The Athenian Constitution

The Athenian Constitution - Aristotle - Translated by Sir Frederic G. Kenyon - The Constitution of the Athenians or the Athenian Constitution refers to two texts from Classical antiquity: one probably by Aristotle or a student of his, the second attributed to Xenophon, but not thought to be his work. The Aristotelian text is contained in two leaves of a papyrus codex discovered at Oxyrhynchus, Egypt in 1879. The other work was traditionally included among the shorter works of Xenophon. Now the ancient constitution, as it existed before the time of Draco, was organized as follows. The magistrates were elected according to qualifications of birth and wealth. At first they governed for life, but subsequently for terms of ten years. The first magistrates, both in date and in importance, were the King, the Polemarch, and the Archon. The earliest of these offices was that of the King, which existed from ancestral antiquity. To this was added, secondly, the office of Polemarch, on account of some of the kings proving feeble in war; for it was on this account that Ion was invited to accept the post on an occasion of pressing need. The last of the three offices was that of the Archon, which most authorities state to have come into existence in the time of Medon. Others assign it to the time of Acastus, and adduce as proof the fact that the nine Archons swear to execute their oaths