Areopagiticus

For I know that under this constitution our ancestors were far superior to the rest of the world, and that the Lacedaemonians are the best governed of peoples because they are the most democratic;[*](Exclusive of the Perioeci and the Helots. See Aristot. Pol. 1294b 18 ff.) for in their selection of magistrates, in their daily life, and in their habits in general, we may see that the principles of equity and equality have greater influence than elsewhere in the world—principles to which oligarchies are hostile, while well-ordered democracies practise them continually.

Moreover, if we will examine into the history of the most illustrious and the greatest of the other states, we shall find that democratic forms of government are more advantageous for them than oligarchies. For if we compare our own government—which is criticized by everyone[*](See Isoc. 7.15.)—not with the old democracy which I have described, but with the rule which was instituted by the Thirty,[*](The oligarchy of the thirty “Tyrants,” instituted with the help of the Spartans at the end of the Peloponnesian War, 404 B.C.) there is no one who would not consider our present democracy a divine creation.

And I desire, even though some will complain that I am straying from my subject, to expound and to explain how much superior this government is to that of the Thirty, in order that I may not be accused of scrutinizing too minutely the mistakes of our democracy, while overlooking the many fine things which it has achieved. I promise, however, that the story will not be long or without profit to my hearers.

When we lost our fleet in the Hellespont[*](At the Battle of Arginusae, 406 B. C., the beginning of the end of the Peloponnesian War.) and our city was plunged into the disasters of that time, who of our older men does not know that the “people's party,”[*](Many of them had been exiled by the Thirty or had fled for their lives. Thrasybulus placed himself at their head, defeated the Thirty in battle, and restored the democracy. See Xen. Hell. 2.4.10 ff.) as they were called, were ready to go to any length of hardship to avoid doing what the enemy commanded, deeming it monstrous that anyone should see the city which had ruled over the Hellenes in subjection to another state, whereas the partisans of oligarchy were ready both to tear down the walls[*](One of the terms insisted on by Lysander was that the “long walls” connecting Athens with the Piraeus be demolished.) and to submit to slavery?