All citizens had the right to take office. The archons were elected by lot, whereas the strategoi and financial officers were elected by a show of hands, because for the exercise of their duties, particular skills and abilities were required (Aristotle, Athenian Constitution 43.1-2). The election by lot or sortition was designed to prevent powerful individuals or councils from taking over, and to a great extent protected the elective office from rivalries and hostilities. For that reason it played a significant part in limiting the privileges of the old aristocratic families.

Before they took office, the elected archons underwent an examination known as dokimasia before the thesmothetai and bouletai (members of the Assembly or the Council). This examination was designed to ascertain whether the individual in question was fit for office. He had to be an Athenian citizen, a member of the propertied classes, over thirty years of age and to have discharged his military and financial obligations to the city, otherwise he would be deemed atimos and would face prosecution (Aristotle, The Athenian Constitution 55.3-5).

At the end of their term, the archons had to justify their actions in office (euthyna), an obligation that established itself in the middle of the 5thcentury B.C. Until the reforms of Ephialtes (462/1 B.C.), any complaints were examined by the Aeropagus, but later were conducted by officers elected by the Assembly of Citizens. If it were proved that the archons had served the city well, they were honoured with the privilege of wearing gold jewellery or uniforms (chrysophoria), by the award of the crown (stephanephoria), or by other distinctions. Decrees to this effect would engraved on a stone pillar and erected in a prominent public place, usually in the Agora, on the Acropolis or in sanctums.

Misthophora was the payment of citizens who left their jobs to exercise civil duties. The idea and the introduction of payment for public duties came from Pericles, and it was given to all archons selected by lot before his death (429/8 B.C.). There was also council pay for the members of the Council and judicial pay for the members of Heliaia, and from the beginning of the 4^thcentury B.C. citizens who participated in the meetings of the Assembly of Citizens also received Assembly pay. There was no payment for members of the Areopagus, nor for officials holding less important offices in terms of time and money (Aristotle, The Athenian Constitution 62.2). Payment for public duties was an important feature of democracy, one that made equality more meaningful as it guaranteed an income for citizens serving the city.

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