25.5 The Vote
The herald takes the stage and gives simple instructions: a disk with a solid axle is a vote for the prosecutor, a disk with a hollow axle is a vote for the defendant. The five hundred jurymen stand up from their benches by rows. When they arrive at the “lampstand” at the corner of the building, each juryman surrenders the token he was given with his seating area assigned and receives a disk of each kind, marked psēphos dēmosia “official ballot.”[14] By holding a thumb and finger over the axles he makes his vote secret. He proceeds to the urns, one bronze for the ballot being cast, one wooden for the discard, and deposits the disks.[15] He thereupon receives a bronze token inscribed with a Γ (gamma)[a] entitling him to his three obols’ pay. The jury votes without deliberation. Four jurymen chosen by lot empty the bronze urn and insert the disks into a board with holes to receive them. They count the votes for each side. The king archon certifies the count.[16]
The herald then announces the results: two-hundred eighty votes for conviction, two-hundred twenty for acquittal.[17]
[a] The third letter of the Greek alphabet also represented the numeral 3.
[14].See Boegehold 1995, Plates 16-17.
[15].Todd 1993: 132-133. In the fifth century pebbles brought by the jurors themselves were used; the bronze disks were designed to prevent voter fraud, since only one disk of each kind was issued to each juror. I am assuming that the latter procedure was used at Socrates’ trial, though the date of its introduction is unclear.
[16].Aristotle Constitution of Athens 68.2-69.2 = Boegehold test. 276, for the whole procedure. Summarized at Boegehold 1995: 38-39.
[17].Plato Apology 36a, Diogenes Laertius 2.41 has 281 to 220 (but see n. 24 below); but it appears that the courts had an even number of jurors until later in the fourth century: Burnet 1924: 150-151.