INSTITUTIONS ATHENS ARISTOTLE ON THE ATHENIAN CONSTITUTION [THE ALCMEONIDAE 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 dead were cast out of their graves and their race banished for evermore. Moreover, in addition to this, Epimenides the Cretan performed a purification of the city. 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 in absolute slavery to the rich. They were known as Pelatae and also as Hectemori, because they cultivated the lands of the rich for a sixth part of the produce. 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 hauled into slavery, and their children with them. Their persons were mortgaged to their creditors, a custom which prevailed until the time of Solon, who was the first to appear as a leader of the people. But the hardest and bitterest part of the condition of the masses was the fact that they had no share in the offices then existing under the constitution. At the same time they |