Page:The City-State of the Greeks and Romans.djvu/269



far we have been chiefly following the development of those two famous City-States of antiquity which have left us a richer inheritance than any others. It would be a long tale to reckon up the various causes to which the pre-eminence of Athens and Rome may be ascribed; but from what has already been said in these pages, one at least, and that a leading one, should have become tolerably clear. These two States, after passing through the normal stages of early growth, succeeded in overcoming the most serious dangers which those stages brought with them, and above all, the disunion caused by the struggles of the unprivileged many to prove themselves a genuine part of the State, and to share in its government equally with the privileged few. In other words, when the principle of locality came into collision with the older principle of kinship, these two States took no serious or permanent damage from the ensuing strife of interests. So far from being crippled in