Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/77

 THE KING OR CHIEF. 61 Jiief. We remark, first and foremost, the king : next, a limited number of -subordinate kings or chiefs ; afterwards, the mass of armed freemen, husbandmen, artisans, freebooters, etc. ; lowest of all, the free laborers for hire, and the bought slaves. The king is not distinguished by any broad or impassable boundary from the other chiefs, to each of whom the title basileus is applicable as well as to himself : his supremacy has been inherited from his ancestors, and passes by descent, as a general rule, to his eldest eon, having been conferred upon the family as a privilege by the favor of Zeus. 1 In war, he is the leader, foremost in personal prowess, and directing all military movements ; in peace, he is the general protector of the injured and oppressed ; he farther offers up those public prayers and sacrifices which are intended to obtain for the whole people the favor of the gods. An ample domain is assigned to him as an appurtenance of his lofty posi- tion, while the produce of his fields and his cattle is consecrated in part to an abundant, though rude hospitality. Moreover, he receives frequent presents, to avert his enmity, to conciliate his favor, 2 or to buy off his exactions ; and when plunder is taken 1 The Phaeakian king Alkinous COdyss. vii. 55-65) : there are twelve other Phasakian Batrt/l^Ef, ho is himself the thirteenth (viii. 391). The chief men in the Iliad, and the suitors of Penelope in the Ocfyssey, are called usually and indiscriminately both Batri/^ef and *Avaref ; the lat ter word, however, designates them as men of property and masters of slaves, (analogous to the subsequent word tieaTrorric, which word does not occur in Homer, though deaxotva is found in the Odyssey,) while the former word marks them as persons of conspicuous station in the tribe (see Odyss. L 393-401 ; xiv. 6S). A chief could only be Baaifev's of freemen ; but he might be "Avaf either of freemen or of slaves. Agamemnon and Menelaus belong to the most kingly race (yevoc paoifav- Ttpov : compare Tyrtseus, Fragm. ix. v. 8, p. 9, ed. Schneidewin) of the Pelo- piils, to whom the sceptre originally made for Zeus has been given by Hermes (Iliad, ii. 101; ix. 160; x. 239); compare Odyss. XT. 539. The race ot Dardanus are the favorite offspring of Zeus, paadevrarov among the Tro- jans (Iliad, xx. 304). These races arc the parallels of the kingly prosapivt called Amali, Asdingi, Gungingi, and Lithingi, among the Goths, Vandals, and Lombards (Jornandes, De Eebns Geticis, c. 14-22; Paul "WarnefruT. Gest. Langob. c. 14-21) ; and the apxiriv -yev^f among the Chaonian Epirot* (Thucyd. ii. 80). 1 Odyss. i. 392 ; xi. 164 ; xiii. 14 ; xix. 109.-- Ov pev -yap TL -candv Paatievefiev atyu re ot <5<j