The Fall of the Athenian Empire-(A New History of the Peloponnesian War) Donald Kagan - (1987)

THE FOUR HUNDRED IN POWER I 59
who expected the rule of the Four Hundred to be temporary and to
give way to a new constitution of the Five Thousand when the immediate
crisis was over.
In the days after the seizure of power by the Four Hundred, the
committee for drafting a constitution must have begun its deliberations.
No doubt the moderates put forward a plan giving power to the Five
Thousand and establishing a broad oligarchy to take effect immediately
or at least quite soon. The extremists, however, had something different
in mind. They intended to keep the Four Hundred in control
for the time being and to maintain a narrow oligarchy for the future.
They would certainly insist on the continued rule of the Four
Hundred, but they could not yet afford a rift with the moderates.
They also faced the problem of persuading the fleet at Samos to accept
their new regime, a task that would be much easier if the new constitution
could be portrayed as more moderate and less oligarchic. 4
The result of the discussions was a compromise: the committee
proposed two new constitutions, one for immediate use and the other
for the future. The immediate constitution officially established the
government of the council of Four Hundred, lending its foundation
an air of legitimacy by styling it "in accordance with the ancestral
tradition" and granting its members the power "to act in whatever way
they thought expedient. " 5 The Athenians, moreover, were to obey
whatever laws they might enact in the matter of the constitution, not
to change any, and not to introduce any new ones. 6 These provisions
gave the Four Hundred all of the powers they needed and rendered
their supposedly transitional regime permanent. To this extent they
represented the wishes of the extremists.
In return, the Four Hundred agreed to the promulgation, at the
same time, of a draft constitution for the still unspecified future. Its
details need not detain us long, for it was never put into effect and
existence, this cannot be true. No explanation is without problems, bur the one offered
by Rhodes (Commentary, 387) is persuasive: "The Colonus assembly will have decided
in principle that the constitution should be based on a powerful boule of Four Hundred
and a residual assembly of'Five Thousand,' and as it appointed the katalogeis to register
the Five Thousand it appointed the anagrapheis to work out the details of the new
constitution."
48.72.
5 Ka-rii -rii 1ni'rpw. (Atb. Pol. 31. 1). The reference is to Solon's council of 400 (Ath.
Pol. 8.4). For a defense ofthat council's historicity, see Rhodes, Commentary, I5J-I54.
6
Ath. Pol. 31. 1-2. For the meaning of this passage and, especially, for-roix; 'A6TJvaCott