Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/356

 350 THE REVOLUTIONS. BOOK IV. family, they dated from the time when men had first felt its weight and understood its injustice. It is very certain, however, that it was not in the seventh cen- tury that the Eupatrids established the hard laws of clientship. They did no more than to preserve them. In this alone was their injustice; they maintained these laws beyond the time when men accepted them with- out complaint, and maintained them against the will of the people. The Eupatrids of this epocli were per- haps easier masters than their ancestors had been ; and yet they were more heartily detested. It appears that even imder the rule of this aristocracy the condition of the lower class was improved; for cer- tainly at that time it obtained possession of lots of land on the single condition of paying a rent, which was fixed at one sixth of the harvest. These men were thus almost emancipated; having a home and living no longer under the master's eye, they breatl>ed more freely and labored for their own profit. But suoh is human nature that these men. as their condition improved, felt more keenly the inequality that remained. Not to be a citizen, and to have nc part in the administration of the city, doubtless touched them somewhat; but not to be capable of owning the soil upon which they were born and died, affected them much more. What rendered their condition sup- portable, let us add, lacked stability. For though they were really in possession of the soil, no formal law as- sured them cither this possession or the independence that flowed from it. We see in Plutarch that the former patron could renew his claim upon his former servant. If the annual rent was not paid, or for any other cause, these men relapsed into a sort of slavery. Grave questions were agitated in Attica, therefore,.