Read this quotation from Pericles’s Funeral Oration in ancient Athens. It is true that we are called a democracy, because power is in the hands of the many and not the few . . . everyone is equal before the law; when a citizen is in any way distinguished, he is chosen for public service, not as a matter of privilege, but as reward for his abilities. Neither is poverty an obstacle; a man may benefit his country whatever his social class.

–Pericles’s Funeral Oration, 431 BCE

This quotation supports the idea that

the ability to govern should be a privilege.
few citizens have the skills for public service.
women and men should be equal under the law.
both the rich and the poor have the ability to serve.