Book of the Magistrates of the Athenians

but also of those that are more grave. But when gravity was required for a case, other magistrates were added to the Areopagites as a sort of assistant; the multitude of these judges were forced to assemble when new magistrates were elected, or if something was proposed in the Republic that was universally pleasing to all, or if the litigations arose from the delay of doubt, from which judgment it was not permitted to appeal. The Magistracy of the Areopagites was called Adiadoxon perpetual and solicitous by the Greeks. And although he was in charge of all wicked things and punished them publicly, nevertheless their proper subject matter concerned poisons, burnings, killings, and wounds from ambushes and betrayals against the Fatherland, and many others. Their custom of judging, according to what is seen in the memory of letters, was as follows. The defendant, or the accused, having been established, after the first hearing adorned with conjectures of witnesses and proofs, the sentence was given immediately, nor was it deferred for a long time as is almost accustomed to be used in Venice by the Most Excellent Lords Chiefs of the Ten, where accusations are reported by the Avogadori state attorneys first to the Quarantia Council of Forty. It was not permitted for the Areopagites to move toward compassion; they were only similar to the Ephetae ancient Athenian judges in severity because the penalty was imposed by both one and the other magistrate equal to the crime. Aristotle praises this effect much in the beginning of his Rhetorica Rhetoric, which praises Quintilian briefly collects, saying: In Athens (meaning of the Areopagites) it was prohibited for orators to move the listeners with emotions. This also was common