Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/303

 CHAP. XVII. INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY. 297 Men had to conform to all the rules of worship, figure in all the processions, and take part in the sacred repasts. Athenian legislation punished those by a fine who failed religiously to celebrate a national festival,' The ancients, therefore, knew neither liberty in pri- vate life, liberty in education, nor religious liberty. The human person counted for very little against that holy and almost divine authority which was called country or the state. The state had not onl}^, as we have in our modern societies, a right to administer jus- tice to the citizens; it could strike when one was not guilty, and simply for its own interest. Aristidcs as- suredly had committed no crime, and was not even suspected ; but the city had the right to drive liim from its territory, for the simple reason that he had acquired by his virtues too much influence, and might become dangerous, if he desired to be. This was called ostra- cism/ this institution was not peculiar to Athens ; it was found at Argos, at Megara, at Syracuse, and we may believe that it existed in all the Greek cities."* Now, ostracism was not a chastisement; it was a precaution which the city took against a citizen whom it suspected of having the power to injure it at any time. At Athens a man could be put on trial and con- demned for incivism — that is to say, for the want of affection towards the state. A man's life was guaran- teed by nothing so soon as the interest of the state was at stake, Rome made a ;iv by which it was permitted to kill any man who might have the intention of be- ' Pollux, VIII. 4G. Ulpian, Schol. in Demosthenes ; in Mei' diam. 851,
 * Aristotle, Pol., VIII. 2, 5. Scholiast on Aristoph., Knights