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124

ARCHON.

(f;gpe«s 7pa<£cu) were laid before them, as well as informations against olive growers, for rooting up more trees than was allowed to each proprietor by law. So, too, were the indictments for bribing the Heliaea, or any of the courts of justice at Athens, or the senate, or forming clubs for the overthrow of the democracy, and against retained advocates (crw^jopoi) who took bribes either in public or private causes. Again, an information was laid before them if a foreigner cohabited with a citizen, or a man gave in marriage as his own daughter the child of another, or confined as an adulterer one who was not so. ^CJjfcyr also had to refer informations (dffayyeXiatf fo^'tye ^people ; and where an information had been laia before the senate, and a condemnation, ensued, it was their duty to bring the judgment into the courts of justice for confirmation or revision. (Dem. c. Stepli. ii. p. 1137; c. Neaer. pp. 1351, 1363, 1368, c. Timocr. p. 720 ; Pollux, viii. 88 ; Bb'ckh, vol. i.

pp. 259, 317.)

A different office of theirs was to draw up and ratify the crujugoAa, or agreements, with foreign states, settling the terms on which their citizens should sue and be sued by the citizens of Athens. In their collective capacity, the archons are said to have had the power of death in case an exile re­turned to an interdicted place: they also superin­tended the eirixzipoTovia of the magistrates, held every prytany (<E7repo>TW(n el. 8o/ce? /caAws &pxeiv), and brought to trial those whom the people de­posed, if an action or indictment were the con­sequence of it. Moreover, they allotted the dicasts or jurymen, and probably presided at the annual election of the strategi and other military officers. (Pollux, viii. 87, 88 ; Harpocr.s. v. KaTa%etpoTo;/ia: Schbmann, p. 231 ; Dem. c. Arts. p. 630.)

We may here remark, that it is necessary to be cautious in our interpretation of the words apx'f) and &p%oyres, since in the Attic orators they have a double meaning, sometimes refer­ring to the archons peculiarly so called, and sometimes to any other magistracy. Thus in Isaeus (De Cleonymi Haered.) we might on a cursory perusal infer, that when a testator left his property away from his heir-at-law, by what was technically called a §6cris (Harpocr. 5. v.; Isaeus, Trepl /c/Vr?po>f), the archon took the original will into custody, and was required to be present at the making of any addition or codicil to it. A more accurate observation proves that by efs rwv apxdvTcov is meant one of the acrrvvofjioi, who formed a magistracy (apx^) as well as the nine archons.

A few words Avill suffice for the privileges and honours of the archons. The greatest of the former was the exemption from the trierarchies — a boon not allowed even to the successors of Harmodius and Aristogeiton. As a mark of their office, they wore a chaplet or crown of myrtle ; and if any one struck or abused one of the thesmothetae or the archon, when wearing this badge of office, he became &ti/xos, or infamous in the fullest extent, thereby losing his civic rights. (Bb'ckh, vol. ii. p. 322 ; Dem. c. Lept. pp. 462, 464, 465, c. Meid. p. 524 ; Pollux, viii. 86.) The archons, at the close of their year of service, were admitted among the members of the Areiopagus. [areiopagus.]

The Archon Eponymus being an annual magis­trate at Athens, like the consul at Rome, it is manifest that a correct list of the archons is an

ARCUS.

important element in the determination of Athe­nian chronology. Now from Creon (b.c. 684), the first annual archon, to Comias (b. c. 560), we have the names of about twenty-four. From b. c. 560 to the invasion of Xerxes (b. c. 480), the names and years of about twenty-four more have been determined. From B. c. 480 to 292, Diodorus and Dionysius Halicarnassus furnish an almost un­broken succession for a period of nearly 200 years. The names, so far as they are known, are given by Clinton (F. H.), who remarks that the compiler of the Parian marbles places the annual archons one year too high respectively. He also states (vol. ii. p. 12) that the best list is that of Corsini, who however is surpassed by Wesseling within the period embraced by tbe remains of Diodorus. [R.W.] ARCHO'NES (apx<t>vr)s). [telones.] ARCIFI'NIUS AGER. [acer.] ARCUS (also fornix^ Virg. Aen. vi. 631 ; Cic. in Verr. i. 7 ; /cctjuapa), an arch. It is possible to give an arched form to the covering of any opening by placing horizontal courses of stones projecting over one another, from both sides of the opening, till they meet at top, and then cutting the ends of the projecting stones to a regular curve, as shown below. This form is found in the most ancient architecture of nearly all nations, but it does not constitute a true arch. A true arch is formed of a series of wedge-like stones, or of bricks, support­ing each other, and all bound firmly together by their mutual pressure.

It would seem that the arch, as thus defined, and as used by the Romans, was not known to the Greeks in the early periods of their history, other­wise a language so copious as theirs, and of such ready application, would not have wanted a name properly Greek by which to distinguish it. But the constructive principle, by which an arch is made to hold together, and to afford a solid re­sistance against the pressure upon its circumference, was known to them even previously to the Trojan war, and its use is exemplified in two of the earliest buildings now remaining — the chamber built at Orchomenus, by Minyas, king of Boeotia, described by Pausanias (ix. 38), and the treasury of Atreus at Mycenae. (Pans. ii. 16.) Both these works are constructed under ground, and each of them consists of a circular chamber formed by regular courses of stones laid horizontally over each other, each course projecting towards the in­terior, and beyond the one below it, till they meet in an apex over the centre, which was capped by a large stone, and thus resembled the inside of a dome. Each of the horizontal courses of stones formed a perfect circle, or two semicircular arches joined together, as the subjoined plan of one of these courses will render evident.

It will be observed that the innermost end of each stone is bevelled off into the shape of a wedge, the apex of which, if continued, would meet in the centre of the circle, as is done in forming an arch ; while the outer ends against the earth are left rough, and their interstices filled up with small irregular-shaped stones, the immense size of the principal stones rendering it unnecessary to continue the sectional cutting throughout their whole length. Indeed, if these chambers had been constructed upon any other principle, it is clear that the pres­sure of earth all around them would have caused them to collapse. The method of construction here described was communicated to the writer