Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/330

 324 THE EEVOLUTIONS. BOOK IV. left to the descendants of Temeniis only the name of king, without any power ; " still this royalty remained heveditary during several centuries.' At Cyrene the descendants of Battus at first united in their hands the priesthood and the jiolitical power; but after the fourth generation nothing was left them but the priesthood.* At Corinth royalty was at first transmitted heredita- rily in the family of the Bacchidaj. The effect of the revolution was to render the ofiice annual, but without taking it from this family, whose members held it by turns for a century. 4. The same Hevolution at Home. At first, royalty was at Rome what it had been in Greece. The king was the high priest of the city ; he was at the same time the supreme judge; he also com- manded the armed citizens. Next to him were the patres, who formed a senate. Tiiere was but one king, because religion enjoined unity in the priesthood and unity in the government. But it was understood that on all important aflfairs the king must consult the heads of the confederated families.^ From this time histo- rians mention an assembly of the people. But we must inquire what was then the meaning of the word people (jyojyuhis), that is to say, what was the body politic in the time of the first kings. All the witnesses agree that the people always assembled by curies; now the curies were the collection of the gentes; every gens repaired there in a body, and had but one vote. The clients were there, ranged round the pater, con ' Pausanias, II. 19. ' Cicero, De Repub., II. 8.
 * Ilcrodotns, IV. IGl. Diodorus, VIII.