did not consider before. People who are not interested in the general affairs are looked at as inferior, and their quality as characters deteriorates. Pericles, the greatest general in the history of Athens, held the opinion that these types of people did not belong to such a great city, according to Thucydides. These same individuals can hold public positions in Athens. "What counts is not membership of a particular class, but the actual ability this man possesses" (Thucydides, II.37). Serving member of the Council, at least once, was obligatory in the Athenian democracy. The Athenian citizens could be members of the Assembly, as well as members of the jury in court, as were those at the trial of Socrates. From Pericles' Funeral Oration in Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War, we learn that the people holding these positions are respected and trusted by the rest since they are not to take advantage of their position for personal benefit.
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