AR'EOP'AGUS (Gk. Apetoc irayoc, Areios pagos. the hill of Ares). A bare, rocky hill at the west of the Acropolis of Athens, about 350 feet high. The ancients explained the name by saying that here Ares had been tried for the murder of Halirrhothius, or that the Amazons, the worshipers of Ares, had attacked the Acro polis from this point. Some modern writers pre fer to connect it with the Eumenides, and the blood-guiltiness, which was tried here, and de rive the name from 'Apai, so that the meaning would be 'hill of the curse.' At the south end steps hewn in the rock lead to a series of rock cuttings which cannot now be satisfactorily explained. On the north side, which overlooks the city, and is near the deep cleft where the Eumenides were worshiped, seems to have been the place where the court of Areopagus tried cases of willful murder. The Areopagus gave its name to the most venerable court of Athens (Gk. n tr 'Aptly 76)(p povili, the Council on the Areopagus). It met in the open air, and accuser and accused stood on plat forms hewn from the rock. The Areopagus seems originally to have been the council of nobles, such as surrounds the king in the Homeric poems. and naturally, therefore, the 'king' archon remained its presiding officer. This council appears to havegradually taken into its hands the entire governing power, since we are told that it appointed all officials, including the ar•hons, who entered the Areopagus at the end of their term of office. This was certainly an ancient custom, as it prevailed through the hi.torical period, in spite of its undemocratic character. The Areopagus doubtless exercised the supreme judicial power, and could firing to an account any official, so that its indirect influence must have sufficed to control the State. In the code of Draco, the Areopagus kept its place as the court for all cases of willful mu• der, and even under the Solonian Constitution it seems to have preserved its place as a guardian of the laws, with the power of procedure against any official, or even private citizen, whose con duct was an offense against good morals or the well-being of the community. Clisthenes seems to have made no change in the rights of the Areopagus; but his creation of the :Senate of Five Hundred and the power given the popular assembly certainly must have lessened its real influence. It continued, however, to enjoy a
considerable amount of power, even in public affairs, for some writers represented it as di recting the policy of Athens from the time of the battle of Salamis (n.c. 480) to n.c. 462. Certain it is that in the latter year the leaders of the democracy, Ephialtes and Pericles, suc ceeded in carrying a law which deprived the Areopagus of all those powers by which it exercised a general control over officials and public morals, leaving it only the right of judgment in murder cases, and the oversight of the sacred olive trees of Athena and some sacred lands. In spite of this reduction of its powers, it remained the most venerated body in Athens, and we find it appointed at times to act foi the State, or to conduct investigations of treasonable conduct, as a sort of commission of the popular assembly. In the reforms of Demetrius of Phalerum (n.c. 317), the Areopagus seems to have been given once more an over sight over public morals, and especially over offenses against the new sumptuary laws. In Roman times it was one of the governing bodies of Athens, and its name appears on decrees with that of the senate and people. Its jurisdiction was also widely extended, and its decisions still commanded great respect. It is doubtful whether the Apostle Paul was actually brought before the court of Arcopagus. It seems more probable that his speech was de livered before a body of curious philosophers on the hill of Areopagus, a convenient spot somewhat retired front the confusion of the neighboring market-place. In Athenian legend the court was famed as the body which, under the presidency of Athena, acquitted Orestes of the charge, brought against him by the Furies, of blood-guiltiness in murdering his mother, Clytemnestra. The story forms the subject of the Eumenides of yEschylus. Consult: Philippi, Areopay mntd Epheten (Berlin, 1874) ; Busolt, Handbuch ( ingen, 18S7) ; Schihnann, Grieehisehe Iterthibacr, ed. Lipsius (Berlin, 1897) : Meier and Sehihnann. Der attisehe Prozess. ed. Lipsius (Berlin, 1883-87) ; and Botsford, The Athenian Constitution (New York, 1893).