1½d. for each day in the law-courts or in the assembly; it was afterwards raised to about 4½d. At this time the average day's wage of an Athenian artisan was about nine-pence. The public assembly met, as a rule, only four times a month. The jury-courts sat almost every day. Every year 5000 citizens, with a further reserve of 1000, were chosen by lot, as the body from which the juries for that year should be drawn; and a man who was in that body could do but little work at his trade during that year. Thus, notwithstanding the small payment from the State, he was serving the State at a sacrifice. Neither in that case, nor in regard to the public assembly, was he under any temptation to abandon his trade, and to live on the State bounty. Pericles had foreseen that danger, and had guarded against it by the scale of payment. A century later, the public pay had become a mischief; but that mischief was rather the result than the cause of social disorganisation. Now, then, we can understand the full significance of the words which Thucydides puts into the mouth of Pericles (II. 40),—"An Athenian citizen," he says, "does not neglect the State because he takes care of his own household; and even those who are engaged in business (ἔργα) can form a very fair idea of politics. We regard a man who takes no interest in public affairs as a useless man; and if few of us are originators of a policy, we are all sound judges of it." Not less essential to the statesman's purpose was the measure which ensured the presence of the poorer citizens at the public festivals, when tragedy
Page:Essays and Addresses.djvu/125
