上句见：Day83
The Story of Philosophy的第84句：第1章Plato第1节The Context of Plato第7段第1句：

No doubt this attack on democracy reflected the rise of a wealthy minority at Athens which called itself the Oligarchical Party, and denounced democracy as an incompetent sham. In a sense there was not much democracy to denounce; for of the 400,000 inhabitants of Athens 250,000 were slaves, without political rights of any kind: and of the 150,000 freemen or citizens only a small number presented themselves at the Ecclesia, or general assembly, where the policies of the state were discussed and determined. Yet what democracy they had was thorough as never since the general assembly was the supreme power; and the highest official body, the Dikasteria, or supreme court, consisted of over a thousand members (to make bribery expensive), selected by alphabetical rote from the roll of all the citizens. No institution could have been more democratic, nor, said its opponents, more absurd.
浙江大学版本：事实上，这一针对民主制度的攻击恰巧反映出当时雅典一个富裕的少数群体的崛起，他们自称寡头政党，并将民主贬斥为无能的虚伪。

解析

这句话讨论富有少数派的崛起及其对民主的谴责。其实也是上段中智者学派第二派对第一派的批评。
1、No doubt this attack on democracy reflected the rise of a wealthy minority at Athens
民主制度的攻击反映了少数富裕阶层的崛起。
attack：a violent, harmful, or destructive act against someone or something
— often + on
There have been a number of attacks on women on the campus.

2、** which called itself the Oligarchical Party,**
少数富裕阶层自成一党派。
called itself：自称
Oligarchical：由“oligarch（寡头政治执政者；寡头）”加上后缀“-ical”构成。“-ical”是一个常见的形容词后缀，通常加在名词后面，表示“与……有关的，……的”。合起来，它表示“寡头政治的；寡头统治的”。
寡头政治是一种权利集中在少数人手中的一种政治制度。这些人通常是社会精英或经济富裕的阶层。在这种制度中，多数人的利益可能会受损，而照顾了精英及富裕等少数人的利益，进一步加大了不平等。

3、and denounced democracy as an incompetent sham.
他指责民主是无能的表现。
denounce：to publicly state that someone or something is bad or wrong : to criticize (someone or something) harshly and publicly指责；谴责；抨击
Senate Republicans fired back today after President Biden denounced them for stalling voting rights legislation.今天，参议院共和党人在拜登总统谴责他们阻碍投票权立法后进行了反击。
sham： something that is not what it appears to be and that is meant to trick or deceive people谎言
He called the recent referendums in four occupied areas an absolute sham.他称最近在四个被占领地区举行的全民公投完全是一场骗局。

毫无疑问，这次对民主的攻击反映雅典自称是寡头政治的少数富裕阶层的崛起，他们指责民主是无能的虚伪。