Areopagus, earliest aristocratic council of ancient Athens. The name was taken from the Areopagus (“Ares’ Hill”), a low hill northwest of the Acropolis, which was its meeting place.
The Areopagite Council probably began as the king’s advisers. Early in the Archaic period it exercised a general and ill-defined authority until the publication of Draco’s Code of Law (c. 621). Membership continued for life and was secured by having served as archon, an office limited to the eupatrids (Greek: eupatridai, “nobles by birth”). Under Solon (archon 594 bc), the composition and authority of the council were materially altered when the archonship was opened to all with certain property qualifications, and a Boule, a rival council of 400, was set up. The Areopagus nevertheless retained “guardianship of the laws” (perhaps a legislative veto); it tried prosecutions under the law of eisangelia (“impeachment”) for unconstitutional acts. As a court under the presidency of the archōn basileus, it also decided cases of murder.
For about 200 years, from the middle of the 6th century bc, the prestige of the Areopagus fluctuated. The fall of the Peisistratids, who during their tyranny (546–510) had filled the archonships with their adherents, left the Areopagus full of their nominees and thus in low esteem; its reputation was restored by its patriotic posture during the Persian invasion. In 462 the reformer Ephialtes deprived the Areopagus of virtually all its powers save jurisdiction on homicide (c. 462). From the middle of the 4th century bc, its prestige revived once again, and by the period of Roman domination in Greece it was again discharging significant administrative, religious, and educational functions.