The Athenian Constitution
- Langue:
- anglais
- État:
- Œuvre complète
- Paternité:
- Écrite par l'auteur
- État du texte:
- Texte propre
- Étendue:
- ~25 500 mots · 121 passages
Citer cette œuvre
- APAAristote. (n.d.). The Athenian Constitution. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/fr/works/aristotle/the-athenian-constitution
- MLAAristote. "The Athenian Constitution." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/fr/works/aristotle/the-athenian-constitution.
- ChicagoAristote. The Athenian Constitution. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/fr/works/aristotle/the-athenian-constitution.
De quoi il s'agit
L'histoire et la description du régime athénien, perdues pendant des siècles et retrouvées sur un papyrus égyptien en 1879.
Contexte et histoire
Le texte fut publié en 1891 et demeure l'une des trouvailles qui ont le plus changé ce que nous savons du monde antique : la première partie raconte comment la constitution d'Athènes changea depuis les temps les plus anciens jusqu'à la démocratie restaurée, par Dracon, Solon, Pisistrate et Clisthène ; la seconde décrit le fonctionnement du système au IVe siècle, magistrature par magistrature, avec les tirages au sort, les indemnités et les tribunaux. Sans ce texte, une bonne part de ce qu'on dit de la démocratie athénienne ne pourrait se dire. Il appartenait à un recueil de cent cinquante-huit constitutions de cités rassemblées dans l'école d'Aristote ; c'est la seule qui nous soit parvenue. Les savants discutent s'il l'écrivit lui-même ou un disciple, et la question reste ouverte.
Contexte éditorial, non une source citable : contrairement aux passages de l'œuvre, ces données ne peuvent pas être vérifiées dans le 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.…