In a word, our forefathers had resolved that the people as the supreme master of the
 state, should appoint the magistrates, call to account those who failed in their duty, and
 judge in cases of dispute; while those citizens who could afford the time and possessed
 sufficient means Aristotle ( Aristot. Pol. 1274a 15 ff. ) states that Solon gave
 to the populace the sovereign power of selecting their magistrates and of calling them
 to account, though the selection had to be made from “men of reputation and
 means.” should devote themselves to the care of the commonwealth, as servants of
 the people, entitled to receive commendation if they proved faithful to their trust, and contenting
 themselves with this honor, but condemned, on the other hand, if they governed badly, to
 meet with no mercy, but to suffer the severest punishment. The same idea is developed in Isoc. 12.147 . And
 how, pray, could one find a democracy more stable or more just than this, which appointed
 the most capable men to have charge of its affairs but gave to the people authority over
 their rulers? Such was the constitution of their polity, and from this it is easy to see that also in
 their conduct day by day they never failed to act with propriety and justice; for when
 people have laid sound foundations for the conduct of the whole state it follows that in
 the details of their lives they must reflect the character of their government. First of all as to their conduct towards the gods—for it is right to begin with
 them This is almost poetic formula. Cf. Alcman fr. 3;
 Theocr. 17.1 ; Aratus, Phaenomena 
 1. —they were not erratic or irregular in their worship of them or in the
 celebration of their rites; they did not, for example, drive three hundred oxen in
 procession to the altar, The reference is, apparently, to
 special or occasional festivals such as those mentioned in Isoc.
 7.10 . He may have in mind here the festival held in honor of Chares' victory
 over Artaxerxes III, since that Athenian general was so generously paid by Artabazus
 that he could afford to contribute a drove of cattle for the celebration. See Dio. Sic. 16.22 . when it entered their heads to do
 so,while omitting, when the caprice seized them, the sacrifices instituted by their
 fathers; Cf. Isoc.
 2.20 . neither did they observe on a grand scale the festivals imported
 from abroad, whenever these were attended by a feast, while contracting with the lowest
 bidder for the sacrifices demanded by the holiest rites of their religion. For their only care was not to destroy any institution of their fathers and to introduce
 nothing which was not approved by custom, believing that reverence consists, not in
 extravagant expenditures, but in disturbing none of the rites which their ancestors had
 handed on to them. And so also the gifts of the gods were visited upon them, not fitfully
 or capriciously, but seasonably both for the ploughing of the land and for the ingathering
 of its fruits.