Aristotle, Athenian Constitution
H. Rackham, Ed.

---

And he established a constitution and made other laws, and they ceased to observe the ordinances of Draco, except those relating to homicide. They wrote up the laws on the Boards¹ and set them in the Royal Colonnade, and all swore to observe them; and the Nine Archons used to make affirmation on oath at the Stone² that if they transgressed any one of the laws they would dedicate a gold statue of a man; owing to which they are even now still sworn in with this oath. [2] And he fixed the laws to stay unaltered for a hundred years. And he arranged the constitution in the following way: [3] he divided the people by assessment into four classes, as they had been divided before, Five-hundred-measure man, Horseman, Teamster and Laborer, and he distributed the other offices to be held from among the Five-hundred-measure men, Horsemen and Teamsters—the Nine Archons, the Treasurers,³ the Vendors of Contracts,⁴ the Eleven⁵ and the Paymasters, assigning each office to the several classes in proportion to the amount of their assessment; while those who were rated in the Laborer class he admitted to the membership of the assembly and law-courts alone. [4] Any man had to be rated as a Five-hundred-measure man the produce from whose estate was five hundred dry and liquid measures jointly,⁶ and at the cavalry-rate those who made three hundred,—or as some say, those who were able to keep a horse, and they adduce as a proof the name of the rating as being derived from the fact, and also the votive offerings of the ancients; for there stands dedicated in the Acropolis a statue of Diphilus⁷ on which are inscribed these lines:“Anthemion Diphilus's son dedicated this statue to the gods
. . . having exchanged the Laborer rating for the Cavalry—
” and a horse stands beside him, in evidence that 'cavalry' meant the class able to keep a horse. Nevertheless it is more probable that the cavalry were distinguished by their amounts of produce as the Five-hundred-measure men were. And men had to be rated in the Teamster class who made two hundred measures, wet and dry together; while the rest were rated in the Laborer class, being admitted to no office: hence even now when the presiding official asks a man who is about to draw lots for some office what rate he pays, no one whatever would say that he was rated as a Laborer.⁸