The elections to the various offices Solon enacted should be by lot,
out of candidates selected by each of the tribes. Each tribe selected
ten candidates for the nine archonships, and among these the lot was
cast. Hence it is still the custom for each tribe to choose ten
candidates by lot, and then the lot is again cast among these. A proof
that Solon regulated the elections to office according to the property
classes may be found in the law still in force with regard to the
Treasurers, which enacts that they shall be chosen from the
Pentacosiomedimni. Such was Solon's legislation with respect to the
nine Archons; whereas in early times the Council of Areopagus summoned
suitable persons according to its own judgement and appointed them for
the year to the several offices. There were four tribes, as before, and
four tribe-kings. Each tribe was divided into three Trittyes [=Thirds],
with twelve Naucraries in each; and the Naucraries had officers of
their own, called Naucrari, whose duty it was to superintend the
current receipts and expenditure. Hence, among the laws of Solon now
obsolete, it is repeatedly written that the Naucrari are to receive and
to spend out of the Naucraric fund. Solon also appointed a Council of
four hundred, a hundred from each tribe; but he assigned to the Council
of the Areopagus the duty of superintending the laws, acting as before
as the guardian of the constitution in general. It kept watch over the
affairs of the state in most of the more important matters, and
corrected offenders, with full powers to inflict either fines or
personal punishment. The money received in fines it brought up into the
Acropolis, without assigning the reason for the mulct. It also tried
those who conspired for the overthrow of the state, Solon having
enacted a process of impeachment to deal with such offenders. Further,
since he saw the state often engaged in internal disputes, while many
of the citizens from sheer indifference accepted whatever might turn
up, he made a law with express reference to such persons, enacting that
any one who, in a time [Transcriber's note: of?] civil factions, did
not take up arms with either party, should lose his rights as a citizen
and cease to have any part in the state.