Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/453

 CHAP, XI. EULES OF DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. 447 festival is to be arranged, or expenses are to be ex- amined, or decrees passed, or chiefs and judges named. Three times a month, regularly, he takes part in the general assembly of the people; and he is not permit- ted to be absent. The session is long. He does not go simply to vote; having arrived in the morning, he must remain till a late hour, arid listen to the orators. He cannot vote unless he has been- present from the opening of the session, and has heard all the speeches. For him this vote is one of the most serious affairs. At one time political or military chiefs are to be elected, — that is to say, those to whom his interests and his life are to be confided for a year; at another a tax is to be imposed, or a law lo be changed. Again, he haa to vote on the question of war, knowing well that, in case of war, he must give his own blood or that of a son. Individual interests are inseparably united with those of the state. A man cannot be indifferent or in- considerate. If he is mistaken, he knows that he shall soon suffer for it, and that in each vote he pledges his fortune and his life. The day when the disastrous Si- cVaslu expeciltion was decided upon, there was no citi- zen who did not know that one of his own family must make a part of it, and who was not required to give his whole attention to weighing the advantages of such an expedition against the dangers it presented. It was of the greatest importance that one should see the subject in a clear light ; for a check received by liis country was for every citizen a diminution of his personal dig- nity, of ills security, and of his wealth. The duty of a citizen was not limited to voting. When his turn came, he was required to act as a magis- trate in his deme or in his tribe. Every third year'
 * There were 5,000 heliasts out of 14,000 citizens ; but we may