief whereby the absolute power of the king in matters of war was broken then another office that of archon or ruler who shared the power with the kinland kin gand the succession was broken so that instead of the crown falling on the head of the oldest son it was given to any member of the royal house elected by the or oo council unell from this step the way to the abolition of the kingly office was paved the archon became the ruler defalto def aoto hoto even if the title of king was wan still retained at first the Ar archois Arc bons chons were elecie i 1 for a term of ten years changes in the government followed rapidly to the three existing officers of state the king the commander in chief and the archon six others were added who only held office for one year and I 1 the government was thus practically turned over t to the aristocracy the condition of the lower classes of the people was bad they had not the means of subsistence and ran into debt mortgaging not only their land but themselves also until the majority of the people were really owned by the more fortunate minority reforms were demanded and louder and louder grew the cries of the oppressed populace draco was empowered to revise the constitution in doing so go we are am informed he had two points in view first to define crimes punishable by law so as not to leave the people at xe the mercy of the ca prices of judges secondly to extend the franchise which he be did by giving suffrage to all ah men who were able to equip themselves for war in this way a great number of the people were admitted to public life but the good reformer failed to find the right remedy against the evil complained of it was not of much use to tell a poor man that he be pow now hada right to vote as loog long as no remedy against starvation could be found broad bread and not franchise was the first requirement hence the dissatisfaction grew steadily the state was weakened by internal dissensions and foreign powers took advantage of her weakness until the people once more agreed to fa empower one man to effect what reforms he might think best the choice fell upon a man whose brilliant intel powers and noble qualities were well known in the state his name was solon his reforms were radical his keen eye detected what had escaped draw draco that the economical difficulties were the worst of the evil and he commenced there he provided that all outstanding debts should be canceled whereby the lands were relieved of the mortgages that encumbered them the slaves who were working off their debts on the estates of the creditors were set free this was to give the people a new start and to keep them in the new direction he provided that persons could no longer sell themselves for debt he also revised the monetary system making the standard equal to that of other states on the peninsula then the constitution was remodeled so that every athenian of full age should have a voice in the election of officers the people thus became the rulers and democracy was established one provision however was that a certain amount of wealth was wag a qualification for the most important offices and another that taxes were to be paid accord ing to income the rich man beag taxed on a larger proportion of his hie total income than the poor man but the work of this great legislator did not bring peace to the country the annual elections for the office of archon became occasions for faction fights there were three parties the rich landowners the commercial nien men and t e poorer ca classes contended for the supremacy buethe but the last though the largest could not elect officers from their own ranks where fore the great body of tle the people became only the tools of the leaders of the other parties and corruption was the consequence in this condition of affairs it became possible for stratus to establish himself as a despots despote in the state he was a famous general one day he appeared in public with many wounds and bruises inflicted he salda on him while he be defended the people he was then given a bodyguard ly by the sympathizing people and with this he seized the citadel of the city and declared himself the ruler in which position be succeeded in ili establishing himself after various struggles the country flourished under his rule as did russia under czar peter england under cromwell and france under napoleon bonaparte after many years of despotism democracy was again established and with democracy the old party feuds seemed to be revived however through the action of Cleis Clelo thenes who re districted the people the feuds were swept away and democracy the work commenced by solon was completed dangers from the outside now threatened the state persia perola stirred to war by expelled excelled politicians threw her tremendous forces against greece and especially against athens at this critical moment the aristocracy again came to the front and when everybody was trembling in fear by their noble and decisive actions saved the country democracy gave way to a certain extent out of pure gratitude and the became again the most meet important body of the state it was however only temporary the old regime was once more established and remained so until the time of pericles aristotle says so long as pericles was the leader of the people all went well in public affairs but when he was dead there was great deterioration then for the first time did the people take for their leader a man of no repute among the better classes up to that date there were always men of position at the head of the popular party n the deterioration consisted in the fact that demagogues instead of men of merit were elected for offices cleon the successor of pericles is described as a man with nu no principle and little statesmanlike ability but he was gifted with tact to catch the ear or of the people and to beguile them with a specious policy and this cleon was only the first of of a series of of such worthless officials the great chronicler says the men who obtained the leadership of the people were those who would bout boast the loudest and who were the most profuse in promise to the populace with their eyes only on the interests of the moment 21 2 1 with such men at the head bead of affairs the catastrophe was unavoidable the people embarked I 1 in u a rush rash undertaking a wr war which ended in disaster the nation became exhausted her fleet was destroyed and her glory was gone what ku an instructive lesson to nations lu iu all ages is offered by this mod ern disclosure of the history of ancient athens |