Page:The City-State of the Greeks and Romans.djvu/109



the earliest form of the City-State there were three prominent factors. First, the king, with his three functions, religious, military, and judicial; his powers resting not on written law, but on custom, and constituting no real absolutism, but being apt to gain in strength as custom hardened, provided that the kings themselves and their families were equal to the task of maintaining their prestige. Secondly, the lesser chieftains, who in their own domain were probably quite independent of the king, like the feudal lords of the middle ages. These acted as the advising council of the king, whose influence became stronger or weaker according as he was of a character to need help or to dispense with it. Thirdly, the people, i.e. all those who did not belong to the families of any of these powerful chiefs, and could boast of no divine descent, nor of any large estates, but in time of peace went about their daily work as husbandmen or artisans, and served on foot in time of war. Of the people