" He became simultaneously citizen and soldier. Thereafter he
owed military service until he was sixty years of age. With this he
had the right to sit in the assembly and to fulfil the functions of
the state.
Once in a while the Athenians consented to receive into the
citizenship a man who was not the son of a citizen, but this was rare
and a sign of great favor. The assembly had to vote the stranger into
its membership, and then nine days after six thousand citizens had to
vote for him on a secret ballot. The Athenian people was like a closed
circle; no new members were admitted except those pleasing to the old
members, and they admitted few beside their sons.
THE GOVERNMENT OF ATHENS
=The Assembly.=--The Athenians called their government a democracy (a
government by the people). But this people was not, as with us, the
mass of inhabitants, but the body of citizens, a true aristocracy of
15,000 to 20,000 men who governed the whole nation as masters. This
body had absolute power, and was the true sovereign of Athens. It
assembled at least three times a month to deliberate and to vote.
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