Plate XIII.
Plate XIV.
There can only be further enumerated a few of the more important buildings erected in England during the later yearsof the 19th century, and mention made of the general course which architecture has taken in regard to special classes of buildings. The Natural History Museum (Plate XI., fig. 120), completed in 1881 by Alfred Waterhouse, may stand as a type of the taste for the employment of terra-cotta, with all its dangerous facilities in ornamental detail, of which that architect specially set the example. Detail is certainly overdone here, but the building is strikingly original; a point not to be overlooked in these days of architectural copying. The Imperial Institute, the result of a competition among six selected architects, represents also a type of architecture which its architect, T.E. Collcutt, maybe said to have matured for himself, and which has been extensively imitated; a refined variety of free classic, always quiet and delicate in detail, though perhaps rather wanting in architectonic force. The next great architectural competition was that for the completion of the South Kensington Museum, the bare brick exterior of which, waiting for architectural completion, had long been a national disgrace. The competition produced some fine and striking designs, some of them perhaps more so than the selected one by Sir Aston Webb, whose fine plan, however, justified the selection. Another competition which excited general interest was that in 1894, for the rebuilding on a country site of Christ’s Hospital schools, also gained by Aston Webb (in collaboration with Ingress Bell), by a design which, in its arrangement of schoolhouses in detached blocks (fig. 101), but in a symmetrical grouping, opened up a new idea in public-school planning, and struck a blow at the picturesque but insanitary quadrangle system. Among notable public buildings of the period ought to be mentioned Norman Shaw’s New Scotland Yard, built in a style neither classic nor Gothic, but partaking of the elements of both (Plate X., fig. 119). A competition in 1908 for the design of the new county hall for the London County Council, to be “English Renaissance” in style, was won by a young architect, till then unknown, Mr Ralph Knott.
In recent years there has been a great movement for building town halls; towns rather vying with each other in this way. Of late nearly all of these have been carried out in some variety of free classic. Among the more important in point of scale is that of Sheffield, by E.W. Mountford (1856-1908) (fig. 102); among smaller ones, those of Oxford, by H.T. Hare (fig. 103); and Colchester, by John Belcher, are particularly good examples of recent architecture of this class, the former distinguished also by an exceptionally good plan. The merit of excellent planning also belongs to Aston Webb and Ingress Bell’s Birmingham law courts, one of the modern terra-cotta buildings of somewhat too florid detail, though picturesque as a whole. Among public halls the M‘Ewan Hall at Edinburgh, completed in 1898 from the designs of Sir Rowand Anderson, deserves mention as one of the most original and most carefully designed of recent buildings in Great Britain.
The various new buildings erected in connexion with the university of Oxford, those by T.G. Jackson (b. 1835) especially, form an important incident in modern English architecture. Mr Jackson succeeded to a remarkable degree in designing new buildings which are in harmony with the old architecture of the university city; sometimes perhaps a little too imitative of it, but at any rate he has the credit of having added ratherextensively to Oxford without spoiling it; while his school buildings in different parts of the country have a refinement and domesticity of feeling which is the true note of school architecture. Among buildings of an educational class, the move in technical education has led to the erection of a good many large polytechnic and similar institutions, which in many cases have been well treated architecturally; the Northampton Institute at Clerkenwell (fig. 104), by Mountford, being perhaps one of the boldest and most effective of recent public buildings. In the building of hospitals and asylums much has been done, and great progress made in the direction of hygienic and practical planning and construction, but the tendency has been (perhaps rightly) towards making this practical efficiency the main consideration and reducing architectural treatment to the simplest character. St Thomas’s hospital at Lambeth exemplifies the treatment of hospital architecture at the commencement of the last quarter of the 19th century; the separate pavilion system had been already adopted on practical grounds, but the building is treated in a sumptuous architectural style, as if representing so many detached mansions—a treatment which would now be deprecated as an expenditure foreign to the main purpose of the building. One recent hospital, however, that at Birmingham, by W. Henman, combining architectural effect with the latest hygienic improvements, was the first large hospital in Great Britain in which the system of mechanical ventilation was completely and consistently carried out.
In theatre building there has been an immense improvement in regard to planning, ventilation and fireproof construction, but little to note in an architectural sense, since theatres in England are never designed by eminent architects, the financial and practical aspects being alone considered.
In domestic architecture the tendency has been to quit picturesque irregularity for a more formal and more dignified treatment. Such a house as Norman Shaw’s “Cragside,” built in the earlier part of our period (fig. 105), however its picturesqueEnglish domestic and street architecture.treatment may still be admired, would hardly be built now on a large scale; its architect himself has of late years shown a preference for a symmetrical and regular treatment of house architecture sometimes to the extent of making the mansion look too like a barrack. In street architecture, however, the tendency has been towards a more characteristic and more picturesque treatment; nor is there any class of building in which the improvement in English architecture has been more marked and more unquestionable. Many of the new residential streets in the west end of London present a really picturesqueensemble, and many shops and other commercial street buildings have been erected with admirable fronts from the designs of some of the best architects of the day. Norman Shaw’s building at the corner of St James’s Street and Pall Mall was one of the first, and is still one of the best examples of modern street architecture, though surpassed by the same architect’s more recent building opposite, at the south-west angle of St James’s Street—one of the finest and most monumental examples of street architecture in London. Among other examples may be cited T.E. Collcutt’s London City & Midland Bank in Ludgate Hill (fig. 106) and R. Blomfield’s narrow house-front in Buckingham Gate (fig. 107). The introduction of sculpture in street fronts is also beginning to receive attention; and a simple house-front recently erected in Margaret Street, London, from the design of Beresford Pite (fig. 108), is an excellent example of the use of sculpture inconnexion with ordinary street architecture. It is significant of the increased attention accorded to street architecture, that the most important architectural event in England at the very close of the 19th century, was the outlay of £2000 by the London County Council, in fees to eight architects for designs for the front of the proposed new streets of Kingsway and Aldwych. The idea was to treat these streets as comprehensive architectural designs with a certain unity of effect. Unfortunately this idea was abandoned for merely commercial reasons, it being feared that there would be a difficulty in letting the sites if tenants were required to conform their frontages to a general design. In the case of Aldwych, which is a crescent street, this decision was fatal. A crescent loses all its effect unless treated as a complete and symmetrical architectural design.
The competition for the Queen Victoria Memorial, consisting of a processional road from Whitehall to Buckingham Palace, culminating in a sculptural trophy in front of the palace, attracted a great deal of attention in 1901. Of the five invited competitors—Sir Aston Webb (b. 1849), T.G. Jackson, Ernest George (b. 1839), Sir Thomas Drew (b. 1838), and Sir Rowand Anderson (b. 1834) the two latter representing Ireland and Scotland respectively,—Sir Aston Webb’s design was selected, and unquestionably showed the best and most effective manner of laying out the road, as well as a very pleasing architectural treatment of the semicircular forecourt in front of the palace, with pavilions and fountain-basins symmetrically spaced; but some of this was subsequently sacrificed on grounds of economy. The building, a triumphal arch flanked by pavilions, forming the entry to the processional road from Whitehall, is a dignified design.
In France, still the leading artistic nation of the world, the art of architecture has been in a most flourishing and most active state in the most recent period. It is true that there is not the same variety as in modern EnglishRecent French architecture.architecture, nor have there been the same discussions and experiments in regard to the true aim and course of architecture which have excited so much interest in England; because the French architects, unlike the English, know exactly what they want. They have a “school” of architecture; they adhere to the scholastic or academic theory of architecture as an art founded on the study of classic models; and on this basis their architects receive the most thorough training of any in the world. This predominance of the academic theory deprives their architecture, no doubt, of a good deal of the element of variety and picturesqueness; a French architectpur sang, in fact, never attempts the picturesque, unless in a country residence, and then the results are such that one wishes the attempt had not been made. But, on the other hand, modern French architecture at its best has a dignity and style about it which no other nation at present reaches, and which goes far to atone for a certain degree of sameness and repetition in its motives; and living under a government which recognizes the importance of national architecture, and is willing to spend public money liberally on it (with the full approbation of its public), the French architects have opportunities which English ones but seldom enjoy— the predominant aim with a British government being to see how little they can spend on a public building. The two great Paris exhibitions of 1889 and 1900 may be regarded as important events in connexion with architecture, for even the temporary buildings erected for them showed an amount of architectural interest and originality which could be met with nowhere else, and which in each case left its mark behind it, though with a difference; for while in the 1889 exhibition the main object was to treat temporary structures—iron and concrete and terra-cotta—in an undisguised but artistic manner, in those of the 1900 exhibition the effort was to create an architecturalcoup d’œilof apparently monumental structures of which the actual construction was disguised. In spite of some eccentricities the amount of invention and originality shown in these temporary buildings was most remarkable; but fortunately the exhibition left something more permanent behind it in the shape of the two art-palaces and the new bridge over the Seine. The two palaces are triumphs of modern classic architecture; the larger one (by MM. Thomas, Louvet and Deglane) is to some extent spoiled by the apparently unavoidable glass roof, the smaller one, by M. Girault, escapes this drawback, and, still more refined than its greater opposite, is one of the most beautiful buildings of modern times; the central portion is shown in Plate XIV., fig. 130. The architectural pylons, with their accompanying sculpture, which flank the entries to the bridge, are worthy of the best period of French Renaissance. Thus much, at least, has the 1900 exhibition done for architecture.
A, Salle des Fêtes.
B, Salle à manger.
C, Salons de Réception.
D, Council Chamber.
E, Grand Staircase.
F, Salle des Cariatides.
G, General Secretary.
H, Prefect.
K, Committee Rooms.
L, Public Works.
M, Corridor.
N, President of Council.
O, Library.
P, Refreshment Room.
At the beginning of the last quarter of the 19th century stands one of the most important of modern French buildings, the Paris hotel de ville, commenced shortly after the war, from the designs of MM. Ballu and Deperthes, planned on an immense scale, and on the stateliest and most monumental lines: the plan is given in fig. 109. The central block is, externally, a restoration of the old hotel de ville, the remainder carried out in an analogous but somewhat more modern style. The interior has been the scene of sumptuous pictorial decoration, in which all the first artists of the day were employed—unfortunately in too scattered a manner and on no predominant or consistent scheme. One of the most characteristic architectural efforts of the French has consisted in the erection of the various smaller hôtels-de-ville or mairies, in the city and suburban districts of the capital; as at Pantin, Lilas, Suresnes and in various arrondissements within the city proper (Plate XIII., fig. 127). Nothing shows the quality of modern French architecture better, or perhaps more favourably, than this series of district town halls; all have a distinctly municipal character and a certain family resemblance of style amid their diversity of details; all are refined specimens of pre-eminently civilized architecture. Among the greater architectural efforts of France is the immense block of the new Sorbonne, by M. Nénot, a building sufficient in itself for an architectural reputation. Among smaller French buildings of peculiar merit may be mentioned the Musée Galliera, in the Trocadéro quarter of Paris, designed by M. Ginain—a work of pure art in architecture such as we should nowadays look for in vain out of France; the École de Médecine, by the same refined architect (fig. 110); and the chapel in rue Jean Goujon (Guilbert), erected as a memorial to the victims of the bazaar fire, again a notable instance of a work of pure thought in architecture—a new conception out of old materials. The new Opéra Comique (Bernier) should also be mentioned, the rather disappointing result of a competition which excited great interest at the time. Street architecture has been carried out of late in Paris in a sumptuous style, with great stone fronts and a profusion of carved ornament, such as we know nothing of in England; and though there is a rather monotonous repetition of the same style and character throughout the new or newly built streets, it is impossible to deny the effect of palatial dignity they impart to the city. In the matter of country houses the French architect is less fortunate; when he attempts what he regards as the rural picturesque, his good taste seems entirely to desert him, and themaison de campagneis generally a mere riot of gimcrack bargeboards and finials. In Paris, the taste for the contortions of what is calledart nouveauhas led to the erection, here and there, of ugly and eccentric fronts with preposterous ornamental details; but the invasion of this element is only partial and will probably not prove other than a passing phase.
The great military success of Germany in 1870, and the founding of the German empire, gave, as is usual in such crises, a decided impetus to public architecture, of which the central and most important visible sign is the German Houses of ParliamentGermany.(Plate IX., fig. 117), by Paul Wallot (b. 1841), whose design was selected in a competition. There is something essentially German in the quality of this national building; classic architecture minus its refinement. The detail is coarse; the finish of the end pavilions of the principal front absolutely unmeaning— mere architectural rodomontade; the central cupola of glass and iron, on a square plan, probably the ugliest central feature on any great building in Europe; and yet there is undeniable power about the whole thing; it is the characteristic product of a conquering nation not reticent in its triumph. The new cathedral at Berlin, by Julius Raschdorff (b. 1823), is the other most important German work of the period (fig. 111); a building very striking and unusual in plan, but absolutely commonplace in its architectural detail; school classic of the most ordinary type, without even any of those elements of originality which are to be found in the Houses of Parliament. A curious feature in the plan (fig. 112) is that the building, alone of any cathedral we can recall, has its principal general entrance at the side, the end entrance being reserved for a special imperial cortège on special occasions, the cathedral also serving the second purpose of an imperial mausoleum. Theatre building has been carried on very largely in Germany, and among its productions the Lessing theatre at Berlin (fig. 113) (Hermann von der Hude and Julius Hennicke, d. 1892) is a favourable example of Germanclassic at its best, besides being, like most modern German theatres, very well planned (fig. 114). Hamburg has had its new municipal buildings (Grotjan), a florid Renaissance building with a central tower, showing in its general effect and grouping a good deal of Gothic feeling Mention may also be made of the Imperial law courts (Reichsgerichtsgebaude) at Leipzig, designed by Ludwig Hoffmann (b. 1852) and finished in 1895, a building with no more charm about it, externally, than the Berlin Parliament Houses, but with some good interior effects. The new post offices in Germany have been an important undertaking, and are, at all events, buildings of more mark than those in England. There has also been a great deal of new development in street architecture, which shows an immense variety, and a constantly evident determination to do something striking, but we find in it neither the dignity of Parisian street architecture nor the refinement of modern London work; there is an element of the bombastic about it.
No modern building on the European continent is more remarkable than the Brussels law courts (Plate XI., fig. 121) from the designs of Joseph Poelaert (1816-1879), an original genius in architecture, who had the good fortune to be appreciated and given a free hand by his government. The design is based on classic architecture, but with a treatment so completelyOther countries.individual as to remove it almost entirely from the category of imitative or revival architecture; somewhat fantastic it may be, but as an original architectural creation it stands almost alone among modern public buildings. In Vienna the scholastic classic style has been retained with much more purity and refinement than in the German capital, and the Parliament Houses (Plate IX., fig. 116), by Theophil Hansen (1813-1891), if they show no originality of detail, have the merit of original and very effective grouping. Budapest, on the other hand, which has almost sprung into existence since 1875 as the rival of the Austrian capital, has erected a great Parliament building of florid character (Plate IX., fig. 115), in a style in which the Gothic element is prevalent, though the central feature is a dome. The plan (see fig. 92) is obviously based on that of the Westminster building, the exterior design, however, has the merit of clearly indicating the position of the two Chambers as part of the architectural design, the want of which is the one serious defect of Barry’s noble structure. In Italy modern architecture is at a very low ebb; the one great work of this period was the building of the façade to the Duomo at Florence, from the design of de Fabris, who did not live to see its completion. As the completion in modern times of a building of world-wide fame, it is a work of considerable interest, and, on the whole, not unworthy of its position; that it should harmonize quite satisfactorily with the ancient structure was hardly to be expected. It was probably the completion of this façade which led the city of Milan to start a great architectural competition, in the early ’eighties, for the erection of a new façade to its celebrated cathedral, not because the façade had never been completed, but because it had been spoiled and patched with bad 18th-century work. The ambition was a legitimate one, and the competition, open to all the world, excited the greatest interest; but the young Italian architect, Brentano, to whom the first premiumwas awarded, died shortly afterwards, and other causes, partly financial, led to the postponement of the scheme, though it is understood that there is still an intention of carrying out Brentano’s design under the direction of the official architectural department of the city.
In summing up the present position of modern architecture, it may be said that architecture is now a more cosmopolitan art than it has been at any previous period. The separate development of a national style has becomeConclusion.in the present day almost an impossibility. Increased means of communication have brought all civilized nations into close touch with each other’s tastes and ideas, with the natural consequence that the treatment of a special class of building in any one country will not differ very materially from its treatment in another; though there are nuances of local taste in detail, in manner of execution, in the materials used. And the civilized countries have almost with one consent returned, in the main, to the adoption of a school of architecture based on classic types. The taste for medievalism is dying out even in Great Britain, which has been its chief stronghold.
What course the future of modern architecture will take it is not easy to prophesy. What is quite certain is that it is now an individual art, each important building being the production, not of an unconsciously pursued national style, but of a personal designer. As far as there is a ruling consensus in architectural taste, this will tend to become, like dress and manners, more and more cosmopolitan; and it seems probable that it will be based more or less on the types left us by Classic and Renaissance architecture. There are, however, two influences which may have a definite effect on the architecture of the near future. One of these is the possible greaterrapprochementbetween architecture and engineering, of which there are already some signs to be seen; architects will learn more of the kind of structural problems which are now almost the exclusive province of the engineer, and there will be a demand that engineering works shall be treated, as they well may be, with some of the refinement and expression of architecture. The other influence lies in the closer connexion, which is already taking place, between architecture and the allied arts, so that an important building will be regarded and treated as a field for the application of decorative sculpture and painting of the highest class, and as being incomplete without these. It is in this closer union of architecture with the other arts that there lies the best hope for the architecture of the future.
Plate XV.
Plate XVI.
Authorities.—The literature of architecture as a modern art is limited, the most important publications of recent times being mainly devoted to the study and illustration of ancient architecture. The following, however, may be named:—James Fergusson,History of Modern Architecture(2nd ed., London, 1873); T.G. Jackson,Modern Gothic Architecture(London, 1873); J.T. Micklethwaite,Modern Parish Churches(London, 1874); E.R. Robson,School Architecture(London, 1874); J.J. Stevenson,House Architecture(London, 1880); E.E. Viollet-le-Duc,How to Build a House(London, 1874);Lectures on Architecture(London, 1881); H.C. Burdett,Hospitals and Asylums of the World(London, 1892-1893); Professor Oswald Kuhn,Krankenhauser(Stuttgart, 1897); E.O. Sachs,Modern Opera-Houses and Theatres(London, 1897-1899); E. Wyndham Tarn,The Mechanics of Architecture(London, 1893); R. Norman Shaw, R.A., T.G. Jackson, R.A., and others,Architecture, a Profession or an Art(London, 1892); W.H. White,The Architect and his Artists(London, 1892);Architecture and Public Buildings in Paris and London(London, 1884); H.H. Statham,Architecture for General Readers(London, 1895);Modern Architecture(London, 1898); Herrmann Muthesius,Die englische Baukunst der Gegenwart(Berlin and Leipzig, 1900); Der Architekten Verein zu Berlin,Berlin und Seine Bauten(Berlin, 1896). The real literature of modern architecture, however, is to be found mainly in the articles and illustrations in the best periodical architectural publications of various countries. Among these Italy has none worth mention, and France, with all her architectural enthusiasm, has had no first-class architectural periodical since the extinction, about 1890, of theRevue générale de l’architecture, conducted for more than fifty years by the late César Daly, and in its day the first periodical of its class in the world. Among the best periodical publications are:The Architectural Record(quarterly), (New York);The Architectural Review(monthly), (Boston); theAllgemeine Bauzeitung(quarterly), (Vienna); theBerlin Architekturwelt(monthly), (Berlin);The Builder(weekly), (London);La Construction moderne(weekly), (Paris).
Authorities.—The literature of architecture as a modern art is limited, the most important publications of recent times being mainly devoted to the study and illustration of ancient architecture. The following, however, may be named:—James Fergusson,History of Modern Architecture(2nd ed., London, 1873); T.G. Jackson,Modern Gothic Architecture(London, 1873); J.T. Micklethwaite,Modern Parish Churches(London, 1874); E.R. Robson,School Architecture(London, 1874); J.J. Stevenson,House Architecture(London, 1880); E.E. Viollet-le-Duc,How to Build a House(London, 1874);Lectures on Architecture(London, 1881); H.C. Burdett,Hospitals and Asylums of the World(London, 1892-1893); Professor Oswald Kuhn,Krankenhauser(Stuttgart, 1897); E.O. Sachs,Modern Opera-Houses and Theatres(London, 1897-1899); E. Wyndham Tarn,The Mechanics of Architecture(London, 1893); R. Norman Shaw, R.A., T.G. Jackson, R.A., and others,Architecture, a Profession or an Art(London, 1892); W.H. White,The Architect and his Artists(London, 1892);Architecture and Public Buildings in Paris and London(London, 1884); H.H. Statham,Architecture for General Readers(London, 1895);Modern Architecture(London, 1898); Herrmann Muthesius,Die englische Baukunst der Gegenwart(Berlin and Leipzig, 1900); Der Architekten Verein zu Berlin,Berlin und Seine Bauten(Berlin, 1896). The real literature of modern architecture, however, is to be found mainly in the articles and illustrations in the best periodical architectural publications of various countries. Among these Italy has none worth mention, and France, with all her architectural enthusiasm, has had no first-class architectural periodical since the extinction, about 1890, of theRevue générale de l’architecture, conducted for more than fifty years by the late César Daly, and in its day the first periodical of its class in the world. Among the best periodical publications are:The Architectural Record(quarterly), (New York);The Architectural Review(monthly), (Boston); theAllgemeine Bauzeitung(quarterly), (Vienna); theBerlin Architekturwelt(monthly), (Berlin);The Builder(weekly), (London);La Construction moderne(weekly), (Paris).
(H. H. S.)
1For the various chronological systems proposed seeEgypt:Chronology.2Except, possibly, the earliest of those at Sparta (q.v.).—ED.3Article “Architecture,”Ency. Brit., 9th ed.4Wilkins made two designs for the whole building; one leaving the quadrangle entirely open on the fourth side, towards the street the other showing a low open colonnaded screen connecting the ends of the two wings. He never for a moment contemplated closing in the quadrangle by buildings on the fourth side.5A remarkable instance of this is shown by the railway viaduct at Passy, a large and monumental piece of work in itself, which is built along the centre of the roadway of Napoleon’s bridge. It was’ at first proposed to have a steel railway viaduct parallel with the old bridge, but it was found that the latter, both in respect of solidity and spacious dimensions, would fully bear the erection of the railway viaduct along its centre.6The western half of the present front; the design was duplicated afterwards, on the extension of the building, but Bodley originated it.
1For the various chronological systems proposed seeEgypt:Chronology.
2Except, possibly, the earliest of those at Sparta (q.v.).—ED.
3Article “Architecture,”Ency. Brit., 9th ed.
4Wilkins made two designs for the whole building; one leaving the quadrangle entirely open on the fourth side, towards the street the other showing a low open colonnaded screen connecting the ends of the two wings. He never for a moment contemplated closing in the quadrangle by buildings on the fourth side.
5A remarkable instance of this is shown by the railway viaduct at Passy, a large and monumental piece of work in itself, which is built along the centre of the roadway of Napoleon’s bridge. It was’ at first proposed to have a steel railway viaduct parallel with the old bridge, but it was found that the latter, both in respect of solidity and spacious dimensions, would fully bear the erection of the railway viaduct along its centre.
6The western half of the present front; the design was duplicated afterwards, on the extension of the building, but Bodley originated it.
ARCHITRAVE(from Lat.arcus, an arch, andtrabs, trabem, a beam), an architectural term for the chief beam which carries the superstructure and rests immediately on the columns. In the ordinary entablature it is the lowest of the three divisions, the other two being the frieze and the cornice (seeOrder). The term is also applied to the moulded frame of a doorway.
ARCHIVE(Lat.archivum, a transliteration of Gr.ἀρχεῖον, an official building), a term (generally used in the plural “archives”), properly denoting the building in which are kept the records, charters and other papers belonging to any state, community or family, but now generally applied to the documents themselves (seeRecord).
ARCHIVOLT(from Lat.arcus, an arch, andvolta, a vault), an architectural term applied to the mouldings of an architrave, when carried round an arched opening.
ARCHON(ἄρχων, ruler), the title of the highest magistrate in many ancient Greek states. It is only in Athens that we have any detailed knowledge of the office, and even in this one case the evidence presents problems of the first importance which are incapable of decisive solution. There is no doubt that the archons represented the ancient kings, whose absolutism, under conditions which we can only infer, yielded in process of time to the power of the noble families, supported no doubt by the fighting force of the state. As to the process by which this change was effected there are two accounts. Traditionally, the monarchy after the death of Codrus (? 1068B.C.) gave place to the life archon whose tenure of office was limited afterwards to ten years and then to one year. Aristotle’sConstitution of Athens(q.v.) speaks of five stages: (1) the institution of the polemarch who took over the military duties of the king; (2) the institution ofthearchon to relieve the king of his civil duties; (3) the tenure of office was reduced to ten years (? 752B.C.); (4) the office was taken from the “royal” clan and thrown open to all Eupatridae (? 712B.C.); (5) office was made annual, and to the existing three offices were added the six thesmothetae whose duty it was to record judicial decisions. The value of this latter account is, of course, debatable, but it is at least compatible with the general trend of development from hereditary absolutism, civil, military and religious, in the person of the “king,” to a constitutional oligarchy. The change was clearly effected by the devolution of the military and civil powers of the king to the polemarch and the archon, while the archon basileus (or king) retained control of state religion. It is equally clear that owing to the predominating importance of civil affairs,thearchon became the chief state official and gave his name to the year (hence archon eponymus). It should be noticed that the analogy which has often been suggested between the early history of the archonship at Athens, and such cases as the mayors of the palace in French history, or the tycoon (shogun) and mikado in Japanese history, is misleading. In these cases it is the old royal house that retains the royal title and the semblance of power, while the real authority passes into new hands. In Athens, the new civil office is vested in the old royal family, while the old title along with its religious functions is transferred. The early history of the thesmothetae is not clear, but this much is certain that there is no adequate reason for supposing, as many historians do, that in early times, they, with the three chief archons, constituted a collective or collegiate magistracy. It is true Thucydides (i. 126) states that, in the time of the Cylonian conspiracy (? 632B.C.), “the nine archons were (i.e.collectively) the principal officials,” but at the same time the responsibility for the action then taken attached to the Alcmaeonidae alone, because one of their number, Megacles, was at that timethearchon (i.e.responsibility was personal, not collective). Again, theConstitution of Athenssays that down to Solon’s time the archons had no official residence, but that afterwards they used the Thesmotheteion. It is a reasonable inference from this statement that the thesmothetae had previously sat together apart from the superior archons and that it was only after Solon that collegiate responsibility began.
Evolution of the Office.—The history of the democratization of the archonship is beset with equal difficulty. In the early days,the importance of the office (confined as it was to the highest class) must have been immense; there was no audit, no written law, no executive council. The popular assembly was ill-organized and probably summoned by the archons themselves. The only control came from the Areopagus which elected them and would generally be favourably disposed, and from the fact that the military and civil powers were not vested in the same hands. Although the institution of the popular courts by Solon had within it the germ of democratic supremacy, it is clear that the immediate result was small; thus, in the next decadeanarchiawas continuous and Damasias held the archonship for more than two years in defiance of the new constitution; the prolonged dissension in this matter shows that the office of archon still retained its supreme importance. Gradually, however, the archonship lost its power, especially in judicial matters, until it retained merely the right of holding the preliminary investigation and the formal direction of the popular courts. Its administrative powers, save those wielded by the polemarch (see below and cf.Strategus), dwindled away into matters of routine. We know that Peisistratus ruled by controlling the archonship, which was always held by members of his family, and the archonship of Isagoras was clearly an important party victory; we know further the names of three important men who held the office between Cleisthenes’ reform and the Persian War (Hipparchus, Themistocles (q.v.), Aristides) from which we infer that the office was still the prize of party competition. On the other hand, after 487B.C.the list of archons contains no name of importance. Presumably this is due to the growing importance of the Strategus and to the institution of sortition (see below), which, whether as cause or effect, is presumably by the 5th century indicative of diminished importance. There can, on these assumptions, be no doubt that, from the early years of the 5th centuryB.C., the archonship was of practically no importance. Furthermore we find that (probably after the Persian War) the office is thrown open to the second class, and finally in 457B.C.we meet an archon, Mnesitheides, of the third, or Zeugite, class. Plutarch (Aristides, 22) says that after the great struggle of the Persian War Aristides threw open the office to all the citizens. But in fact the members of the fourth class were not formally admitted even in the 4th century (though by a fiction they were allowed to pose for the time as Zeugites). Furthermore it is not till 457 that even a Zeugite archon is known, according to theConstitution of Athens(c. 26), which dates the change as five years after the death of Ephialtes and does not connect it with Aristides.
Sortition.—The next question constitutes perhaps the most important problem in Greek political development. At what date was election by lot, or sortition, introduced for the archonship? From theConstitution of Athens(c. 22) we gather that from the fall of the Tyranny to 487B.C.the archons wereαἱρετοί, notκληρωτοί(i.e.chosen by vote, not by lot), and that in 487, limited sortition was introduced, whereby fifty candidates were elected by each tribe, and from these the archons and their “secretary” were chosen by lot. But against this must be set the statement by the same authority that this double method was part of the Solonian reform. The solution of the dilemma is a matter of inference. Three indications favour the former view: (1) the “anarchia” which occurred so often between Solon and Peisistratus shows that the office was at that time a question of party (i.e.elective); (2) the statement that Solon invented sortition for the office is put as the basis of a comparison (ὄθεν, σημεῖον) and, therefore, may fairly be regarded as a hypothesis; (3) there is no indication that the change made in 487B.C.was a return to an obsolete method, and on the same argument it is odd that Solon’s alleged system should not have been revived at the end of the Tyranny. On the other hand Herodotus (vi. 109) states that, in 490, before the battle of Marathon, the polemarch was chosen by lot. If this be true, it follows that the office of polemarch must have lost its military importance, which was not the case, inasmuch as the polemarch at Marathon gave the casting vote in favour of immediate battle. Whether, therefore, Solon or Aristides was the first to introduce sortition, it is perfectly clear that the lot was not used between the Tyranny and 487B.C.and that after 487 the lot was always used (see J.E. Sandys,Constitution of Athensc. 8 note 1, c. 22 § 5, note); in fact, at a date not known the mixed system of Aristides gave place to double sortition, in which the first nomination also was by lot. To enter here into the theory of the lot is impossible. It should, however, be observed that in the somewhat material atmosphere of constitutional Athens the religious significance of the lot had vanished; no important office in the 5th and 4th centuries was entrusted to its decision. The real effect of sortition was to equalize the chances of rich and poor without civil strife. Now it is perfectly clear that it could not have been this object which impelled Solon to introduce sortition; for in his time the archonship was not open to the lower classes, and, therefore, election was more democratic than sortition, whereas later the case was reversed. It should further be mentioned that, before the discovery of the AristotelianConstitutionin 1891, Grote, C.F. Hermann, Busolt and others had maintained that the lot was not used in Athens before the time of Cleisthenes; and in spite of the treatise, it must be admitted that there is no satisfactory evidence, historical or inferential, that their theory was unsound.
Qualifications and Functions.—It remains to give a brief analysis of the qualifications and functions of the archons after the year 487B.C.After election (in the time of Aristotle in the month Anthesterion; in the 3rd century in Munychion) a short time had to elapse before entering on office to allow of thedokimasia(examination of fitness). In this the whole life of the nominee was investigated, and each had to prove that he was physically without flaw. Failure to pass the scrutiny involved a certain loss of civic rights (e.g.that of addressing the people). The successful candidate had to take an oath to the people (that he would not take bribes, &c.) and to go through certain preliminary rites. Any citizen could bring an impeachment (eisangelia) against the archons. Any delinquency involved a trial before the Heliaea. Finally an examination took place at the end of the year of office, when each archon had to answer for his actions with person and possessions; till then he could not leave the country, be adopted into another family, dispose of his property, nor receive any “crown of honour.” A similar investigation took place with regard to the assessors (paredri) whom the three senior archons chose to assist them. The archons at the end of their year of office (some say on entering upon office) became members of the Areopagus, which was, therefore, a body composed of ex-archons of tried probity and wisdom. The archons as a body retained some duties such as the appointment of jurymen, the sortition of theathlothetae, &c. (but see Gilbert’sAntiquities, Eng. trans., p. 251, n. 1). On entering upon office the archon (archon eponymus) made proclamation by his herald that he would not interfere with private property. His official residence was the Prytaneum where he presided over all questions of family,e.g.the protection of parents against children andvice versa, protection of widows, wardship of heiresses and orphans, divorce; in religious matters he superintended the Dionysia, the Thargelia, the processions in honour of Zeus the Saviour and Asclepius. The archon basileus superintended the holy places, the mysteries, the Lampadephoria (Torch race), &c., questions of national religion and certain cases of bloodguiltiness. His official residence was the Stoa Basileios, and his wife, as officially representing the wife of Dionysus, was called Basilinna. The polemarch, who was at any rate titular commander down to about 487B.C.(see above; and Herod, vi. 109,ἑνδέκατος ψηφιδοφόρος), became in the 5th century a sort of consul who watched over the rights of resident aliens (metoeci) in their family and legal affairs. He offered sacrifices to Artemis Agrotera and Enyalios, superintendedepitaphiaand arranged for the annual honours paid to the tyrannicides. His official residence was the Epilyceum (formerly called the Polemarcheion).