Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: > > > As for Pericles, wages for jurors, which allowed common men to serve > as jurors and thus participate in politics, was introduced by Pericles > (the rich did not need wages to participate in politics for they had > their own money and thus free time for politics), and Aristotle > clearly weren't enthusiastic about allowing common men to judge rich > men:
It's a bit more complicated. The _real_ source of Athenian democracy was in the demos, the village, which was essentially self-ruling and immune to outside interference. That was what made the Athenian peasantry for almost two centuries the most fortunate peasantry in world history: no compulsory services to a lord, no taxes. They fought hard for this, and they went down fighting, and knowing what they were fighting for, when the democracy was finally overthrown by Macedonian conquest. Carrol
