Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/351

 CHAP. VI. THE CLIENTS BECOME FKEE. 345 Athens, and in the Ionian and ^olian cities, undei the name of Thetes, or Pelatm. * So long as the aristocratic government lasted, these Thetes did not make a part of the city. Shut up ia families, which they could not leave, they were in the power of the Eupatrids, who had the same character and the same authority as the Roman patrons. We can easily believe that at an early date there was hatred between the patron and the client. It is not difficult to picture to one's self the kind of life that was passed in that family where one had the authority and the other had no rights; where obedience, without reserve and without hope, was placed by the side of unrestrained power ; where the best master had his angry moods and his caprices ; where the most resigned servant had his rancor, his complaints, and his hatred. Ulysses was a good master; see what a paternal affec- tion he has for Eumaeus and Philsetius. But he orders to be put to death a servant who has insulted him without knowing him, and others who have fallen into the bad ways to which his absence has exposed them. He is responsible to the city for the death of his de- pendants ; but for the death of his servants no one asks any reason. In the state of isolation in which the family had long lived, clientship sprang up and maintained itself. The domestic religion was then all-powerful over the soul. • The man who was its priest by hereditaiy right ap- peared to the inferior classes as a sacred being. More than man, he was an intercessor between man and God. From his mouth went forth the powerful prayer, the irresistible formula, which brought down the favor or the anger of the divinity. Before such a power he felt compelled to bow ; obedience was commanded both by