The Athenian Constitution
- Idioma:
- inglés
- Estado:
- Obra completa
- Autoría:
- Escrita por el autor
- Estado del texto:
- Texto limpio
- Extensión:
- ~25.500 palabras · 121 pasajes
Cita esta obra
- APAAristóteles. (n.d.). The Athenian Constitution. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/es/works/aristotle/the-athenian-constitution
- MLAAristóteles. "The Athenian Constitution." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/es/works/aristotle/the-athenian-constitution.
- ChicagoAristóteles. The Athenian Constitution. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/es/works/aristotle/the-athenian-constitution.
De qué trata
La historia y la descripción del régimen ateniense, perdida durante siglos y reencontrada en un papiro egipcio en 1879.
Contexto e historia
El texto se publicó en 1891 y es todavía hoy uno de los hallazgos que más han cambiado lo que sabemos del mundo antiguo: la primera parte cuenta cómo fue cambiando la constitución de Atenas desde los tiempos más antiguos hasta la democracia restaurada, con Dracón, Solón, Pisístrato y Clístenes; la segunda describe cómo funcionaba el sistema en el siglo IV, magistratura por magistratura, con los sorteos, los sueldos y los tribunales. Sin este texto, buena parte de lo que se dice sobre la democracia ateniense no podría decirse. Formaba parte de una colección de ciento cincuenta y ocho constituciones de ciudades reunidas en la escuela de Aristóteles; es la única que ha llegado. Los especialistas discuten si la escribió él mismo o un discípulo, y la cuestión sigue abierta.
Contexto editorial, no una fuente citable: a diferencia de los pasajes de la obra, estos datos no se pueden comprobar contra el corpus.
...[They were tried] by a court empanelled from among the noble families, and sworn upon the sacrifices. The part of accuser was taken by Myron. They were found guilty of the sacrilege, and their bodies were cast out of their graves and their race banished for evermore. In view of this expiation, Epimenides the Cretan performed a purification of the city. Part 2 After this event there was contention for a long time between the upper classes and the populace. Not only was the constitution at this time oligarchical in every respect, but the poorer classes, men, women, and children, were the serfs of the rich. They were known as Pelatae and also as Hectemori, because they cultivated the lands of the rich at the rent thus indicated. The whole country was in the hands of a few persons, and if the tenants failed to pay their rent they were liable to be haled into slavery, and their children with them. All loans secured upon the debtor's person, a custom which prevailed until the time of Solon, who was the first to appear as the champion of the people. But the hardest and bitterest part of the constitution in the eyes of the masses was their state of serfdom. Not but what they were also discontented with every other feature of their lot; for, to speak generally, they had no part nor share in anything. Part 3 Now the ancient constitution, as it existed before the time of Draco, was organized as follows. The magistrates were elected according to qualifications of birth and wealth. At first they governed for life, but subsequently for terms of ten years. The first magistrates, both in date and in importance, were the King, the Polemarch, and the Archon. The earliest of these offices was that of the King, which existed from ancestral antiquity.…