[92]
These are not events of long ago of which
you might be ignorant.However, although the laws
regarding citizenship and the steps that must be taken before one may become an
Athenian are so admirably and so securely established, there is yet another law
which has been enacted in addition to all these, and this law is of paramount
validity; such great precautions have the people taken in the interest of
themselves and of the gods, to the end that the sacrifices on the state's behalf
may be offered in conformity with religious usage. For in the case of all those
whom the Athenian people may make citizens, the law expressly forbids that they
should be eligible to the office of the nine archons or to hold any priesthood;
but their descendants are allowed by the people to share in all civic rights,
though the proviso is added: if they are born from an Athenian woman who was
betrothed according to the law.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by Norman W. DeWitt, Ph.D., and Norman J. DeWitt, Ph.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1949.
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