Page:The City-State of the Greeks and Romans.djvu/144

120 which the old order of things ceases to be thought of as divinely dispensed, the old worships are to be no longer the only ones which claim the attention of the State, and membership in the old groups of noble clans no longer the sole test of real citizenship. Aristocracy, in fact, has ceased in any real sense to be the rule of the best, and has become the rule of the few and rich. It has lost its essential character, and men begin to ask questions about it, — to call in question its claim for reverence; it is known now as oligarchy, the rule of the wealthy few, and continues so to be known, wherever it is found, throughout Greek history.

As yet we have said little or nothing about the population from which the aristocracy thus came to be more and more vividly distinguished, and on whose interests it now began seriously to encroach. But it is the rise of this population into prominence which has made both Greek and Roman history really valuable for us; and before we exemplify that rise in any single State, we must form some idea of who they were. The aristocracies did their part, as we have seen; but the essential fibre of a people is not to be found in an upper class only, and any class, however gifted, must sooner or later dwindle and decay. The questioning, the fermentation, which appears in Greece in or about the seventh century, indicates the growth in intelligence and aspiration of this lower population; it shows that the lessons of public duty and of the art of government, which the nobles have been