Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/339

 rilAP. IV. THE ARISTOCRACY GOVERNS. 333 social state in the western portion of Greece. "Wo see there a patriarchal regime strongly resembling what we have remarked in Attica. A few gi-eat and rich families own the whole conntry. Numerons slaves cul- tivate the soil, or tend the flocks; the manner of living is simple — a single table sufliccs for the chief and the servants. These chiefs are called by a name which becomes, under other circiimstances, a pompous title — • dvaxreg^ ^aadetg. Thus it happened that the Athenians of primitive times gave the chief of the yeiog the title of (iuadevg, and that at Rome the clients preserved the custom of calling the chief of the gens rex. These heads of families have a sacred character; the poet <;alls them divine kings. Ithaca is very small, yet it contains a great number of these kings. Among them there is indeed a supreme king; but he is of little im- portance, and appears to have no other prerogative than that of presiding at the council of the chiefs. It appears, even, from certain indications, that this office is elective, and it is clear the Telemachus will not be the supreme chief of the isle, unless the other chiefs, his equals, wish to elect him. Ulysses, returning to his country, appears to have no other subjects than the servants who belong to him personally. When he has slain some of the chiefs, their servants take up arms and sustain a contest which the poet does not think blameworthy. Among the Phaaacians, Alcinous has supreme authority ; but we see him repair to an assem- bly of the chiefs; and we may remark that he docs not convoke the council, but that the council summons the king. The poet describes an assembly of the Pha3a- cian city. It is far from being an assembly of the mul- titude; the chiefs alone, individually convoked by a herald, as at Rome for the comitia cqlata, assemble ;