When all the courts are full, two ballot boxes are placed in the first
court, and a number of brazen dice, bearing the colours of the several
courts, and other dice inscribed with the names of the presiding
magistrates. Then two of the Thesmothetae, selected by lot, severally
throw the dice with the colours into one box, and those with the
magistrates' names into the other. The magistrate whose name is first
drawn is thereupon proclaimed by the crier as assigned for duty in the
court which is first drawn, and the second in the second, and similarly
with the rest. The object of this procedure is that no one may know
which court he will have, but that each may take the court assigned to
him by lot.
When the jurors have come in, and have been assigned to their
respective courts, the presiding magistrate in each court draws one
ticket out of each chest (making ten in all, one out of each tribe),
and throws them into another empty chest. He then draws out five of
them, and assigns one to the superintendence of the water-clock, and
the other four to the telling of the votes. This is to prevent any
tampering beforehand with either the superintendent of the clock or the
tellers of the votes, and to secure that there is no malpractice in
these respects. The five who have not been selected for these duties
receive from them a statement of the order in which the jurors shall
receive their fees, and of the places where the several tribes shall
respectively gather in the court for this purpose when their duties are
completed; the object being that the jurors may be broken up into small
groups for the reception of their pay, and not all crowd together and
impede one another.