GOVERNMENT IN ATHENS: DRACO.--According to the legend, _Codrus_, who died about 1068 B.C., was the last of the Athenian kings. The _Eupatrids_, the noble families, abolished monarchy, and substituted for the king an _Archon_, chosen for life by them out of the family of Codrus. The Eupatrids stood in a sort of patriarchal relation to the common people. The inhabitants were divided into four tribes. These were subdivided, first into _Brotherhoods_ and _Clans_, and secondly, into classes based on consanguinity, and classes arranged for taxation, military service, etc. The entire community comprised the _Nobles_,--in whose hands the political power was lodged,--the _Farmers_, and the _Artisans_. The farmers and the artisans might gather in the _Agora_, and express assent to public measures, or dissent. In process of time the archons came to be chosen not from the family of Codrus exclusively, but from the _Eupatrids_ generally. From 682 B.C. they were nine in number, and they served but for one year. The administration of justice was in the hands of the nobles, who were not restrained by a body of written laws. The archon _Draco_, about 621 B.C., in order to check this evil, framed a code which seemed harsh, though milder than the laws previously enforced. Later it was said of his laws that they were written in blood. This legislation was a concession to which the nobles were driven by an uprising. Their hard treatment of debtors, many of whom were deprived of their liberty, had stirred up a serious conflict between the people and their masters. A rebellion, led by _Cylon_, one of the Eupatrids, was put down, and punished by means involving treachery and sacrilege. The insurgents were slain clinging to the altars of the gods, where they had taken refuge. Not long after it became necessary to introduce other reforms at the advice of _Solon_, one of "the seven wise men of Greece." He had acquired popularity by recovering _Salamis_ from the Megarians, and in a sacred war against towns which had robbed the temple of Apollo at Delphi.