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See also:ECCLESIA (Gr. EKKX ria, from Lc, out, and Ka)teiv, to See also:call)
, in See also:ancient See also:Athens, the See also:general See also:assembly of all the freemen of the See also:state
.
In the See also:primitive unorganized state the See also: See also:Cleisthenes the Ecclesia remained the See also:sovereign power, but the Council seems to have become to some extent a See also:separate administrative See also:body . The relation of See also:Bottle and Ecclesia in the Cleisthenic See also:democracy was of the greatest importance . The Ecclesia alone, a heterogeneous body of untrained citizens, could not have passed, nor even have See also:drawn up intelligible See also:measures; all the preliminary drafting was done by the small See also:committee of the Boule which was in session at any particular See also:time . In the 5th See also:century the functions of the Ecclesia and the popular courts of See also:justice were vastly increased by the exigencies of See also:empire . At the beginning of the 4th century B.C. the See also:system of See also:payment was introduced (see below) . In 308 B.C . See also:Demetrius of Phalerum curtailed the power of the Ecclesia by the institution of the Nomophylaces (Guardians of the Law), who prevented the Ecclesia from voting on an illegal or injurious See also:motion . Under See also:Roman See also:rule the powers of the Ecclesia and the popular courts were much diminished, and after 48 B.C . (the See also:franchise being frequently sold to any casual See also:alien) the Demos (people) was of no importance . They still assembled to pass psephisms in the See also:theatre and to elect strategi, and, under See also:Hadrian, had some small judicial duties, but as a governing body the Ecclesia died when Athens became a civitas libera under Roman See also:protection . Constitution and Functions.—Throughout the See also:period of Athenian greatness the Ecclesia was the sovereign power, not only in practice but also in theory . The assembly met in See also:early times near the See also:sanctuary of See also:Aphrodite Pandemus (i.e. See also:south of the See also:Acropolis), but, in the 5th and 4th centuries, the See also:regular See also:place of meeting was the Pnyx . From the 5th century it met sometimes in the theatre, which in the 3rd century was the regular place . From See also:Demosthenes we learn that in his time See also:special meetings were held at See also:Peiraeus, and, in the last centuries B . C., meetings were held at Athens and Peiraeus alternately . Certain meetings, however, for voting See also:ostracism (q.v.) and on questions affecting individual status took place in the Agora . Meetings were (I) See also:ordinary, (2) extraordinary, and (3) convened by special messengers (Kbpcau, OfryKX77TOL and KaT6.K)^1lTOL), these last being called when it was desirable that the See also:country people should attend . At ordinary meetings the attendance was practically confined to Athenian residents . According to Aristotle there were four regular meetings in each prytany (see BouLE); probably only the first of these was called Kvpla . It is certain, how-ever, that the four meetings did not fall on regular days, owing to the occurrence of feast days on which no meeting could take place . In the Kupia EKc? rLa of each See also:month took place the Epicheirolonia (monthly inquiry) of the state officials, and if it proved unsatisfactory a trial before the Heliaea was arranged; the council reported on the general See also:security and the See also:corn-See also:supply, and read out lists of vacant inheritances and unmarried heiresses . In the See also:sixth prytany of each year at the Ku pia &KKAmvta the question whether ostracism should take place that year was put to the See also:vote . For all meetings it was usual that the Prytaneis should give five days' See also:notice in the See also:form of a programma (agenda) . On occasions of sudden importance the See also:herald of the council summoned the people with a See also:trumpet, and sometimes special messengers were despatched to " bring in " the country people (Karwca?'.€ v) . After the archonship of Solon all Athenians over the See also:age of eighteen were eligible to attend the assembly, See also:save those who for some See also:reason had suffered atimia (loss of See also:civil rights) . To prevent the presence of any disqualified persons, six lexiarchs with See also:thirty assistants were See also:present with the deme-rolls in their hands . These See also:officers ,superintended the payment in the 4th century and probably the toxotae (See also:police) also, whose See also:duty it was before the introduction of pay to drive the people out of the Agora into the Ecclesia with a rope steeped in red dye which they stretched out and used as a draw See also:net (see Aristoph . Acharn . 22 and See also:Eccles . 378) . The introduction of pay, which belongs to the early years of the 4th century and by the Constitution (c . 41 ad fin.) is attributed to Agyrrhius, a statesman of the restored democracy, was a See also:device to secure a larger attendance . The See also:rate See also:rose from one to two obols and then to three obols (Aristoph . Eccles . 300 sqq.), while at the time of Aristotle it was one and a See also:half drachmas for the Kupta EKKXfQta and one drachma for other meetings . Probably those who were See also:late did not receive payment . See also:Procedure.—The proceedings opened with formalities: the See also:purification by the peristiarchs, who carried See also:round slain sucking pigs; the curse against all who should deceive the people; the See also:appointment (in the 4th century) of the proedri and their epistates (see Bount) ; the See also:report as to the See also:weather-omens . The assembly was always dismissed if there were See also:thunder, See also:rain or an See also:eclipse . These formalities over, the Prytaneis communicated the probouleuma of the council, without which the Ecclesia could not debate . This recommendation either submitted definite proposals or merely brought the agenda before the assembly . Its importance See also:lay largely in the fact that it explained the business in See also:hand, which otherwise must often have been beyond the grasp of a See also:miscellaneous assembly . After the See also:reading, a preliminary vote was taken as to whether the council's report should be accepted en bloc . If it was decided to discuss, the herald called upon people to speak . Any See also:person, without distinction of age or position, might obtain leave to speak, but it seems probable that the See also:man who had moved the recommendation previously in the council would See also:advocate it in the assembly . The council was, therefore, a check on the assembly, but its powers were to some extent illusory, because any member of the assembly (i) might propose an See also:amendment, (2) might draw up a new See also:resolution founded on the See also:principal motion, (3) might move the rejection of the motion and the substitution of another, (4) might bring in a motion asking the council for a recommendation on a particular See also:matter, (5) might See also:petition the council for leave to speak on a given matter to the assembly . Voting usually was by show of hands, but in special cases (ostracism, &c.) by See also:ballot (i.e. by casting pebbles into one of two urns) . The decision of the assembly was called a psephism and had absolute validity . These decisions were deposited in the Metroon where state documents were preserved; peculiarly important decrees were inscribed also on a See also:column (See also:stele) erected on the Acropolis . It has been shown that the power of the council was far from sufficient . The real check on the vagaries of See also:amateur legislators was the Graphe ParanomOn . Any man was at See also:liberty to give notice that he would proceed against the mover of a given resolution either before or after the voting in the Ecclesia . A trial in a Heliastic See also:court was then arranged, and the See also:plaintiff had to prove that the resolution in question contravened an existing law . If this contention were upheld by the court, when the See also:case was brought to it by the Thesmothetae, the resolution was annulled, and the See also:defendant had to appear in a new trial for the See also:assessment of the See also:penalty, which was usually a See also:fine, rarely See also:death . Three convictions under this law, however, involved a certain loss of rights; the loser could no longer move a resolution in the Ecclesia . After the See also:lapse of a year the mover of a resolution could not be attacked . In the 4th century the Graphe Paranomon took the place of Ostracism (q.v.) . In the 5th century it was merely an arrangement whereby the people sitting as sworn juries ratified or annulled their own first decision in the Ecclesia . Revision of Laws.—In the 4th century, the assembly annually, on the See also:eleventh See also:day of Hecatombaeon (the first day of the official year), took a general vote on the laws, to decide whether revision was necessary . If the decision was in favour of alteration, it was open to any private See also:citizen to put up notice of amendments . The Nomothetae, a See also:panel selected by the Prytaneis from the Heliaea, heard arguments for and against the changes proposed and voted accordingly . Against all new laws so passed, there lay the Graphe Paranomon . Thus the Nomothetae, not the Ecclesia, finally passed the law . Judicial Functions.—The Ecclesia heard cases of Probole and Eisangelia (see See also:GREEK LAW) . The Probole was an See also:action against sycophants and persons who had not kept their promises to the people, or had disturbed a public festival . The See also:verdict went by show of hands, but no legal consequences ensued.; if the plaintiff demanded See also:punishment he had to go to the Heliaea which were not at all See also:bound by the previous vote in the Ecclesia . Cases of Eisangelia in which the penalty exceeded the legal competence of the council came before the Ecclesia in the form of a probouleuma . To prevent vexatious accusations, it was (at some date unknown) decided that the accuser who failed to obtain one-fifth of the votes should be fined l000 drachmas (L4o) . (For the procedure in case of Ostracism see that See also:article.) See also:Summary.—Thus it will be seen that the Ecclesia, with no formal organization, had absolute power save for the Graphe Paranomon (which, therefore, constituted the dicasteries in one sense the sovereign power in the state) . It dealt with all matters See also:home and See also:foreign . Every member could initiate legislation, and, as has been shown, the power of the council was merely formal . As against this it must be pointed out that it was by no means a representative assembly in practice . The phrase used to describe a very special assembly (Karharlros EKKA770-la) shows that ordinarily the country members did not attend (KaraxaXeiv always involving the See also:idea of motion from a distance towards Athens), and See also:Thucydides says that 5000 was the maxi-mum attendance, though it must be remembered that he is speaking of the time when the number of citizens had been much reduced owing to the See also:plague and the Sicilian expedition .
From this we understand the See also:necessity of payment in the 4th century, although in that period the Ecclesia was supreme (Constitution of Athens, xli
.
2)
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The functions of the Ecclesia thus differed in two fundamental respects from those which are in See also:modern times associated with a popular assembly
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(1) It did not exercise, at least in the period as to which we are best instructed, the power of law-making (vopo9eo-ta) in the strict sense
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It must be remembered, however, in qualification of this statement that it possessed the power of passing psephismata which would in many cases be regarded as law in the modern sense
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(2) The Ecclesia was principally concerned with the supervision of See also:administration
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Much of what we regard as executive functions were discharged by the Ecclesia
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With this article compare those on Soaox; BOULE; See also:AREOPAGUS; GREEK LAW, and, for other ancient popular assemblies, See also:APELLA; See also:COMITIA
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See also A
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H
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J
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Greenidge, Handbook of Greek Constitutional See also:History (1896) ; See also: See also:Brooks and Nicklin, 1895) ; See also:Schomann, De comitiis Atheniensium ; L . See also:Schmidt, " De Atheniensis reipublicae See also:indole democratica " in Ind . L ect . (See also:Marburg, 1865) ; J . W . Headlam, See also:Election by See also:Lot at Athens (See also:Cambridge, 1891) . See also the histories of See also:Greece by See also:Meyer, Busolt, See also:Grote, See also:Evelyn See also:Abbott, and J . E . See also:Sandys' edition of the Constitution of Athens (1892) ; for a See also:comparative study, E . A . See also:Freeman, Comparative Politics . (J . M . |
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