AREOPAGUS, in Antiquity, a celebrated tribunal ofthe Athenians. Some imagine the Areopagus the proper name of acourt of justice, situated on a hill, in Athens; and that inthis court the senate of that illustrious city assembled. Others say that Areopagus was the name of the whole suburbs of Athens, wherein stood the hill on which the courtwas built. And the name Areopagus seems to countenancethis last opinion; for it signifies literally, the Hill or Rockof Mars; from ἄρειος, hill, and πάγος, belonging to Mars.
In effect, the denomination might either arise hence, thatthe Areopagus was built in a place where had been a temple of Mars; or because the first cause pleaded there, wasthat of this god; who was accused of killing Neptune; orelse because Mars was there condemned for adultery.
This tribunal was in great reputation among the Greeks;and the Romans themselves had so high an opinion of it,that they trusted many of their difficult causes to its decision.
Authors are not agreed about the number of the judgeswho composed this august court. Some reckon thirty-one,others fifty-one, and others five hundred. In effect, theirnumber seems not to have been fixed, but was more or lessevery year. By an inscription quoted by Volateranus, itappears they were then 300.
At first this tribunal only consisted of nine persons, who had all discharged the office of Archons. Their salarywas equal, and paid out of the treasury of the republic. They had three oboli for each cause. The Areopagites were judges for life. They never satin judgment but in the night-time, to the intent that their minds might be more present and attentive, and that no object, either of pity or aversion, might make any impression upon them. All pleadings before them, were to be in thesimplest and most naked terms; without exordium, epilogue, passions, etc. See EXORDIUM, EPILOGUE, etc.
At first they only took cognizance of criminal causes, but in course of time their jurisdiction became of greater extent. Mr. Spon, who examined the antiquities ofthat illustrious city, found some remains of the Areopagusstill existing, in the middle of the Temple of Theseus, which was heretofore in the middle of the city, but is now without the walls. The foundation of the Areopagus is a semicircle, with an esplanade of 140 paces around it, whichproperly made the hall of the Areopagus. There is a tribunal cut in the middle of a rock, with seats on each sideof it, where the Areopagites sat, exposed to the open air.
This court is said by some to have been instituted by Solon;but others carry it much higher, and assert it to have been established by Cecrops, about the time that Aaron died;viz. in the year of the world 2553, maintaining withal, that Solon only made some new regulations in it.
In effect, Demosthenes himself, in his Oration against Ctesiphon, owns himself at a loss on the point: The institutors of this tribunal, says he, whatever they were, whether gods or heroes.
