24
The reason why this plan was agreeable to the majority and why they did not fight over the offices was because they had been schooled to be industrious and frugal, and not to neglect their own possessions and conspire against the possessions of others, and not to repair their own fortunes out of the public funds,He is thinking of pay, not only for the magistrates, but for attendance at the sessions of the jury courts, of the General Assembly, etc. See Isoc. 8.130. Aristotle (Aristot. Ath. Pol. 24) states that since the changes which were introduced by Aristides over twenty thousand Athenians earned their livelihood in public service of one sort or another. In the same work (62) he gives a brief sketch of the pay for such services. but rather to help out the commonwealth, should the need arise, from their private resources,For the public spirit of the old democracy see Isoc. 4.76; Isoc. 8.42 ff.; Isoc. 12.145 ff. and not to know more accurately the incomes derived from the public offices than those which accrued to them from their own estates.
25
So severely did they abstain from what belonged to the state that it was harder in those days to find men who were willing to hold officeCf. Isoc. 12.146; Plat. Rep. 347b, Plat. Rep. 520d; Ruskin, Crown of Wild Olive: “No one ever teaches well who wants to teach or governs well who wants to govern: it is an old saying (Plato’s but I know not if his first) and as wise as old.” than it is now to find men who are not begging for the privilege; for they did not regard a charge over public affairs as a chance for private gain but as a service to the state; neither did they from their first day in office seek to discover whether their predecessors had overlooked any source of profit, but much rather whether they had neglected any business of the state which pressed for settlement.
