Page:A Short History of the World.djvu/145

 The Greeks 125 conquered population like the " Helots " in Sparta. In some the old leaderly Aryan families have become a close aristocracy ; in some there is a democracy of all the Aryan citizens ; in some there are elected or even hereditary kings, in some usurpers or tyrants. And the same geographical conditions that kept the Greek states divided and various, kept them small. The largest states were smaller than many English counties, and it is doubtful if the population of any of their cities ever exceeded a third of a million. Few came up t hoto : Fred Boissgntias. RUINS OF THE GREAT TEMPLE OF ZEUS AT OLYMPIA even to 50,000. There were unions of interest and sympathy but no coalescences. Cities made leagues and alliances as trade increased,, and small cities put themselves under the protection of great ones. Yet all Greece was held together in a certain community of feeling by two things, by the epics and by the custom of taking part every fourth year in the athletic contests at Olympia. This did not pre- vent wars and feuds but it mitigated something of the savagery of war between them, and a truce protected all travellers to and from the games. As time went on the sentiment of a common heritage grew and the number of states participating in the Olympic games