The Complete Aristotle (eng.)

at
issue. If it is a day for public causes, the public litigants are
called, and only one case is tried. Water-clocks are provided,
having small supply-tubes, into which the water is poured by which
the length of the pleadings is regulated. Ten gallons are allowed
for a case in which an amount of more than five thousand drachmas
is involved, and three for the second speech on each side. When the
amount is between one and five thousand drachmas, seven gallons are
allowed for the first speech and two for the second; when it is
less than one thousand, five and two. Six gallons are allowed for
arbitrations between rival claimants, in which there is no second
speech. The official chosen by lot to superintend the water-clock
places his hand on the supply tube whenever the clerk is about to
read a resolution or law or affidavit or treaty. When, however, a
case is conducted according to a set measurement of the day, he
does not stop the supply, but each party receives an equal
allowance of water. The standard of measurement is the length of
the days in the month Poseideon… . The measured day is employed in
cases when imprisonment, death, exile, loss of civil rights, or
confiscation of goods is assigned as the penalty.
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    Most of the courts consist of 500 members… ; and when it is
necessary to bring public cases before a jury of 1,000 members, two
courts combine for the purpose, the most important cases of all are
brought 1,500 jurors, or three courts. The ballot balls are made of
brass with stems running through the centre, half of them having
the stem pierced and the other half solid. When the speeches are
concluded, the officials assigned to the taking of the votes give
each juror two ballot balls, one pierced and one solid. This is
done in full view of the rival litigants, to secure that no one
shall receive two pierced or two solid balls. Then the official
designated for the purpose takes away the jurors staves, in return
for which each one as he records his vote receives a brass voucher
market with the numeral 3 (because he gets three obols when he
gives it up). This is to ensure that all shall vote; since no one
can get a voucher unless he votes. Two urns, one of brass and the
other of wood, stand in the court, in distinct spots so that no one
may surreptitiously insert ballot balls; in these the jurors record
their votes. The brazen urn is for effective votes, the wooden for
unused votes; and the brazen urn has a lid pierced so as to take
only one ballot ball, in order that no one may put in two at a
time.
    When the jurors are about to vote, the crier demands first
whether the litigants enter a protest against any of the evidence;
for no protest can be received after the voting has begun. Then he
proclaims again, ‘The pierced ballot for the plaintiff, the solid
for the defendant’; and the juror, taking his two ballot balls from
the stand, with his hand closed over the stem so as not to show
either the pierced or the solid ballot to the litigants, casts the
one which is to count into the brazen urn, and the other into the
wooden urn.
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    When all the jurors have voted, the attendants take the urn
containing the effective votes and discharge them on to a reckoning
board having as many cavities as there are ballot balls, so that
the effective votes, whether pierced or solid, may be plainly
displayed and easily counted. Then the officials assigned to the
taking of the votes tell them off on the board, the solid in one
place and the pierced in another, and the crier announces the
numbers of the votes, the pierced ballots being for the prosecutor
and the solid for the defendant. Whichever has the majority is
victorious; but if the votes are equal the verdict is for the
defendant. Each juror receives two ballots, and uses one to record
his vote, and throws the other away.
    Then, if damages have to be awarded, they vote again in the same
way, first returning their pay-vouchers and receiving back their
staves. Half a gallon of water is allowed to each party for the
discussion of the damages. Finally, when all has been completed in
accordance with the law, the jurors receive their pay in the order
assigned by the lot.

Part 7
Aesthetic Writings

Rhetoric, Book I
    Translated by W. Rhys Roberts
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1
    Rhetoric the counterpart of Dialectic. Both alike are concerned
with such things as come, more or less, within the general ken of
all men and belong to no definite science. Accordingly all men