Political Science Of The State

6 POLITICAL SCIENCE,
called Arty MB (arrangers or managers) were to tafeo the naths
in the treaty of 420 B.e, At Athens, while it was an oligar-
chy, the council sitting on the Areopagus and complain! of
members of well-born families \cHpatridiC\* wa> the onmui
for state affairs, as well as a court of justice ; tin: nim? jm.h-
ons, afterwards presidents of courts of justice, were the clm'h
of administration ; and a newer body of ;MWIJW/, or pre«i-
dents of forty-eight districts, formed a council for military,
naval, and financial affairs. All this probably IwitiN^ctl t*» the
aristocratic constitution.
The executive officers and presiding ma^istrntis of the
Greek states, in the aristocratic ajjesf srem to have formed
boards or colleges, selected from the magistrates in general,
and having their special department*, but uniting in o
A body, for instance, called u Synarthiii* or union of
trates (a board met with in other cities), in mentioned as
existing at Megara and as bringing their propositions before
the tesymnet&t the council and assembly of the people* The
many names which are attached to the magistrates show the
free development of political ideas in the little .states ofdrcocc.
Prytanis was one of the oldest and most widely diffused
through various races. The length of office in the prehistoric
times may have been for life or for a term of years, ten, for
instance, but the general tendency was towards a continually
shorter term.
The magistrates or public officers in the oligarchies were
taken from certain families which kept themselves distinct
from the people by not intermarrying with them, or from a
single family, as in the case of the Bacchiadae at Corinth al-
ready mentioned, or from those who had a certain amount of
property* In some%cases a son succeeded his father in an
office; a peculiarity which Aristotle thought to be important
enough to define by it oae of his kinds of oligarchy* (Pol,
vi. or iv,» 5. § i.) Age, also, among those who were eligible,
was naturally an aristocratic requisite, Thus, in Chalcis of
Euboea, the age of fifty was the lowest limit. The magis-
trates were responsible almost without exception; they,