EPHETjE. AREOPAGUS, ETC. 79 ed with the religious feelings of the Athenians, that these old reg- ulations were never formally abrogated throughout the historical times, and were read engraved on their column by the contempo- raries of Demosthenes. 1 The areopagus continued in judicial operation, and the ephetae are spoken of as if they were so, even through the age of Demosthenes ; though their functions were tacitly usurped or narrowed, and their dignity impaired, 3 by the more popular dikasteries afterwards created. It is in this way that they have become known to us, while the other Drakonian institutions have perished : but there is much obscurity respecting them, particularly in regard to the relation between the epheta? and the areopagites. Indeed, so little was known on the subject, even by the historical inquirers of Athens, that most of them supposed the council of areopagus to have received its first origin from Solon: and even Aristotle, though he contradicts this view, expresses himself in no very positive language. 3 That judges sat at the areopagus for the trial of homicide, previous to Drako, seems implied in the arrangements of that lawgiver respecting the ephetae, inasmuch as he makes no new provision for trying the direct issue of intentional homicide, which, accord- ing to all accounts, fell within the cognizance of the areopagus : but whether the ephetaj and the areopagites were the same persons, wholly or partially, our information is not sufficient to discover. Before Drako, there existed no tribunal for trying homicide, except the senate, sitting at the areopagus, and we may conjecture that there was something connected with that spot, legends, 1 Demosthcn. cont. Euerg. ct Mnesib. p. 1161. 2 Demosthcn. cont. Aristokrat. p. 647. roffov-oie tiiKaa-rjpioie, " &eoi Kare- Sn^av, KCU fiera rav~a UV&PUTTOI xpuvrai TTUVTCL rbv %povov, p. 643. ol TGVT' tsapxw TU vofitfta diadcvree, OITIVSC TTOI?' fyaav, eld' rjpuff, EITK deoi. See also the Oration cont. Makartat. p. 1069; ^schin. cont. Ktesiphon. p. 63o; Antiph. De Cade Herodis, c. 14. The popular dikasteiy, in the age of Isokratcs and Demosthenes, held sittings ITa/l/la&'cj for the trial of charges of unintentional homicide, a striking evidence of the special holiness of the place for that purpose (see fsokrat. cont. Kallimachum, Or. xviii, p. 381 ; Demosth. cont. Neser. p. 1348). The statement of Pollux (viii, 125), that the cphette became despised, is not confirmed by the language of Demosthenes. a riutarch, SoJon, c. 19 ; Aristot. Polit. ii, 9, 2.
