Page:The City-State of the Greeks and Romans.djvu/188

164 that all alike, poor as well as rich, should not only have the right, but also be able to exercise it, of taking part in these assemblies, and thus bringing their individuality to bear on the conduct of the State, Pericles introduced a small payment for attendance, sufficient to enable the poor to forgo their usual occupations on the days of meeting.

Want of space forbids me here to enter into detail on the subjects of discussion and decision which wore brought before the sovereign assembly of Athenians. It will be sufficient to point out that they included every matter of vital interest to the State as a whole; decisions of war and peace, negotiations with other States, the management of the military and naval forces, general questions of finance and of religion, complaints against the public conduct of individuals, and lastly — though in the best days of Athens, as we shall see, this was an unusual subject of debate — the passing of new laws and the amendment of existing ones. In all such matters the voice of the Athenian people was supreme and final.

2. So far we have seen that the sovereignty, or as Sir H. Maine defines that word, the supreme social force, lay at Athens with the people themselves, and not with any set of delegates or officials elected by them. But what share had they in the actual administration, — in the conduct of all the complicated business which abounds in an active and