rain of caps and cloaks which they
flung at him in their enthusiasm.

The appearance in 1891 of Aristotle's lost treatise on the constitution
of Athens gave rise to a most important controversy on the subject of
Draco's work. From the statements contained in 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repealed all laws of Draco except those relating to murder; yet some of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 Ther