Pericles’ Funeral Oration “Our constitution is called a democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people. When it is a question of settling private disputes, everyone is equal before the law; When it is a question of putting one person before another in positions of public responsibility, what counts is not membership of a particular class, but the actual ability which the man possesses. No one . . . is kept [out of government] because of poverty.”
—Pericles, as recorded by Thucydides,
History of the Peloponnesian War

Why did Pericles call his government a democracy?
a.
Only rich people could vote.
b.
Power belonged to the whole people.
c.
Public offices were for men only.
d.
none of these