韋恩食記

One of the most important changes in Greece during the period from 800 BC to 500 BC was the rise of the polis, or city-state, and each polis developed a system of government that was appropriate to its circumstances. 從公元前800年到公元前500年，希臘最重要的變化之一，就是城邦的興起，並且每個城邦發展適合自己情況的政府制度。

The problems that were faced and solved in Athens were the sharing of political power between the established aristocracy and the emerging other classes, and the adjustment of aristocratic ways of life to the ways of life of the new polis. 雅典面對和解決的問題是：現存的貴族和新興的其他階層之間的政治權力的分享，以及貴族們針對新城邦的生活方式的調整。

It was the harmonious blending of all of these elements that was to produce the classical culture of Athens. 正是所有這些元素和諧的融合創造了雅典的古典文化。

Entering the polis age, Athens had the traditional institutions of other Greek proto democratic states: an assembly of adult males, an aristocratic council, and annually elected officials. 進入城邦時代，雅典有著其他希臘典型民主政府的傳統機構：一個由成年男性組成的議會，一個貴族委員會，每年選出的官員。

Within this traditional framework the Athenians, between 600 BC and 450 BC, evolved what Greeks regarded as a fully fledged democratic constitution, though the right to vote was given to fewer groups of people than is seen in modern times. 在這個傳統的框架裡面，在公元前600年到450年之間，雅典人發展出了希臘人所認為的一個完全成熟的民主制度，儘管相比於現代，投票權賦予了更少的人群。

The first steps toward change were taken by Solon in 594 BC, when he broke the aristocracy's stranglehold on elected offices by establishing wealth rather than birth as the basis of office holding, abolishing the economic obligations of ordinary Athenians to the aristocracy, and allowing the assembly (of which all citizens were equal members) to overrule the decisions of local courts in certain cases. 改變的第一步是由Solon在公元前594年實現的，他打破了貴族對選舉職位的束縛：他建立財富作為任職的基礎條件，而不是出身；廢除普通雅典人對於貴族的經濟義務；在某些情況下，允許議會(其中所有的公民都是平等的成員）駁回地方法院的決定。

The strength of the Athenian aristocracy was further weakened during the rest of the century by the rise of a type of government known as a tyranny, which is a form of interim rule by a popular strongman (not rule by a ruthless dictator as the modern use of the term suggests to us). 雅典貴族的權利在這個世紀餘下的時間中進一步削弱了，這是由於一種被稱為專制政府的興起，這是由一個由受歡迎的強人臨時統治的一種形式（這個術語和現代我們所知道的意思不同，並不是指由一個殘酷的獨裁者來統治）。

The Peisistratids, as the succession of tyrants were called (after the founder of the dynasty, Peisistratos), strengthened Athenian central administration at the expense of the aristocracy by appointing judges throughout the region, producing Athens' first national coinage, and adding and embellishing festivals that tended to focus attention on Athens rather than on local villages of the surrounding region. Peisistratids，統治者繼承人的統一稱呼（王朝的創始人庇西特拉圖之後），通過任命整個地區的法官來加強雅典中央政府，以犧牲貴族身份為代價，制定國家第一個貨幣制度，加入並強化節日，這些節日往往聚焦於雅典，而不是周邊地區的本地村莊。

By the end of the century, the time was ripe for more change: the tyrants were driven out, and in 508 BC a new reformer, Cleisthenes, gave final form to the developments reducing aristocratic control already under way. 到本世紀末，進行更多變化的時間成熟了：專制統治者被驅逐，而在公元前508年，一個新的改革者，克利斯提尼，對已經衰弱的貴族統治給予最後一擊。

Cleisthenes' principal contribution to the creation of democracy at Athens was to complete the long process of weakening family and clan structures, especially among the aristocrats, and to set in their place locality-based corporations called demes, which became the point of entry for all civic and most religious life in Athens.
Out of the demes were created 10 artificial tribes of roughly equal population.
From the demes, by either election or selection, came 500 members of a new council, 6,000 jurors for the courts, 10 generals, and hundreds of commissioners.
The assembly was sovereign in all matters but in practice delegated its power to subordinate bodies such as the council, which prepared the agenda for the meetings of the assembly, and the courts, which took care of most judicial matters.
Various committees acted as an executive branch, implementing policies of the assembly and supervising, for instance, the food and water supplies and public buildings.
This wide-scale participation by the citizenry in the government distinguished the democratic form of the Athenian polis from other, less liberal forms.

The effect of Cleisthenes' reforms was to establish the superiority of the Athenian community as a whole over local institutions without destroying them.
National politics rather than local or deme politics became the focal point.
At the same time, entry into national politics began at the deme level and gave local loyalty a new focus: Athens itself.
Over the next two centuries the implications of Cleisthenes' reforms were fully exploited.

During the fifth century B.C. the council of 500 was extremely influential in shaping policy.
在西元前第五世紀，500個委員會在製定政策時極有影響。
☐ In the next century, however, it was the mature assembly that took on decision-making responsibility.
然而，在下個世紀，承擔決策責任的是成熟的議會。
☐ By any measure other than that of the aristocrats, who had been upstaged by the supposedly inferior "people," the Athenian democracy was a stunning success.
通過貴族以外的任何措施，貴族們已經被所謂的下等人搶去風頭，雅典民主政治是一個驚人的成功。
Never before, or since, have so many people been involved in the serious business of self-governance.
從來沒有，或自那以後，有這麼多的人參與了自治管理這件嚴肅的事情。
☐It was precisely this opportunity to participate in public life that provided a stimulus for the brilliant unfolding of classical Greek culture. ☐
正是這個參與到公共生活中的機會，為古典希臘文化的精彩演變提供了一個刺激。