This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
Table of Contents:
[2] At first, then, they were moderate towards the citizens and pretended to be administering the ancestral form of constitution, and they removed from the Areopagus the laws of Ephialtes and Archestratus1 about the Areopagites, and also such of the ordinances of Solon as were of doubtful purport, and abolished the sovereignty vested in the jurymen, claiming to be rectifying the constitution and removing its uncertainties: for example, in regard to the bestowal of one's property on whomsoever one wishes, making the single act of donation valid absolutely, while they removed the tiresome qualifications 'save when in consequence of insanity or of old age, or under the influence of a woman,' in order that there might be no opening for blackmailers; and similarly they did this in the other matters as well.
1 Probably a supporter of Ephialtes, for whose legislation see Aristot. Ath. Pol. 25.
Aristotle in 23 Volumes, Vol. 20, translated by H. Rackham. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1952.
The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.
Purchase a copy of this text (not necessarily the same edition) from Amazon.com