Chapter XVI. The Ecclesia of Athens. 127. The Rule of Democracy
in Athens. - The Ecclesia, or Public Assembly, of Athens is
something more than the chief governmental organ in the state.
It is the great leveling engine which makes Athens a true
democracy, despite the great differences in wealth between her
inhabitants, and the marked social pretensions of "the noble and
the good" - the educated classes. At this time Athens is
profoundly wedded to her democratic constitution. Founded by
Solon and Clisthenes, developed by Themistocles and Pericles, it
was temporarily overthrown at the end of the Peloponnesian War;
but the evil rule then of the "Thirty Tyrants" has proved a
better lesson on the evils of oligarchic rule than a thousand
rhetoricians' declamations upon the advantages of the "rule of
the many" as against the "rule of the few." Attica now
acknowledges only one Lord - KING DEMOS - "King Everybody" - and
until the coming of bondage to Macedon there will be no serious
danger of an aristocratic reaction.