From Sardis to Rome: A Voyage Through Five Governments

The Travels of Atys (a made-up account)

1I am Atys, a cloth merchant, and I set out from Sardis, where I was born. Sardis is part of the Persian Empire. The Great King, Artaxerxes, inherited his throne from his father, Xerxes. The king appoints a governor, called a satrap, to rule our land, and he can replace him whenever he likes. Each year the governor announces how much silver we must send to the king as tribute. Nobody in Sardis votes on that amount.

2About two weeks later I reached Athens. On a hill called the Pnyx, I watched thousands of citizen men meet in the Assembly. A herald called out, "Who wishes to speak?" A shoemaker stood up and argued against a plan to build new warships. Then the citizens raised their hands to vote. My host told me that most officials are picked by lot each year. Yet his wife, the people he enslaved and I, a foreigner, could not vote.

3From Athens I traveled to Corinth, a rich trading city. There a council of wealthy men from leading families decides the important questions. My Corinthian trading partner told me that men with little property have little say. "The council knows best," he said, "because its members have the most to lose."

4Next I walked to Sparta. Sparta has two kings at once, from two royal families, and they lead the army in war. A council of 28 elders, all over age 60, prepares proposals with the kings, and five officials called ephors, elected each year, watch over the kings. Citizen men meet in an assembly, but they only shout yes or no to proposals; they do not debate them. When an elder dies, men in a closed room judge which candidate the crowd cheers loudest. Most farmwork is done by helots, enslaved people who have no voice at all.

5At last my ship reached Rome. About fifty years ago, the Romans drove out their last king. Now each year citizen men vote in assemblies to elect two consuls, who lead the government and the army for one year, and either consul can block the other. A Senate of older men, mostly from wealthy families, advises the consuls, and its members usually serve for life. The ordinary citizens, called plebeians, elect their own tribunes, who can block actions that harm plebeians.

Adapted from a translation of Herodotus's Histories, Book 3

1Otanes said: How can rule by one man be good, when he may do whatever he wishes and answers to no one? Rule by the people has the fairest name of all, equality before the law. Officials are chosen by lot, they must give an account of what they did, and every plan is brought before all the people.

2Megabyzus said: Nothing is more foolish or violent than a crowd that has never been taught what is good. Let us choose a group of the best men and give them the power.

3Darius said: Nothing is better than rule by the one best man, whose plans are the wisest. When a few men share power, each wants to be first, and they quarrel until one man takes control anyway.