Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/476

 470 MUNICIPAL BBGIME DISAPPEARS. BOOK. V. BOOK FIFTH. THE MUNICIPAL REGIME DISAPPEARS. CHAPTER I. New Beliefs. Philosophy changes the Rules of Politics, In what precedes we have seen how the mnnicipal governments were constituted among the ancients. A very ancient religion had at first founded the family, and afterwards the city. At first it had established domestic law and tiie government of the gens; after- wards it had established civil laws and municipal gov- ernment. The state was closely allied with religion ; it came from religion, and was confounded with it. For this reason, in the primitive city all political institutions had been religious institutions, the festivals had been ceremonies of the worship, the laws had been sacred formulas, and the kings and magistrates had been priests. For this reason, too, individual libeity had been un- known, and man had not been able to withdraw even his conscience from the omnipotence of the city. For this reason, also, the state remained bounded by the limits of a city, and had never been able to pass the bounda- ries which its national gods had originally traced for it. Every city had not only its political independence, but also its worship and its code. Religion, law, govern-