The History of Greece

Affairs of GREECE, from the Acquisition of the Situation of First Minister of ATHENS by DEMOSTHENES, to the Election of the King of MACEDONIA to the Office of General of the AMPHICTYONIC Confederacy

SECTION I

Character of the Office of First Minister of Athens. Ability and Diligence of Demosthenes. Negotiation with Persia. New Coälition with Phocian's Party. Embassy of Demosthenes to the Hellespontine Cities

The situation of first minister, or vicegerent of the soverein assembly, for the direction of the executive government, was less connected with a particular office, in Athens, than in any other Grecian commonwealth, whose constitution has been unfolded to us. In Lacedæmon, the ephor of the year was the principal minister; at Thebes, the poletnatc or the Bœotarc. Under Solon's constitution, the archon of the year seems to have been the proper first minister of Athens. But when the commonwealth became much implicated in wars, it was found convenient that the strategus, the first general, should have a discretionary power to call extraordinary assemblies of the people, which was analogous to demanding an audience of the soverein. The general commonly acquired his situation by his abilities; the archon, at least in the constitution of Cleisthenes, if the business was legally conducted, always by lot; the communications of the general to the soverein assembly were often most highly interesting; those of the archon seldom. Men of the extraordinary characters then of Themistocles, Aristeides, Cimon, and Pericles, holding successively the office of general, through most critical periods of many years, gave it an importance far above that of any other.