1
Areopagos
ROBERT W. WALLACE
A rocky outcropping below Athens’ ACROPOLIS,
the Areios Pagos (in early Greek, “solid hill,”
later by popular etymology “hill of Ares”)
included the site of a shrine to the Erinyes,
underworld deities of the family curse, an
early venue for homicide trials. It also became
the site of a council with at least potentially
important powers, removed in 462/1 BCE. From
the later fifth century a symbol for conserva-
tives of pre-democratic government, during
Athens’ more conservative period after 350
and then in Roman times, it regained some
auctoritas if few new powers.
Ancient Athenians disagreed (Arist. Pol.
1273b–1274a) whether SOLON (594) first
established an Areopagos council (Wallace
1989: 3–47). After 594 such a council, com-
posed of all ex-archons, adjudicated cases
of premeditated homicide, and (at least after
462/1) wounding, arson, and damage to
Athens’ sacred olive trees. No evidence indi-
cates how far it exercised its broader Solonian
competence called nomophylakia ([Arist.] Ath.
Pol. 8.4; Plut. Sol. 19.1) to safeguard Athens’
government especially against TYRANNY (cf.
PEISISTRATOS) and ensure that officials obeyed
Solon’s laws. According to [Ath.] Pol. 23,
between 479 and 462/1 it “managed” Athens.
Those (unspecified) political activities and
emerging democratic ideology provoked
reforms by the democratic leader EPHIALTES in
462/1, reducing the Areopagos to a narrow
judicial competence ([Arist.] Ath. Pol. 25).
AESCHYLUS’ Eumenides (458) celebrated the
court but as a symbol of peaceful adjudication,
against vendetta and civil war.
Until 404 the Areopagos largely disappeared.
Then ([Arist.] Ath. Pol. 35.2), and especially
from 357 (ISOCRATES’ Areopagitikos), Athenian
conservatives promoted that council as a sym-
bol of pre-Periklean order (see PERIKLES), their
anachronistic elaborations/fabrications of its
The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine,
and Sabine R. Huebner, print pages 671–672.
© 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah04040
early (especially moralizing) functions helping
to corrupt the historical tradition. Following
Athens’ conservative turn after 350, the
Areopagos regained certain authorities, espe-
cially to investigate and report (apophainein)
treason (the demos retained authority to pun-
ish), probably on a proposal by Demosthenes
(Din. 1.62). Eukrates’ law (336), also targeting
Areopagite collaboration with tyranny (Rhodes
and Osborne 2003: no. 79), reflected the
demos’ fears of the Areopagos’ resurgence
(see EUKRATES, LAW OF).
Under the oligarchic regime of DEMETRIOS OF
PHALERON (317–307) the Areopagos exercised
some supervisory religious and moral author-
ity. The later Hellenistic age saw its role much
reduced. Under Roman domination, it regained
prestige (e.g., Cic. Nat. D. 2.74), passed or
helped pass many dedicatory decrees, had an
important role in legislation before or after
Sulla’s occupation (SEG 26.120), and may
have examined Paul of Tarsos on his religious
beliefs (Acts 17:17–34). Other attested powers
included punishing kakourgoi (including offi-
cials) for abusing weights and measures (IG II2
1013.56–60), and dishonest fish vendors (IG
II2 1103.5–12) and grain sellers (IG II2 1118),
sometimes in language echoing its ancient
powers. Geagan (1967) considers these mini-
mal powers merely a fraction of its compe-
tence. De Bruyn (1995) is more cautious.
SEE ALSO: Apophasis; Archon/archontes;
Democracy, Athenian; Demosthenes,
orator; Homicide, Rome; Nomophylakes;
Patrios politeia.
REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS
De Bruyn, O. (1995) La Compétence de l’Aréopage
en matière de procès publics: 185–96.
Stuttgart.
Geagan, D. J. (1967) The Athenian constitution
after Sulla: 32–61. Princeton.
Rhodes, P. J. and Osborne, R., eds. (2003)
Greek historical inscriptions: 404–323 BC.
Oxford.
2
Wallace, R. W. (1989) The Areopagos council, to
307 BC. Baltimore.
Wallace, R. W. (2000) “Investigations and reports
by the Areopagos council, and Demosthenes’
Areopagos decree.” In P. Flensted-Jensen,
T. H. Nielsen, and L. Rubinstein, eds., Polis
and politics: studies in ancient Greek
history presented to Mogens Herman Hansen
on his sixtieth birthday: 581–95.
Copenhagen.