y, and public seal. Nothing shows jealousy of
power more than the brief term of office which the president exercised.

(M385) The ecclesia, or assembly of the people, was the arena for the
debate of all public measures. The archons were chosen according to the
regulations of Solon, but were stripped of their power, which was
transferred to the senate and ecclesia. The generals were elected by the
people annually, one from each tribe. They were called strategi, and had
also the direction of foreign affairs. It was as first strategus that
Pericles governed--"prime minister of the people."

(M386) In order to guard against the ascendency of tyrants--the great evil
of the ancient States, Cleisthenes devised the institution of _ostracism_,
by which a suspected or obnoxious citizen could be removed from the city
for ten years, though practically abridged to five. It simply involved an
exclusion from political power, without casting a stigma on the character.
It was virtually a retirement, during which his property and rights
remained intact, and attended with no disgrace. The citizens, after the
senate had decreed the vote was needful, were required to write a name in
an oyster shell, and he who had less than six thousand votes was obliged
to withdraw within ten days from the city. The wisdom of this measure is
proved in the fact that no tyrannical usurpation occurred at Athens after
that of Pisistratus. This revolution which Cleisthenes effected was purely
democratic, to which the aristocrats did not submit without a struggle.
The aristocrats called to their aid the Spartans, but without other effect
than creating that long rivalry which existed between democracy and
oligarchy in Greece, in which Sparta and Athens were the representatives.

About this time began the dominion of Athens over the islands of the AEgean
and the system of colonizing conquered States, This was the period which
immediately preceded the Persian wars, when Athens reached the climax of
political glory.

(M387) Next in importance to the States which have been briefly mentioned
was Boeotia, which contained fourteen cities, united in a confederacy, of
which Thebes took the lead. They were governed by magistrates, called
boetarchs, elected annually. In these cities aristocratic institutions
prevailed. The people were chiefly of AEolian descent, with a strong
mixture of the Dorian element, and were dull and heavy, owing, probably,
to the easy facilities o