Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/230

 206 HISTORY OF GREECE. ratlier before 500 B.C., just when the war between Kroton and Sybaris had extinguished the powei' of the latter, and when the despotism of the Peisistratids at Athens had been ex- changed for the democratical constitution of Kleisthenes. The first forms of government among the Sicilian Greeks, as among the cities of Greece Proper in the early historical age, appear to have been all oligarchical : we do not know under what particular modifications, but probably all more or less resembling that of Syracuse, where the Gamori — or wealthy proprietors descended from the original colonizing chiefs — possessing large landed properties titled by a numer- ous Sikel serf population called Kyllyrii, formed the. qualified citizens, out of whom, as well as by whom, magistrates and generals were chosen ; while the Demos, or non-privileged free- men, comprised the small proprietary cultivators who maintained themselves, by manual labor and without slaves, from their own lands or gardens, together with the artisans and tradesmen. In the course of two or three generations, many individuals of the privileged class would have fallen into poverty and would find themselves more nearly on a par with the non-privileged ; while such members of the latter as might rise to opulence were not for that reason admitted into the privileged body. Here were ample materials for discontent: ambitious leaders, often them- selves members of the privileged body, put themselves at the head of the popular opposition, overthrew the oligarchy, and made themselves despots ; democracy being at that time hardly known anywhere in Greece. The general fact of this change, preceded by occasional violent dissensions among the privileged class themselves,' is all that we are permitted to know, vithout those modifying circumstances by which it must have been accom- panied in every separate city. Towai'ds or near the year 500 B.C., we find Anaxilaus despot at Rhegium, Skythes at Zankle, Tui'illus at liimera, Peithagoras at Selinus, Kleander at Gela, and Panajtius at Leontini.2 It was about the year 509 B.C. that ' At Gela, Herodot. vii, 153; at SjTacusc, Aristot. Politic, v, 3. 1. o/.'.yapxiac, ua-rrep tv 'E,iK£?ua axe^^v at n?iEl(yTai. tQv upxaiuv ev AeouTivoic elr Tr/v liavaiTLOv TvpavviSa, Kal kv TeT^a eiq rfjv KXeavdpov, Kal iv li2.7^aic ■voVJkaic TToXeaiv uaavru^.
 * Aristot. Politic. V, 8, 4; v, 10, 4. Kal elc rvpavvida fi£Ta[3uX/iei t|