Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/101

 MOOT POINTS IN SOCIOLOGY 89

becomes an Aire-desa himself." The possession of resources suffi- cient to enable one to fight on horseback rather than on foot has become the germ of knighthood the world over. Out of it grew the Greek hippeis, the Roman Equestrian Order, the Gaulish equites, and the mediaeval knighthoods.

The appearance of a body of wealthy persons overthrows that primitive political equality of citizens based upon their like capa- city to bear arms in defense of the commonwealth. Clients and retainers multiply, and these natural partisans of the rich under- mine the burgess class. Not only is the possession of great wealth generally felt to afford a presumption of superiority, but the position of the poorer citizens is weakened by their economic dependence. " It is by taking stock that the free Irish tribesman becomes the Ceile or Kyle, the vassal or man of his chief, owing him not only rent, but service and homage." Meanwhile the proprietors, freed from labor, devote themselves to war and politics, and, well accoutred and expert in weapons, they finally prove themselves more than a match for the plebs.

Besides political inequality, the differentiation by possessions entails various other secondary forms of differentiation. Service in the Roman cavalry, originally obligatory upon all who could furnish two horses, became after a time a badge of superiority. Men of standing remained in the cavalry after they had become incapacitated by age. "Young men of rank more and more withdrew from serving in the infantry, and the legionary cavalry became a close aristocratic corps." By the time of Sulla the dying out of the sturdy farmer class and the formation of an urban rabble had converted the Roman army " from a burgess force into a set of mercenaries who showed no fidelity to the state at all, and proved faithful to the officer only when he had the skill personally to gain their attachment." Finally the rich come to feel that wealth ought to buy its possessor clear of every onerous duty. In Caesar's time " in the soldiery not a trace of the better classes could any longer be discovered. In law the general obligation to bear arms still subsisted ; but the levy took place in the most irregular and unfair manner. Numerous persons liable to serve were wholly passed over The Roman burgess