Note 662 — Chapter XLVI · CONSTITUTIONAL AND JUDICIAL CHANGES AT ATHENS UNDER PERIKLES.

Respecting the procedure of arbitration at Athens, and the public as well as private arbitrators, see the instructive treatise of Hudtwalcker, Ueber die öffentlichen und Privat-Schiedsrichter (Diaeteten) zu Athen: Jena, 1812.

Each arbitrator seems to have sat alone to inquire into and decide disputes: he received a small fee of one drachma from both parties: also an additional fee when application was made for delay (p. 16). Parties might by mutual consent fix upon any citizen to act as arbitrator: but there were a certain number of public arbitrators, elected or drawn by lot from the citizens every year: and a plaintiff might bring his cause before any one of these. They were liable to be punished under εὔθυναι, at the end of their year of office, if accused and convicted of corruption or unfair dealing.

The number of these public diætetæ, or arbitrators, was unknown when Hudtwalcker’s book was published. An inscription, since discovered by Professor Ross, and published in his work, Über die Demen von Attika, p. 22, records the names of all the diætetæ for the year of the archon Antiklês, B. C. 325, with the name of the tribe to which each belonged.

The total number is one hundred and four: the number in each tribe is unequal; the largest number is in Kekropis, which furnishes sixteen; the smallest in Pandionis, which sends only three. They must have been either elected or drawn by lot from the general body of citizens, without any reference to tribes. The inscription records the names of the diætetæ for this year B. C. 325, in consequence of their being crowned or receiving a vote of thanks from the people. The fragment of a like inscription for the year B. C. 337, also exists.