Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/243

 CriAP. IX. THE KING. 237 established the sacred fires, it was their ofiice to main- tain them. The royalty was, therefore, bestowed upon them without a contest, and remained heieditary in their families. Battus had founded Cyrenc in Afiica ; and the Battiadte were a long time in j^ossession of the royal dignity there. Protis founded Marseilles; and the Protiadoe, from father to son, performed the priestly office there, and enjoyed great privileges. It was not force, then, that created chiefs and kings in those ancient cities. It would not be correct to say that the first man who was king there was a lucky soldier. Authority flowed from the worship of ihe sa- cred fire. Kt'ligion created the king in the city, as it had made the family chief in the house. A belief, an mquestionable and imperious belief, declared that the hereditary priest of the hearth was the depositary of the holy duties and the guardian of the gods. How could one hesitate to obey such a man ? A king was a sacred being; Gaads:; /fpo;, says Pindar. Men saw in him, not a complete god, but at least "the most powerful man to call down the anger of the gods;" ' the man without whose aid no prayer was heard, no sacrifice accepted. This royalty, semi-religious, semi-political, was estab- lished in all cities, from their foundation, without effort on the part of the kings, without resistance on the part of the subjects. We do not see at the origin of the ancient nations those fluctuations and struggles which mark the painful establishment of modern societies. We know how long a time was necessary, after the fall of the Roman empire, to restore the rules of a regular Bociety. Europe saw, during several centuries, opposing ' Sophocles, (Edtpus Rex, 34.