Page:The City-State of the Greeks and Romans.djvu/178

154 of men who knew them only as worked by a degenerate population in the fourth. Let us keep for the present to Pericles himself as a guide. Following his lead, we may try and form some idea of Athenian democracy first as a political whole, and secondly, in respect of the education and capacity of the individuals composing that whole.

I. Let us recall, to begin with, the position in which Solon's legislation had left the Athenian people. Having freed them from the bondage of debt, and cleared the way for their progress towards social independence, he gave to the whole people, including the poorest class, a powerful hold on the executive which governed them. All had a share in electing the magistrates, and all had a share in the right of judging of the conduct of these magistrates at the end of their year of office. He added to the constitution a new Council of 400, also elected by the whole body of citizens, but retained the old Council of the Areopagus to watch over the general interests of the State, both material and moral. And by a re-division of the existing citizens on the basis of property instead of descent, and by restricting the right of holding magistracies to the richer citizens, he destroyed the purely aristocratic character of the executive, while securing that this executive should not pass into the hands of persons ill-educated or poverty-stricken.

The general result of Solon's work was therefore to identify every individual Athenian very closely with the State, but to keep the reins of government in the hands of men who were qualified to wield