Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/337

 CHAP. IV. THE AEISTOCEACY GOVERNS. 831 of land who bad a domestic worship ; he alone was a member of the city who embodied the religious char- acter which constituted the citizen ; he alone could be a priest who was a descendant of a family having a wor- sliip; he alone could be a magistrate who had the right to offer the sacrifices. A man who had no hereditary worslilp might be the client of another man ; or, if he preferred it, he could remain without the pale of all soci- ety. For many generations it did not enter the minds of men that this inequality was unjust. No one had thought of establishing human society upon any other principles. At Athens, from the death of Codrus to the time of Solon, all authority was in the hands of the Eupatrids. They alone were priests and archons. They alone acted as judges, and knew the laws, which were not written, and whose sacred formulas were transmitted from father to son. These families preserved as much as possible the an- cient forms of the patriarchal regime. They did not live united in the city, but continued to live in the various cantons of Attica, each on its vast domain, surrounded by its numerous servants, governed by its Eupatrid chief^ and practising its hereditary worship in absolute independence.* During four centuries the Athenian city was merely a confederation of these powerful heads of families, who assembled on certain days for the celebration of the central worship, or for the pursuit of common interests. Men have often remarked how mute history is re- garding this long period in the life of Athens, and in general in the life of Greek cities. They are surprised • Thucydides, II. 15, 16,