The motive which induced Solon to establish this new Areopagus Council was probably his desire to set up a plutocratic body, surrounded by a halo of sanctity derived from the traditions of the older Ephetae-Areopagus, which would act as a check on the increasing power of a more democratic Council, which Aristotle also mentions, namely the Draconian Senate of 400 (or 401) which was appointed, by lot, from the ranks of all ‘citizens.’[144] It was, we think, this democratic council, or Senate, which threatened most seriously the power of the aristocracy. The wide powers of supervision which the Ephetae-Areopagus possessed were, of course, a valuable possession, but, with the growth of the Senate, the legislative and executive powers, and perhaps even the judicial powers, of the old Council of Noble Elders were endangered. Hence Solon, who was neither a democrat nor an aristocrat, but who was, as we conceive him, a plutocrat, instituted a new plutocratic Areopagus at the expense of the Ephetae on the one hand and of the Draconian Senate on the other. Though he allowed an appellant jurisdiction to the popular Heliastic jurors,[145] the normal homicide jurisdiction remained attached to the court of the Areopagus even though its personnel was now changed, just as in later times it continued attached to the ‘Ephetae’ courts when the Heliasts acquired the privilege of sitting there. The explanation of this strange fact is to be found in the religious doctrine of homicide as a ‘pollution.’ In these five courts alone—the fact that one of them was now a Council does not matter—were homicide trials held at night, in the open air, solemn oaths and imprecations were sworn, and the King-Archon sat without his crown. Solon, then, did not create the court of the Areopagus: he merely changed the personnel of the court. The Ephetae, that is, the nobles, were no longer the judges in that court. According to the literal interpretation of Pollux, we might conclude that there existed in Solon’s time _six_ Athenian homicide courts. But Pollux must have been well aware that the Ephetae (including the Tribe Kings) from Solon’s time onwards functioned only at the four minor courts, which were known as the Delphinium, the Palladium, the Prytaneum, and the court at Phreatto.