Page:The City-State of the Greeks and Romans.djvu/194

170 only to fight bravely for his city, but "to obey those who bear rule, and the laws which are in force, and all that the sovereign people shall decree." When he came to take his turn as an official, he had to undergo a preliminary examination as to his qualification, and when his term of office ended he had to present his accounts to the Logistæ, and otherwise to show that his conduct had been in accordance with the law. It probably fell to his lot, at least once in his life, also to help in conducting such scrutinies. And as a councillor his work was done in public, and not in any secret session; for the Council worked under the eye of the people, and from its very nature could never become a body apt to warp the constitution from its true intention, as the Areopagus might have done, and the Senate of Rome actually did. And lastly, the Athenian, if he should ever desire to propose a change in the existing law, had to do so at a risk serious enough to deter him from all hasty trifling with legislation. He made himself liable to an indictment "for informality, illegality, or unconstitutionality" (Graphê Paranomôn); and if, when threatened with this, he still persisted, he incurred after conviction a very severe penalty. The law, which in the theory of the City-State was one and unchangeable, was at Athens in her best days as nearly so as was practically possible. It is of the essence of true democracy to be intensely

1 For the true nature of this examination see Headlam, op. cit. 96 foll.; Schömann, Ant. 403. For the, ib. 407; G. Gilbert, Alterthümer, i. 214.