The Prosecution and Punishment of Animals and Lifeless Things in the Middle Ages and Modern Times

The Prytaneum was the Hotel de Ville of Athens as of every Greek town.In it was the common hearth of the city, which represented the unity and vitality of the community.From its perpetual fire, colonists, like the American Indians, would carry sparks to their new homes, as a symbol of fealty to the mother city, and here in very early times the prytanis or chieftain probably dwvelt.In the Prytaneum at Athens the statues of Eirene (Peace) and Hestia (Ilearth) stood; foreign ambassadors, famous citizens, athletes, and strangers were entertained there at the public expense; the laws of the great law-giver Solon were displayed within it and before his day the chief archon made it his home.One of the important features of the Prytaneum at Athens were the curious murder trials held in its immediate vicinity.Many Greek writers mention these trials, which appear to have comprehended three kinds of cases.In the first place, if a murderer was unknown or could not be found, he was nevertheless tri'ed at this court.'Then inanimate things-such as stones, beams, pliece of iron, ctc.,-which had caused the death of a man by falling upon him-were put on trial at the Prytancuni ;2 and lastly animals, which had similarly been the cause of death. 3 Though all these trials were of a ceremonial character, they were carried on with due process of law.Thus, as in all murder trials at Athens, because of 'the religious feeling back of them that such crimes were against the gods as much as against men, they took place in the open air, that the judges might not be contaminated by the pollution supposed to exhale from the 'Aristotle, Constitulion (if :thens, 57, 4; Pollux, Vill, x2o; cf.Plato,