e institutions, which Dr. Thirlwall
mentions in conjunction with the name of Solon, are among the last
refinements and elaborations of the democratical mind of
Athens--gradually prepared, doubtless, during the interval between
Clisthenes and Pericles, but not brought into full operation until the
period of the latter (B.C. 460-429). For it is hardly possible to
conceive these numerous dicasteries and assemblies in regular, frequent,
and long-standing operation, without an assured payment to the dicasts
who composed them. Now such payment first began to be made about the
time of Pericles, if not by his actual proposition; and Demosthenes had
good reason for contending that if it were suspended, the judicial as
well as the administrative system of Athens would at once fall to
pieces. It would be a marvel, such as nothing short of strong direct
evidence would justify us in believing, that in an age when even partial
democracy was yet untried, Solon should conceive the idea of such
institutions; it would be a marvel still greater, that the
half-emancipated Thetes and small proprietors, for whom he
legislated--yet trembling under the rod of the Eupatrid archons, and
utterly inexperienced in collective business--should have been found
suddenly competent to fulfil these ascendant functions, such as the
citizens of conquering Athens in the days of Pericles, full of the
sentiment of force and actively identifying themselves with the dignity
of their community, became gradually competent, and not more than
competent, to exercise with effect. To suppose that Solon contemplated
and provided for the periodical revision of his laws by establishing a
nomothetic jury or dicastery, such as that which we find in operation
during the time of Demosthenes, would be at variance (in my judgment)
with any reasonable estimate either of the man or of the age. Herodotus
says that Solon, having exacted from the Athenians solemn oaths that
_they_ would not rescind any of his laws for ten years, quitted Athens
for that period, in order that he might not be compelled to rescind them
himself. Plutarch informs us that he gave to his laws force for a
century. Solon himself, and Draco before him, had been lawgivers evoked
and empowered by the special emergency of the times: the idea of a
frequent revision of laws, by a body of lot-selected dicasts, belongs to
a far more advanced age, and could not well have been present to the
minds of either. The wooden