Page:The City-State of the Greeks and Romans.djvu/72

48 with all parts of the Mediterranean and Euxine. ... On the older side we see the castles of magnificent princes standing among the huts of their dependants."

With this older civilisation we have here nothing to do. It is not the civilisation of the true City-State, which, so far as we can guess, only came into existence after the race of Agamemnon had disappeared from Greece. Great indeed is the darkness that lies around the origin of this later wonderful civilisation, which made Greece all that it is for us. But one City-State, and that the most famous of all, preserved a tradition of its origin so lively and so reasonable, that we can rely upon it as representing in outline at least what actually took place in that instance.

About the Synoikismos or political union of Attica a great deal has of late years been written, but our ideas of it are still based chiefly on the account of Thucydides, which we may conveniently quote in full. It represents the traditional ideas of the Athenian, divested of much mythical setting, and attested by what we should call scientific reasoning. He says (ii. 15): —

"In the days of Cecrops and the first kings, down to the reign of Theseus, Athens was divided into communes, having their own town-halls and magistrates. Except in case of alarm the whole people did not assemble in council under the king, but administered their own affairs, and advised