Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/68

 52 HISTORY OF GREECE. include the priests ; while those specified hy Plutarch leave out the latter and include the former. 1 All that seems certain is, that these were the four ancient Ionic tribes analogous to the Hylleis, Pamphyli, and Dymanes among the Dorians which prevailed not only at Athens, but among several of the Ionic cities derived from Athens. The Geleontes are mentioned in inscriptions now remaining belonging to Teoa in Ionia, and all the four are named in those of Ivyzikus in the Propontis, which was a foundation from the Ionic Miletus. 2 The four tribes, and the four names (allowing for some variations of reading), are therefore historically verified; but neither the time of their introduction nor their primitive import are ascertainabk 1. matters, nor can any faith be put in the various constructions of the legends of Ion, Erechtheus, and Kekrops, by modern com- mentators. These four tribes may be looked at either as religious and social aggregates, in which capacity each of them comprised three phra- tries and ninety gentes ; or as political aggregates, in which point of view each included three trittyes and twelve naukrarie?. Each phratry contained thirty gentes ; each trittys comprised four naukraries : the total numbers were thus three hundred and sixty gentes and forty-eight naukraries. Moreover, each gens is said to have contained thirty heads of families, of whom therefore there would be a total of ten thousand eight hundred. Comparing these two distributions one with the other, we may remark that they are distinct in their nature and proceed in oppo- site directions. The trittys and the naukrary are essentially frac- tional subdivisions of the tribe, and resting upon the tribe as their higher unity ; the naukrary is a local circumscription, com- 1 Plutarch (Solon, c. 25); Strabo, viii, p. 383. Compare Plato, Kritias. p. 110. 2 Bocckh, Corp. Inscr. Nos. 3078, 3079, 3665. The elaborate commentary on this last-mentioned inscription, in which Boeckh vindicates the early historical reality of the classification by professions, is noway satisfactory to my mind. K. F. Hermann (Lehrbuch dcr Griechischcn Staats Alterthumer, sect. 91-96) gives a summary of all that can be known respecting these old Athe- nian tribes. Compare Ilgen, De Tribubus Atticis, p. 9, seq. ; Tittmann, Griechische Staats Verfassungen, pp. 570-582; Wachsmuth, Hellenischa Altcrthumskunde, sect. 43, 44.