There was also a system of popular jury courts composed of
citizens selected by lot from the candidates who presented themselves. The
number of jurors varied; as many as a thousand might serve at an important
trial. A court was both judge and jury, it decided by majority vote; and from
its decision lay no appeal. Before these courts public officers accused of
wrong-doing were tried; disputes between different cities of the empire and
other important cases were settled; and all ordinary legal business affecting
the Athenians themselves was transacted. Thus, even in matters of law, the
Athenian government was completely democratic.
STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS OF THE ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY
Democracy then, reached its height in ancient Athens. The
people ruled, and they ruled directly. Every citizen had some active part in
politics. Such a system worked well in the management of a small city-state
like Athens. But if the Athenians could govern themselves, they proved unable
to govern an empire with justice and wisdom. There was no such thing as
representation in their constitution. The subject cities had no one to speak
for them in the Assembly or before the jury courts. We shall notice the same
absence of a representative system in republican Rome.
