The juries for the law-courts are chosen by lot by the nine Archons,
each for their own tribe, and by the clerk to the Thesmothetae for the
tenth. There are ten entrances into the courts, one for each tribe;
twenty rooms in which the lots are drawn, two for each tribe; a hundred
chests, ten for each tribe; other chests, in which are placed the
tickets of the jurors on whom the lot falls; and two vases. Further,
staves, equal in number to the jurors required, are placed by the side
of each entrance; and counters are put into one vase, equal in number
to the staves. These are inscribed with letters of the alphabet
beginning with the eleventh (lambda), equal in number to the courts
which require to be filled. All persons above thirty years of age are
qualified to serve as jurors, provided they are not debtors to the
state and have not lost their civil rights. If any unqualified person
serves as juror, an information is laid against him, and he is brought
before the court; and, if he is convicted, the jurors assess the
punishment or fine which they consider him to deserve. If he is
condemned to a money fine, he must be imprisoned until he has paid up
both the original debt, on account of which the information was laid
against him, and also the fine which the court as imposed upon him.
Each juror has his ticket of boxwood, on which is inscribed his name,
with the name of his father and his deme, and one of the letters of the
alphabet up to kappa; for the jurors in their several tribes are
divided into ten sections, with approximately an equal number in each
letter. When the Thesmothetes has decided by lot which letters are
required to attend at the courts, the servant puts up above each court
the letter which has been assigned to it by the lot.