At what date was election by lot, or sortition, introduced for the archonship?
The real effect of sortition was to equalize the chances of rich and poor without civil strife.
Now it is perfectly clear that it could not have been this object which impelled Solon to introduce sortition; for in his time the archonship was not open to the lower classes, and, therefore, election was more democratic than sortition, whereas later the case was reversed.
Presumably this is due to the growing importance of the Strategus and to the institution of sortition (see below), which, whether as cause or effect, is presumably by the 5th century indicative of diminished importance.