izens were classified on the basis
of property. The rich retained the franchise and the right of holding
office; the middle classes obtained the franchise; the fourth or
lowest class gained neither. By the reforms of Cleisthenes (509 B.C.)
the clan-family and the phratry were set aside for the _deme_ or
parish, a geographical division superseding the social. Finally, about
478 B.C., when all had acquired the franchise, the right to hold
office also was obtained by the third class. These changes coincided
with a period of economic progress. The rate of interest was high,
usually 12%; and in trading and bottomry the returns were much higher.
A small capital at this interest soon produced comparative wealth; and
simultaneously prices were falling. Then came the reaction. "After the
Peloponnesian war" (432-404 B.C.), writes Professor Jebb, "the wealth
of the country ceased to grow, as population had ceased to grow about
50 years sooner. The rich went on accumulating: the poor, having no
means of enriching themselves by enterprise, were for the most part
occupied in watching for some chance of snatching a larger share of
the stationary total." Thus the poorer classes in a time of prosperity
had won the power which they were able to turn to their own account
afterwards. A period of economic pressure followed, coupled with a
decline in the population; no return to the land was feasible, nor was
emigration; the people had become town-folk inadaptable to new uses;
decreasing vitality and energy were marked by a new temper, the
"pauper" temper, unsettled, idle and grasping, and political power was
utilized to obtain relief. The relief was forthcoming, but it was of
no avail to stop the general decline. The state, it might almost be
said, in giving scope to the assertion of the spirit of dependence,
had ruined the self-regarding energy on which both family and state
alike depended. The emoluments were diverse. The number of citizens
was not large; the functions in which citizens could take part were
numerous; and when payment was forthcoming the poorer citizens pressed
in to exercise their rights (cf. Arist. _Pol._ 1293 a). All Athenian
citizens could attend the public assembly or _ecclesia_. Probably the
attendance at it varied from a few hundred to 5000 persons. In 395
B.C. the payment for attendance was fixed at 3 obols, or little more
than 4-1/2d. a day--for t