Athens under Pericles ruled more than two hundred towns
and cities in Asia Minor and the islands of the Aegean Sea. The subjects
of Athens, in return for the protection that she gave them against Persia, owed
many obligations. They paid an annual tribute and furnished soldiers in time of
war. In all legal cases of importance the citizens had to go to Athens for
trial by Athenian courts. The Delian communities, in some instances, were
forced to endure the presence of Athenian garrisons and officers. To the Greeks
at large all this seemed nothing less than high-handed tyranny. Athens, men
felt, had built up an empire on the ruins of Hellenic liberty.
NATURE OF THE ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY
If the Athenians possessed an empire, they themselves were
citizens of a state more democratic than any other that has existed, before or
since, in the history of the world. They had now learned how unjust was the
rule of a tyrant or of a privileged class of nobles. They tried, instead, to
afford every one an opportunity to make the laws, to hold office, and to
administer justice. Hence the Athenian popular assembly and law courts were
open to all respectable citizens. The offices, also, were made very
numerous—fourteen hundred in all—so that they might be distributed as widely as
possible. Most of them were annual, and some could not be held twice by the
same person. Election to office was usually by lot. This arrangement did away
with favoritism and helped to give the poor man a chance in politics, as well
as the man of wealth or noble birth.
