He was probably appointed to the Council of Five Hundred for a year at the beginning of the fourth century but such appointments were very common in democratic Athens.

Pericles and his friends were never immune from attack, as preeminence in democratic Athens was not equivalent to absolute rule.

This was the method used to decide motions in the Roman Senate (and was occasionally used in democratic Athens).

Socrates was Strauss's model, and the fate of Socrates in democratic Athens prompted his deepest reflections and concerns.

The most prominent Greek oligarchy, and the state with which democratic Athens is most often and most fruitfully compared, was Sparta.

Oligarchic Sparta and democratic Athens, so different in temperament and social organization, were military opposites as well.

To write a history of freedom, he learned Greek and dug deep into classical sources, the better to understand why democratic Athens disgraced itself by condemning Socrates.

Studying how a seafaring democratic Athens fought an insular oligarchy like Sparta teaches us a lot about current world crises and the fickleness of public opinion.

The history of the Greek west cannot, however, be written like that of truly democratic Athens; for one thing, there are virtually no politically informative inscriptions.

The ancients themselves sought continually to explain why democratic Athens, despite its material and human resources, failed to win the Peloponnesian War against totalitarian Sparta.