The Complete Aristotle (eng.)

offered on behalf of the public
safety. Next they abolished all indictments for illegal proposals,
all impeachments and pubic prosecutions, in order that every
Athenian should be free to give his counsel on the situation, if he
chose; and they decreed that if any person imposed a fine on any
other for his acts in this respect, or prosecuted him or summoned
him before the courts, he should, on an information being laid
against him, be summarily arrested and brought before the generals,
who should deliver him to the Eleven to be put to death. After
these preliminary measures, they drew up the constitution in the
following manner. The revenues of the state were not to be spent on
any purpose except the war. All magistrates should serve without
remuneration for the period of the war, except the nine Archons and
the Prytanes for the time being, who should each receive three
obols a day. The whole of the rest of the administration was to be
committed, for the period of the war, to those Athenians who were
most capable of serving the state personally or pecuniarily, to the
number of not less than five thousand. This body was to have full
powers, to the extent even of making treaties with whomsoever they
willed; and ten representatives, over forty years of age, were to
be elected from each tribe to draw up the list of the Five
Thousand, after taking an oath on a full and perfect sacrifice.
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    These were the recommendations of the committee; and when they
had been ratified the Five Thousand elected from their own number a
hundred commissioners to draw up the constitution. They, on their
appointment, drew up and produced the following recommendations.
There should be a Council, holding office for a year, consisting of
men over thirty years of age, serving without pay. To this body
should belong the Generals, the nine Archons, the Amphictyonic
Registrar (Hieromnemon), the Taxiarchs, the Hipparchs, the
Phylarch, the commanders of garrisons, the Treasurers of Athena and
the other gods, ten in number, the Hellenic Treasurers
(Hellenotamiae), the Treasurers of the other non-sacred moneys, to
the number of twenty, the ten Commissioners of Sacrifices
(Hieropoei), and the ten Superintendents of the mysteries. All
these were to be appointed by the Council from a larger number of
selected candidates, chosen from its members for the time being.
The other offices were all to be filled by lot, and not from the
members of the Council. The Hellenic Treasurers who actually
administered the funds should not sit with the Council. As regards
the future, four Councils were to be created, of men of the age
already mentioned, and one of these was to be chosen by lot to take
office at once, while the others were to receive it in turn, in the
order decided by the lot. For this purpose the hundred
commissioners were to distribute themselves and all the rest as
equally as possible into four parts, and cast lots for precedence,
and the selected body should hold office for a year. They were to
administer that office as seemed to them best, both with reference
to the safe custody and due expenditure of the finances, and
generally with regard to all other matters to the best of their
ability. If they desired to take a larger number of persons into
counsel, each member might call in one assistant of his own choice,
subject to the same qualification of age. The Council was to sit
once every five days, unless there was any special need for more
frequent sittings. The casting of the lot for the Council was to be
held by the nine Archons; votes on divisions were to be counted by
five tellers chosen by lot from the members of the Council, and of
these one was to be selected by lot every day to act as president.
These five persons were to cast lots for precedence between the
parties wishing to appear before the Council, giving the first
place to sacred matters, the second to heralds, the third to
embassies, and the fourth to all other subjects; but matters
concerning the war might be dealt with, on the motion of the
generals, whenever there was need, without balloting. Any member of
the Council who did not enter the Council-house at the time named
should be fined a drachma for each day, unless he was away on leave
of absence from the Council.
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    Such was the constitution which they drew up for the time to
come, but for the immediate present they devised the following
scheme. There should be a Council of Four Hundred, as in the
ancient constitution, forty from