Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/360

 354 TDE REVOLUTIONS. BOOK IV. number of hands. He had wrested the earth from re- ligion to give it to labor. He had suppressed, with the Eupatrid's authority over the soil, his authority over man, and ho could say in his .verses, " Those who in this land suftoijed cruel servitude and trembled before a master, I have made free." It is probable that this enfranchisement is what the contemporaries of Solon called aeianxdein (shaking off the burdens). Later gen- erations, who, once habituated to liberty, would not, or could not, believe that their forefathers had been serfs, explained this word as if it merely marked an abolition of debts. But there is an energy in it which reveals a greater revolution. Let us add here this sen- tence of Aristotle, which, without entering into an account of Solon's labors, simply says, "He put an end to the slavery of the people." ' 3. Transformation of Clientship at Home. This war between clients and patrons also filled a long period of Rome's history. Livy, indeed, says nothing of it, because he is not accustomed closely to observe the changes in institutions; besides, the annals of the pontiffs, and similar documents, from which the ancient historians whom Livy consulted had drawn,^ could have contained no account of these domestic struggles. One thing, at least, is certain. There were clients in the very beginning of Rome ; there has even come down to us very precise evidence of the dependence in which their patrons held them. If, several centuries afterwards, we look for these clients, we no longer find ' Aristotle, Gov. of Ath., Fragm., coll. Didot, t. II. p. 107.