The Athenian Constitution

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Author: Aristotle  | Date: 328 BC

CHAPTER 52

The Eleven also are appointed by lot to take care of the prisoners in the state gaol. Thieves, kidnappers, and pickpockets are brought to them, and if they plead guilty they are executed, but if they deny the charge the Eleven bring the case before the law-courts; if the prisoners are acquitted, they release them, but if not, they then execute them. They also bring up before the law-courts the list of farms and houses claimed as state-property; and if it is decided that they are so, they deliver them to the Commissioners for Public Contracts. The Eleven also bring up informations laid against magistrates alleged to be disqualified; this function comes within their province, but some such cases are brought up by the Thesmothetae.

There are also five Introducers of Cases (Eisagogeis), elected by lot, one for each pair of tribes, who bring up the ’monthly’ cases to the law-courts. ’Monthly’ cases are these: refusal to pay up a dowry where a party is bound to do so, refusal to pay interest on money borrowed at 12 per cent., or where a man desirous of setting up business in the market has borrowed from another man capital to start with; also cases of slander, cases arising out of friendly loans or partnerships, and cases concerned with slaves, cattle, and the office of trierarch, or with banks. These are brought up as ’monthly’ cases and are introduced by these officers; but the Receivers-General perform the same function in cases for or against the farmers of taxes. Those in which the sum concerned is not more than ten drachmas they can decide summarily, but all above that amount they bring into the law-courts as ’monthly’ cases.

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Chicago: Aristotle, "Chapter 52," The Athenian Constitution, trans. Sir Frederic G. Kenyon Original Sources, accessed March 28, 2024, http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=CR4WA8GHJC4F79U.

MLA: Aristotle. "Chapter 52." The Athenian Constitution, translted by Sir Frederic G. Kenyon, Original Sources. 28 Mar. 2024. http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=CR4WA8GHJC4F79U.

Harvard: Aristotle, 'Chapter 52' in The Athenian Constitution, trans. . Original Sources, retrieved 28 March 2024, from http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=CR4WA8GHJC4F79U.