Page:The City-State of the Greeks and Romans.djvu/146

122 the invasion of the Peloponnese by the Dorians. The "people" in most Peloponnesian States were not really a part of the State at all, but had been reduced to subjection by conquest, and so remained. But in Attica, which had never been completely overrun by invaders, we get glimpses of a population which strongly reminds us of Homer. In contrast to the Eupatridæ or nobles was a class sometimes called Georgi (husbandmen), sometimes Demiurgi (artisans); and we may think of these as partly small landowners, together with shepherds and herdsmen on the high lands, partly as artisans and labourers for hire, living at the foot of the Acropolis, and fishermen on the sea coast. Perhaps we may generalise so far as to conclude that in most Greek States, ere yet the slaves had become very numerous, such a class existed, whose occupations enabled the great to live in affluence; in some cases, as at Sparta, these were almost in the position of serfs, and in no sense citizens, while in others, as at Athens, they were all included in the groups of Attic kin, and formed a part of the State proper, though they had no share in the government except in so far as they might be occasionally summoned to an assembly. And as the aristocracies grew