Recently, I received a summons for jury service. This reminded me of Pericles, Wasps and Aristotle.

I am reminded of Pericles because he  is credited with introducing pay for jury service in the mid-fifth century B.C.E.  Athenian jurors initially received two obols per day.   An obol (ὀβολός ) was worth 1/6 of a drachma, which was about one day's pay.  Pericles introduced jury pay to ensure that a broad cross section of society would be represented on juries.  In Orange County Superior Court, most jurors receive $15.00 per day, starting with the second day of service, and 34 cents for each mile traveled, one-way.

I am reminded of Aristophanes because he wrote the famous comedy, The Wasps (Σφῆκες), in 422 B.C.E.  The Wasps tells the story of an old man, Philocleon, who spends all his time in jury service, in part due to his love of the jury fees.  

So jury service offers to prospect of a small payment, but what if I don't show up?  According to the court, I could be found in contempt of court and punished by fine and/or incarceration pursuant to California Code of Civil Procedure section 209.   This reminds me of Aristotle's conclusion about the role of pay and punishment:

Under one plan we must adopt both features from the legislative schemes of the two different constitutions: for example, in regard to the administration of justice, in oligarchies they institute a fine for the rich if they do not serve on juries but no pay for the poor for serving, while in democracies they assign pay for the poor but no fine for the rich, but a common and intermediate principle is to have both payment and fine, and therefore this is a mark of a constitutional government, since it is a mixture of elements from both oligarchy and democracy.

Aristotle, Politics, Book 4, § 1294a (Translated by H. Rackham).