The Federalist Papers - Alexander Hamilton [344]
Federalist 58
p. 359. more than a majority ought to have been required for aquorum…: A quorum is the number of members of an organized body that is required to be present in order to transact business. The term enters American usage through English law.
Federalist 63
p. 384. Athens was governed by nineArchons…: Originally, Athens was governed by a basileus, or hereditary king, but by the sixth century the basileus retained only religious functions. The remaining governmental functions, pertaining to military and civilian affairs, rested, respectively, with the polemarchos and the archons. At first a lifelong office, the archonship evolved to become a one-year post that could be held only once. After completing his term, the archon became a member of the Areopagus (highest court) for the remainder of his life. When, as archon, Solon framed his reforms of the Athenian constitution (594 BC) the position was at the peak of its power, but by the end of the sixth century BC, with Cleisthenes’s appointment of the ten strategoi (generals who were eligible for annual reelection), the archons retreated to the routine periphery of political life.
p. 385. Lastly, in Sparta we meet with theEphori…: The ephor was a civil magistrate in the Dorian cities of ancient Greece. In Sparta, a board of five ephors was elected annually. They combined executive, judicial, and disciplinary powers and were unconstrained by written law. All Spartans were eligible for the office, which thus served as a democratic check on aristocratic and royal power. The ephorate was briefly eliminated in 227 BC as part of Cleomenes’s administrative reform, but returned in 222 and survived until the third century AD.
p. 385. and in Rome with theTribunes…annually elected by the whole body of the people…: The tribunes were governmental officials in ancient Rome. Military tribunes commanded the tribal contingents in the army of the early Roman state. Later, they were the most senior officers within a legion, generally elected by the people for a two-month rotation. Their duties were disciplinary rather than tactical. Tribunes of the plebs were civilian officials. The office was established by the Senate in conciliatory response to the plebeian secession of 494 BC, when the common people of Rome left the city in protest against abuses at the hands of the nobility. Charged with the defense of the persons and property of the plebs, these tribunes, elected by the plebeian assembly, could summon an assembly, enforce its decrees, and veto any act performed by a magistrate other than a dictator.
p. 385. The Cosmiof Crete were also annually elected by the people…: The ten cosmi were a part of the legislative branch of the government of ancient Crete. According to Aristotle, the cosmi resembled the ephors of Sparta except that eligibility for membership was limited to certain families. On account of this difference, and of the arbitrary power and life tenure of these officials, Aristotle characterized the government of Crete as a dynasty rather than a regime.
p. 388. according to the testimony ofPolybius…: Polybius (approximately 206–120 BC) was a Greek historian. As one of the thousand Achaens taken to Rome as hostages (to ensure conduct favorable to Rome on the part of the Achaean League), Polybius had the opportunity to observe firsthand the Roman conquest of the Mediterranean world, which became the theme of his great work, Universal History, of which only five of the original forty books survive in their entirety.
p. 388. Carthage, whose senate…had, at the commencement of the secondPunic War…: Rome and Carthage fought three wars—called "Punic" after Poeni, the Latin word for Carthaginians—for supremacy in the Mediterranean world. In the first war (264–241 BC), which was inconclusive, Rome gained territory on Sicily and annexed Corsica and Sardinia. During