Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/437

 CHAP. X. ESTABLISHMENT OP DEMOCRACY. 431 The case was the same at Rome. We have seen that Servins destroyed the power of the patricians only by founding a rival aristocracy. He created twelve centuries of knights, chosen from the richest plebeians. This was the origin of the equestrian order, which was from that time the rich order at Rome. The plebeians who did not possess the sum require<l for a knight were divided into five classes, according to the amount of their fortunes. The poorest people were left out of all the classes. They had no political rights ; if they figured in the coraitia by centuries, it is certain that they did not vote.* The republican constitution pre- served these distinctions, established by a king, and the plebeians did not at first appear very desirous of estab- lishing equality among themselves. What is seen so clearly at Athens and at Rome appears in almost all the other cities. At CuniEs, for example, political rights were given at first only to those who, owning horses, formed a sort of equestrian order; later, those who ranked next below them in wealth obtained the same rights, and this last measure raised the number of citizens only to one thousand. At Rhegiuin the government was for along time in the hands of a thousand of the M'ealthiest men of the city. At Thurii, a large fortune was necessary to enable one to make a j^art of the body politic. We see clearly iu the poetry of Theognis that at Megara, after the fall of the nobles, the wealthy took their places. At Thebes, in order to enjoy the rights of a citizen, one could be neither an artisan nor a merchant.* Thus the political rights which, in the preceding ' Livy, I. 43.
 * Aristotle, PolUics, III. 3, 4 ; VI. 4, 5 (edit. Didot).