CHAPTER I.There is no institution of ancient history which introduces so difficult of comprehension as that of electing officials by the lot. We have ourselves no experience of the working of such a system; any proposal to introduce it now would appear so ludicrous that it requires some effort for us to believe that it ever did prevail in a civilised community. There can be few people who, when they first hear that it existed at Athens and in other Greek states, do not receive the information with incredulity. The first impulse is to doubt the fact and to suppose there is some misunderstanding. And there have been scholars who have attempted to show that election by lot did not exist; that what is commonly known as such was really secret voting by ballot. The attempt fails; for the evidence of the authorities is overwhelming1.Other historians recognising the fact of election by lot have treated it as a matter of no great importance ; without explicitly saying so, they seem to hold About the Publisher Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology.Forgotten Books' Classic Reprint Series utilizes the latest technology to regenerate facsimiles of historically important writings. Careful attention has been made to accurately preserve the original format of each page whilst digitally enhancing the difficult to read text. Read books online for free at www.forgottenbooks.org