ABSTRACT
Athenian democracy meant something quite different. It meant a system of government under which the sovereign power was not only vested in the people, but was exercised directly by the people. As a logical consequence, matters the essence of which is secrecy were given at Athens the widest publicity: ambassadors coming on missions of alliance or of peace had to treat with the General Assembly, and even military despatches of the gravest import were read out to the whole city. Although primarily a product of the Greek temperament, the system owed its rapid growth in Athens to special circumstances. The magnitude of that restraint may be measured by a glance at other contemporary accounts published before the Athenian democracy had yielded all its fruits. Such is the curious pamphlet on the Constitution of Athens once ascribed to Xenophon—a criticism which often assumes a tone of mordant irony that has been misunderstood for praise.
