Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/312

 306 THE BEVOLUTIONS. BOOK IV. ship, they appeared before the tribunal, they entered the assembly, but it was in the suite of their patrons. We must not picture to ourselves the city of these an- cient ages as an agglomeration of men living mingled together within the enclosure of the same walls. In the earliest times the city was hardly the place of hab- itation ; it was the sanctuary where the gods of the community were ; it was the fortress which defended them, and which their presence sanctified; it was the centra of the association, the residence of the king and the priests, the place where justice wap administered j but the people did not live there. For several genera- tions yet men continued to live outside the city, in isolated families, that divided the soil among them. Each of these families occupied its canton, where it had its domestic sanctuary, and where it formed, under the authority of its pater, an indivisible group. Then, on certain days, if the interests of the city or the obliga- tions of the common worship called, the chiefs of these families repaired to the city and assembled around the king, either to deliberate or to assist at a sacrifice. If it was a question of war, each of these chiefs arrived, followed by his family and his servants (sua manus) : they were grouped by phratries, or curies, and formed the army of the city, under the ccmzouc.J jV the king.