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DEMOCRATIC.
the wealthy and noble still remained citizens of the commonwealth, the supreme power was to all intents and purposes in the hands of the class formerly constituting the demus, by virtue of their being the more numerous. (Aristot. Pol. iv. 4, p. 122, ed. Gottling.) When the two classes were thus equalised, the term demus itself was frequently used to denote the entire body of free citizens —" the many," in contrast with " the few."
It is obvious that, consistently with the maintenance of the fundamental principle of the supreme power being in the hands of the demus, various modifications of the constitution in detail might exist, and different views might be held as to what was the perfect type of a democracy, and what was an imperfect, or a diseased form of it. Aristotle (Pol. iv. 3) points out that a democracy cannot be denned by the mere consideration of numbers. For if the wealthy were the more numerous and possessed the supreme power, this would not be a democracy. A democracy is rather, when every free citizen is a member of the sovereign body (5%os jue*/ igtiv otolv oi eAevflepot Kvpioi Sxriv). This definition he expresses in a more accurate form thus : ecrri Srj^oKpaTia fjiev orav oi e€vdepoi koi ‘diropoL Treiovs fores Kvpioi t^s ap%??s shtijs. It would still be a democracy if a certain amount of property were requisite for filling the public offices, provided the amount were not large. (Pol. iv. 4. p. 122, ed. Gottl.) A Pcliteia itself is one species of democracy (Pol. iv. 3. p. 117), democracy, in the full sense of the word, being a sort of Trapeicgaffis of it. But for a perfect and pure democracy it was necessary that no iree citizen should be debarred on account of his inferiority in rank or wealth from aspiring to any office, or exercising any political function, and that each citizen should be allowed to follow that mode of life which he chose. (Arist. Pol. iv. 4, vi. 1.) In a passage of Herodotus (iii. 80), where we probably have the ideas of the writer himself, the characteristics of a democracy are specified to be— 1. equality of legal rights (iffovopiri) ; 2. the appointment of magistrates by lot ; 3. the accountability of all magistrates and officers ; 4. the reference of all public matters to the decision of _ the community at large. Aristotle also (RJiet. i. 8. § 4) says : eVn Se ^/uLOKparia fj.lv TroXireia tv y KXypai Siaz/e’juoj/Tcu ras apx^s, biyapxia 8e eV 77 ol cwrS Tt/^jUaTOjy. In another passage (Pol. vi. 1), after mentioning the essential principles on which a democracy is based, he goes on to say: " The following points are characteristic of a democracy ; that all magistrates should be chosen out of the whole body of citizens ; that all should rule each, and each in turn rule all ; that either all magistracies, or those not requiring experience and professional knowledge, should be assigned by lot ; that there should be no property qualification, or but a very small one, for filling any magistracy; that the same man should not fill the same office twice, or should fill offices but few times, and but few offices, except in the case of military commands ; that all, or as many as possible of the magistracies, should be of brief duration ; that all citizens should be qualified to serve as dicasts ; that the supreme power in everything should reside in the public assembly, and that no magistrate should be entrusted with irresponsible power except in very small matters. (Comp. Plat. Resp. viii. pp. 558, 562,
391
DEMUS.
563, Leg. iii. p. 690. c. vi. p. 757, e.) Aristotle (Pol. iv. 3, 4, 5, vi. 1, 2) describes the various modifications which a democracy may assume. It is somewhat curious that neither in practice nor in theory did the representative system attract any attention among the Greeks.
That diseased form of a democracy, in which from the practice of giving pay to the poorer citi zens for their attendance in the public assembly, and from other causes, the predominant party in the state came to be in fact the lowest class of the citizens (a state of things in which the democracy in many respects resembled a tyranny: see Arist. Pol. iv. 4) was by later writers (Polyb. vi. 4, 57; Pint. d& Monarch, c. 3) termed an Ochlocracy (ox^onparia — the dominion of the mob); but the term is not found in Aristotle. (Wachsmuth, Flettenische Alterthumsk. c. 7, 8 ; K. F. Her mann, Lehrbuch der Griech. Staatsalterthumer, §§ 52, 66—72; Thirl wall, History of Greece, vol. i. c. 10.) [C. P. M.]
DEMONSTRATE. [Aci-io.]
DEMOPOIETOS (s^otto^tos), the name given to a foreigner who was admitted to the rights of citizenship at Athens by a decree of the people, on account of services rendered to the state. Such citizens were, hoAvever, excluded from the phra-triae, and could not hold the offices of either archoii or priest (Dem. c. Neaer. p. 1376), but were registered in a phyle and deme. [Civitas, greek, • p. 288, b.]
DEMOSII (fyjurfcnot), public slaves at Athens, who .were purchased by the state. Some of them filled subordinate places in the assembly and courts of justice, and were also employed as heralds, checking clerks, &c. They were usually called S’fyuocnot okercu, and, as we learn from Ulpian (ad Dem. Olyntli. ii. p. 15), were taught at the expense of the state to qualify them for the discharge of such duties as have been mentioned. (Hemsterh. ad Polluc. ix. 10 ; Maussac. ad Har-pocrat. s. v. 5?j/,to'<nos; Petitus, Leg. Att. p. 342.) As these public slaves did not belong to any one individual, they appear to have possessed certain legal rights which private slaves had not. (Meier, Att. Process, pp. 401, 560 ; Aeschin. c. Timarch. pp. 79, 85.)
Another class of public slaves formed the city guard ; it was their duty to preserve order in the public assembly, and to remove any person whom the Prytaneis might order. (Schneider, Ad Xen. Mem. iii. 6. § 1 ; Plato, Protag. p. 319, and Hein-dorf ‘s note; Aristoph. A charn. 54, with the comr mentators.) They are generally called bowmen (to£otcu) ; or from the native country of the majority, Scythians (^KvOai); and also Speusinians, from the name of the person who first established the force. (Pollux, viii. 131, 132 ; Photius, s. v. to|otcu.) There were also among them many Thracians and other barbarians. They originally lived in tents in the market-place, and afterwards upon the Areiopagus. Their officers had the name of toxarchs (TO^apxot). Their number was at first 300, purchased soon after the battle of Salamis, but was afterwards increased to 1200. (Aeschin. TLepl napairpea-g. p. 335 ; Andoc. De Pao. p. 93 ; Bockh, PubL Econ. of Athens, pp. 207, 208, 2d edit.)
DEMUS. The word 5%tos originally indicated a district or tract of land, and is by soin derived from §e<w, as if it signified an " enclosure marked
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