Spartans Graduation Speech

Good afternoon gentlemen of the Assembly. It is my distinct honor and priviledge to stand before you today. As you may or may not know, I am Aristarchus of the Solonian Aristocrat faction.

I am deeply concerned for the future of this great city and I believe it is in our best interest to reduce internal costs by opting not to pay Assemblymen and jurors for their services. We can instead allocate those funds to the reconstruction of Athens. We have been crushed by Sparta, to put it simply, and have suffered unimaginable pain and anguish. Our great walls are in shambles and our once indestructible fleet was destroyed in the harbor of Syracuse. We abandoned precious farmland and vineyards that were essentially the “backbone of our once-great
Before the war, I was a wealthy landowner with several prosperous farms in Attica and many slaves. The war destroyed me. The Spartans made sure my efforts to maintain my farm would never come to fruition. My olive trees, which took nearly a decade to grow, were left in ruins after the Spartans received word of the existence of my farmland. My slaves ran off. My debts were rising at alarming rates and I lost pieces of property one after another. The women who were left behind by the men of our clan ended up at my door and I could not possibly turn them away. I ended up having to put them to work to stay afloat and we all know you are in a pretty desperate situation when you opt to have women laboring for
We formerly had five areas of expenditures: military, public works, pay for jurors, pay for other officials, religious ceremonies, support for orphans and invalids, and domestic policing. Pay for jurors and other officials accounted for nineteen percent of that! Imagine what we could do with nineteen percent of our expenditures. Plus, why would we pay men who often deliberate for days on end over seemingly meaningless matters just for their three obols a day? Even modest payment as proposed by the Periclean Democrats will take away from more pressing issues and we cannot possibly trust citizens working for pay to do honest work that serves the betterment of Athens, especially in this incredibly trying time. Do you think they would even bother coming to the Pnyx or lawcourts if they were not paid? It is an honor to serve this great state and should remain that way. Pay takes away from