Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/332

 51G HISTORY OF GRKHCE. priests of Hephasstos, whose dignity was said to have been trans- mitted from father to son through a series of three hundred and forty-one generations 1 (commemorated by the like number of colossal statues, which Herodotus himself saw), were second in importance only to the king. The property of each temple in- cluded troops of dependents and slaves, who were stamped with " holy marks," 2 and who must have been numerous in order to suffice for the large buildings and their constant visitors. Next in importance to the sacerdotal caste were the military caste or order, whose native name 3 indicated that they stood on the left hand of the king, while the priests occupied the right. They were classified into Kalasiries and Hermotybii, who occupied lands in eighteen particular nomes or provinces, principally in lower Egypt. The kalasiries had once amounted to one hundred and sixty thousand men, the hermotybii to two hundred and fifty thousand, when at the maximum of their population ; but the highest point had long been past in the time of Herodotus. To each man of this soldier caste was assigned a portion of laud equal to about six and a half English acres, free from any tax ; what measures were taken to keep the lots of land in suitable harmony with a fluctuating number of holders, we know not. The statement of Herodotus relates to a time long past and gone, and describes what was believed, by the priests with whom he talked, to have been the primitive constitution of their country anterior to the Persian conquest : the like is still more true re- specting the statement of Diodorus. 4 The latter says that the territory of Egypt was divided into three parts, one part belonging to the king, another to the priests, and the remainder to the soldiers ; 5 his language seems to intimate that every nome was so divided, and even that the three portions were equal, though he does not expressly say so. The result of these statements, combined with the history of Joseph in the book of Genesis, seems to be, that the lands of the priests and the soldiers were regarded as privileged property and exempt from all burdens, while the remaining soil was considered as the property of the king, who, 1 Hcrodot. ii, 143. 2 Hcrodot. ii, 113 ; OTiyfiara Ipu. Diodor. i, 73.
 * Herodot. ii, 30. * Hcrodot. i, 1G5-1GG ; Diodor. i, 73.