rchonship of Nausinicus in B.C.
377--so that Cicero and others might be warranted in affirming that his
laws still prevailed at Athens: but his political and judicial
arrangements had undergone a revolution not less complete and memorable
than the character and spirit of the Athenian people generally. The
choice, by way of lot, of archons and other magistrates--and the
distribution by lot of the general body of dicasts or jurors into panels
for judicial business--may be decidedly considered as not belonging to
Solon, but adopted after the revolution of Clisthenes; probably the
choice of senators by lot also. The lot was a symptom of pronounced
democratical spirit, such as we must not seek in the Solonian
institutions.

It is not easy to make out distinctly what was the political position of
the ancient gentes and phratries, as Solon left them. The four tribes
consisted altogether of gentes and phratries, insomuch that no one could
be included in any one of the tribes who was not also a member of some
gens and phratry. Now the new pro-bouleutic, or pre-considering, senate
consisted of four hundred members,--one hundred from each of the tribes:
persons not included in any gens or phratry could therefore have had no
access to it. The conditions of eligibility were similar, according to
ancient custom, for the nine archons--of course, also, for the senate of
Areopagus. So that there remained only the public assembly, in which an
Athenian not a member of these tribes could take part: yet he was a
citizen, since he could give his vote for archons and senators, and
could take part in the annual decision of their accountability, besides
being entitled to claim redress for wrong from the archons in his own
person--while the alien could only do so through the intervention of an
avouching citizen or Prostates. It seems, therefore, that all persons
not included in the four tribes, whatever their grade of fortune might
be, were on the same level in respect to political privilege as the
fourth and poorest class of the Solonian census. It has already been
remarked, that even before the time of Solon the number of Athenians not
included in the gentes or phratries was probably considerable: it tended
to become greater and greater, since these bodies were close and
unexpansive, while the policy of the new lawgiver tended to invite
industrious settlers from other parts of Greece and Athens. Such great
and increasing inequality of politica