The law courts in classical Athens (4th and 5th centuries) were a fundamental organ of democratic governance. According to Aristotle, whoever controls the courts, controls the state. A view of the Acropolis of Athens during the Ottoman period, showing the buildings which were removed at the time of independence The history of Athens is the longest of any city in Europe: Athens has been continuously inhabited for at least 3,000 years. ... As a means of recording the passage of time, the 4th century was that century which lasted from 301 to 400. ... Europe in 450 The 5th century is the period from 401 - 500 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era. ... The speakers platform in the Pnyx, the meeting ground of the assembly where all the great political struggles of Athens were fought during the Golden Age. Here Athenian statesmen stood to speak, such as Pericles and Aristides in the 5th century BC and Demosthenes and Aeschines in the 4th... Aristotle (Greek: Aristotélēs) (384 BCE – March 7, 322 BCE) was an ancient Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. ...

These courts were jury courts and very large ones: the smallest possible had 200 members (+1 to avoid ties) and then 500, 1000 or 1500. The annual pool of jurors, whose official name was Heliaia comprised 6000 members. At least on one known occasion the whole six thousand sat together to judge a single case (plenary session of Heliaia). The jurors were chosen randomly by lot, which meant that juries would consist, in theory, of a wide range of members from all walks of life. Jurors were chosen on an annual basis, as were all other offices within the state (with the exception of the generals, known as strategoi). After the reforms of Solon in 594/3 BC, anyone from each of the four classes (the pentacosiomedimni, hippeis, zeugites and thetes) could become a juror, which made the system much fairer to the poorer members of society, who had previously been discriminated against by the elitist aristocrats. The magistrates who convened the courts had a purely administrative function and gave no legal direction or advise to the jurors: there was no judge but the jurors themselves. From the time of Pericles onwards, jury pay was introduced of two obols a day, which, despite not being a substantial amount of money, was enough to encourage even the poorest to become a juror. This was later increased to three obols a day. Heliaia ( Greek: ἡλιαία) or Halia ( Greek: ἁλία) was the supreme court of ancient Athens. ... Heliaia ( Greek: ἡλιαία) or Halia ( Greek: ἁλία) was the supreme court of ancient Athens. ...