Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/447

 CHAP, XI. KULES OF DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. 4J:1 responsible and even removable, could have had little prestige and authority. We need only read Thucydi- des and Xenophon, however, to assure ourselves that they were respected and obeyed. There was always in the character of the ancients, even in that of the Athenians, a great facility in submitting to discijiline. It was perhaps a consequence of the habits of obedi- ence with which the religious government had inspired them. They were accustomed to respect the state, and all those who, in any degree, represented it. They never thought of despising a magistrate because they had elected him; suffrage was reputed one of the most sacred sources of authority. Above the magistrates, who had no other duty than that of seeing to the execution of the laws, there was the senate. It was merely a deliberative body, a sort of council of state; it j^assed no acts, made no laws» exercised no sovereignty. Men saw no inconvenience in renewing it every year, for neither superior intelli- gence nor great experience was required of its mem- bers. It was composed of fifty prytanes from each tribe, who performed the sacred duties in turn, and deliberated all the year upon the religious and political interests of the city. It was probably because the senate was only the assembly of the prytanes, — that is to say, of the annual priests of the sacred fire, — that it was filled by lot. It is but just to say, that after tho lot had decided, each name was examined, and any one was thrown out who did not appear sufiiciently honorable.' Above even the senate there was the assembly of the people. This was the real sovereign. Bat, just ' ^schines, III. 2 ; Andocides, II. 19 ; I. 45-55.