nation. The third archon bore the title of THE POLEMARCH, or
Commander-in-chief and was, down to the time of Clisthenes, the
commander of the troops. The remaining six had the common title
of THESMOTHETAE, or Legislators. Their duties seem to have been
almost exclusively judicial.

The government of the Eupatrids was oppressive; and the
discontent of the people at length became so serious, that Draco
was appointed in 624 B.C. to draw up a written code of laws.
They were marked by extreme severity. He affixed the penalty of
death to all crimes alike; to petty thefts, for instance, as well
as to sacrilege and murder. Hence they were said to have been
written not in ink but in blood; and we are told that he
justified this extreme harshness by saying that small offences
deserved death, and that he knew no severer punishment for great
ones.

The legislation of Draco failed to calm the prevailing
discontent. The people gained nothing by the written code,
except a more perfect knowledge of its severity; and civil
dissensions prevailed as extensively as before. The general
dissatisfaction with the government was favourable to
revolutionary projects; and accordingly, twelve years after
Draco's legislation (B.C. 612), Cylon, one of the nobles,
conceived the design of depriving his brother Eupatrids of their
power, and making himself tyrant of Athens. Having collected a
considerable force, he seized the Acropolis; but he did not meet
with support from the great mass of the people, and he soon found
himself closely blockaded by the forces of the Eupatrids. Cylon
and his brother made their escape, but the remainder of his