But when they had laid down these ordinances they were not negligent regarding what
 remained to be done, but, dividing the city into districts and the country into townships,
 they kept watch over the life of every citizen, The
 supervision of the young through guardians appointed by districts survives in the later
 period. See Aristot. Ath. Pol. 42 . haling
 the disorderly before the Council, which now rebuked, now warned, and again punished them
 according to their deserts. For they understood that there are two ways both of
 encouraging men to do wrong and of checking them from evil-doing; for where no watch is kept over such matters and the judgements are not strict, there
 even honest natures grow corrupt; but where, again, it is not easy for wrongdoers either
 to escape detection or, when detected, to obtain indulgence, there the impulse to do evil
 disappears. Understanding this, they restrained the people from wrongdoing in both
 ways—both by punishment and by watchfulness; for so far from failing to detect those who
 had gone astray, they actually saw in advance who were likely to commit some offence. Therefore the young men did not waste their time in the gambling-dens or with the
 flute-girls or in the kind of company in which they now spend their days, The same picture of degeneracy is found in Isoc. 15.287 . Cf. Theopompus in Athen.
 532d . but remained steadfastly in the pursuits to which they had been
 assigned, admiring and emulating those who excelled in these. And so strictly did they
 avoid the market-place that even when they were at times compelled to pass through it,
 they were seen to do this with great modesty and sobriety of manner. Cf. Aristoph. Cl. 991 ; Plat. Theaet. 173c-d . 
 To contradict one’s elders or to be impudent to them Cf.
 Aristoph. Cl. 998 . was then considered more
 reprehensible than it is nowadays to sin against one’s parents; and to eat or drink in a
 tavern was something which no one, not even an honest slave, would venture to do; The same expression is used in Isoc.
 15.286 . for they cultivated the manners of a gentleman, not those of a
 buffoon; and as for those who had a turn for jesting and playing the clown, whom we today
 speak of as clever wits, they were then looked upon as sorry fools. Cf. Isoc. 15.284 . 
 But let no one suppose that I am out of temper with the younger generation: I do not
 think that they are to blame for what goes on, and in fact I know that most of them are
 far from pleased with a state of affairs which permits them to waste their time in these
 excesses; so that I cannot in fairness censure them, when it is much more just to rest the
 blame upon those who directed the city a little before our time; He is thinking of Ephialtes and those who, following in his footsteps, made
 Athens more “democratic.” Aristotle says
 that following the Archonship of Ephialtes “the administration of the state became more
 and more lax,” Aristot. Ath. Pol. 26 .