chapter iv

. of this treatise, and inferences drawn from them, many scholars attributed to Draco the construction of an entirely new constitution for Athens, the main features of which were: (1) extension of franchise to all who could provide themselves with a suit of armour--or, as Gilbert (_Constitutional Antiquities_, Eng. trans. p. 121) says, to the Zeugite class, from which mainly the hoplites may be supposed to have come; (2) the institution of a property qualification for office (archon 10 minae, strategus 100 minae); (3) a council of 401 members (see BOUL[=E]); (4) magistrates and councillors to be chosen by lot; further, the four Solonian classes are said to be already in existence.

For some time, especially in Germany, this constitution was almost universally accepted; now, the majority of scholars reject it. The reasons against it, which are almost overwhelming, may be shortly summarized. (1) It is ignored by every other ancient authority, except an admittedly spurious passage in Plato[1]; whereas Aristotle says of his laws "they are laws, but he _added the laws to an existing constitution_" (Pol. ii. 9. 9). (2) It is inconsistent with other passages in the _Constitution of Athens_. According to c. vii., Solon repealed all laws of Draco except those relating to murder; yet some of the most modern features of Solon's constitution are found in Draco's constitution. (3) Its ideas are alien to the 7th century. It has been said that the qualification of the strategus was ten times that of the archon. This, reasonable in the 5th, is preposterous in the 7th century, when the archon was unquestionably the supreme executive official. Again, it is unlikely that Solon, a democratic reformer, would have reverted from a democratic wealth' qualification such as is attributed to Draco, to an aristocratic birth qualification. Thirdly, if Draco had instituted a hoplite census, Solon would not have substituted citizenship by birth. (4) The terminology of Draco's constitution is that of the 5th, not the 7th, century, whereas the chief difficulty of Solon's laws is the obsolete 6th-century phraseology. (5) Lastly, a comparison between the ideals of the oligarchs under Theramenes (end of 5th century) and this alleged constitution shows a suspicious similarity (hoplite census, nobody to hold office a second time until all duly qualified persons had been exhausted, fine of one drachma for non-attendance in Boul[=e]). It is reasonable, therefore, to conclude that the constitution of Draco was invented by the school of Theramenes, who wished to surround their revolutionary views with the halo of antiquity; hence the allusion to "the constitution of our father" ([Greek: hê patrios politeia]).

This hypothesis is further corroborated by a criticism of the text. Not only is chapter iv . considered to be an interpolation in the text as originally written, but later chapters have been edited to accord with it. Thus chapter iv . breaks the connexion of thought between chapters iii. and v. Moreover, an interpolator has inserted phrases to remove what would otherwise have been obvious contradictions: thus (a) in

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