sacrifice, and shrinking from no exertion, in their devotion to the
common mother of them all. Every Athenian, from the wealthiest noble
to the poorest rower in the fleet, felt that he had a stake in the
country, which to a Greek meant the city, where he was born. He gave
his vote in the Parliament [Footnote: Called the Ecclesia.] of Athens,
and served on the juries chosen by lot from the whole body of the
citizens, before whose judgment-seat, unassailable by bribery or
intimidation, the mightiest offenders trembled. He was a statesman, a
judge, a lawgiver, and a warrior, and he might even hope to climb to
the highest place in the State, and rule, like Pericles, as a prince
of democracy. Around him rose the temples and statues of the gods,
fresh from the chisel of the artist, the visible symbols of Athenian
greatness, and of the grand ideals which he served. The masterpieces
of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides opened to him the boundless
realms of the imagination, taught him grave lessons of moral wisdom,
and connected the strenuous present with the heroic past; and the Old
Comedy, the most complete embodiment of the very genius of democracy,
afforded a feast of wit and fancy for his lighter hours. If he had a
taste for higher speculation, he might hear Anaxagoras discoursing on
the mysteries of the spiritual world, or Zeno applying his sharp tests
for the conviction of human error. And when the assembly was summoned
to discuss matters of high imperial policy, he felt all the greatness
and majesty of the Athenian state, as he hung entranced on the lips of
Pericles.

Such was Athens in her prime, and such were the men who raised her to
the lofty eminence which she held among the cities of Greece. But the
years which had lifted her to that unparalleled height had raised up a
host of enemies against her, and it behoved her to temper ambition
with prudence if she would maintain the proud position which the held.