tained by some recent writers that no Boule existed before
Cleisthenes. The principal evidence for this view is the omission of any
reference to the Boule in one of the earliest Athenian inscriptions,
that relating to Salamis (Hicks and Hill, No. 4), where in place of the
customary formula of a later age, [Greek: hedoxe tae boulae kai to
daemo], we have the formula [Greek: edochsen to daemo]. This argument is
far from conclusive, and it is clear from the _Constitution_ (c. 20)
that the resistance of the Boule to Cleomenes and Isagoras was anterior
to the legislation of Cleisthenes (i.e. that the Boule in question was
the Solonian and not the Cleisthenian). On the whole it is reasonable to
conclude that it was Solon who invented the Boule to act as a
semi-democratic check upon the democracy, whose power he was increasing
at the expense of the oligarchs by giving new powers to the people in
the Ecclesia and the Dicasteries. Practically nothing is known of the
operations of this council until the struggle between Isagoras and
Cleisthenes (Herod, v. 72). Solon's council had been based on the four
Ionic tribes. When Cleisthenes created the new ten tribes in order to
destroy the local influence of dominant families and to give the country
demes a share in government, he changed the Solonian council into a body
of 500 members, 50 from each tribe. This new body (see below) was the
keystone of the Cleisthenean democracy, and may be said in a sense to
have embodied the principle of local representation. After Cleisthenes,
the council remained unaltered till 306 B.C., when, on the addition of
two new tribes named after Antigonus and his son, Demetrius Poliorcetes,
its numbers were increased to 600. In A.D. 126-127 the old number of 500
was restored. A council of 750 members is mentioned in an inscription of
the early 3rd century A.D., and about A.D. 400 the number of councillors
had fallen to 300.

Solon's council.

Cleisthenes' council.

_Constitution and Functions._--(a) Under Solon the council consisted of
400 members, 100 from each of the four Ionic tribes. It is certain that
all classes were eligible except the Thetes, but the method of
appointment is not known. Three suggestions have been made, (1) that
each tribe chose its representatives, (2) that they were chosen by lot
from qualified citizens in rotation, (3) that the combined method of
selection by lot from a larger number of elected candidates was
employed. Ac