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The Structures of Government - Coggle Diagram
The Structures of Government
Boule
The boule was the council and each year 50 men from each tribe was selected by lot to be on it.
No citizen could serve more than twice in his lifetime to prevent any one person from gaining too much power
Every day they met in the council house on the agora, and any citizen could observe their meetings
They prepared the motions to be debated in the assembly meetings, oversaw the assembly's decisions, met foreign ambassadors and supervised elections
Prytany
a prytany was a period of 35 or 36 days when all 50 councillors from one tribe (chosen by lot) were on call at all times and lived in a designated building
The prytaneis prepared the agenda for the council meetings
At the end of a prytany, a new tribe was selected by lot to serve the next one, with all 10 tribes serving in the year
Every morning, one of the 50 men were chosen by lot to be chairman for that day
Magistrates
along with the council, tehre were 700 Magistrates, or 'archontes', each year in Attica
They were selected by lot to serve on boards of 10, with each board overseeing an area of civic life like keeping the streets clean or regulating the markets
One of the most important boards was the Eleven, who administered legal punishments and managed the state prison
To be a magistrate you had to be 30 or over and you could only hold a specific post once
Before and after their year of service, they were scrutinised for good character by the boule, in a test called the
dokimasia
This asked questions about their ancestry and how they worshipped, like whether he
'possesses an ancestral Apollo and a household Zeus'
At the end of their year of service, they had to give an account of their performance, known as the euthanai, to the boule
Assembly
any Athenian citizen could attend the assembly meetings but this was of course easier for wealthy men in the city to do
they met at dawn on Pnyx hill four times per Prytany, but emergency sessions could be called if needed
Each session began with a herald announcing the agenda that the boule had put together and then the citizens voted on whether to proceed with this or not
Certain meetings of the prytany always dealt with certain issues - for example, the principal assembly always included a vote of confidence in the magistrates
Every citizen had the right to address the assembly, and there were no political parties like we see today
Important people like Pericles only attended on big occasions
discussed things like taxation, laws, foreign policy and upkeep of public buildings
At the end of the debate there would be a vote by a show of hands but, for more serious matters, here would be secret ballots
Law Courts
It was up to a citizen to bring a charge against a suspect, and there were two types:
Dike
a lawsuit filed by one citizen, who claimed to be a victim of an offence caused by another
Graphe
a lawsuit filed by a citizen claiming an offence had been committed by another citizen, against a third party
There was no judge, instead accusers and defendants spoke for themselves
Speeches were timed by a water clock - ensuring that both got the same amount of time
The case was heard and judged in just one day
Dikasts were citizens over 30 who heard the case and acted as judge and jury, voting on the outcome without discussion
There were 6,000 dikasts selected by lot each civil year and they were paid 2 obols a day so that even the poor could do it. They chose what days they wanted to serve by simply turning up
The size of juries varied depending on the importance of the case - from maybe 201 to 1,501. The odd numbers ensured there wasn't a tie