hese
[Greek: demoi] for their common safety united by consent under one common
Council, they erected a _Prytaneum_ in one of the [Greek: demoi] for the
common Council and People to meet in, and to consult and worship in, and
feast, and buy, and sell; and this [Greek: demos] they walled about for its
safety, and called [Greek: ten polin] the city: and this I take to have
been the original of Villages, Market-Towns, Cities, common Councils,
Vestal Temples, Feasts and Fairs, in _Europe_: the _Prytaneum_, [Greek:
pyros tameion], was a Court with a place of worship, and a perpetual fire
kept therein upon an Altar for sacrificing: from the word [Greek: Hestia]
fire, came the name _Vesta_, which at length the people turned into a
Goddess, and so became fire-worshippers like the ancient _Persians_: and
when these Councils made war upon their neighbours, they had a general
commander to lead their armies, and he became their King.

So _Thucydides_ [203] tells us, that _under_ Cecrops _and the ancient
Kings, untill _Theseus_; _Attica_ was always inhabited city by city, each
having Magistrates and _Prytanea_: neither did they consult the King, when
there was no fear of danger, but each apart administred their own
common-wealth, and had their own Council, and even sometimes made war, as
the _Eleusinians_ with _Eumolpus_ did against _Erechtheus_: but when
_Theseus_, a prudent and potent man obtained the Kingdom, he took away the
Courts and Magistrates of the other cities, and made them all meet in one
Council and _Prytaneum_ at _Athens__. _Polemon_, as he is cited by [204]
_Strabo_, tells us, _that in this body of _Attica_, there were 170 _[Greek:
demoi]_, one of which was _Eleusis__: and _Philochorus_ [205] relates, that
_when _Attica_ was infested by sea and land by the _Cares_ and _Boeoti_,
_Cecrops_ the first of any man reduced the multitude, _that is the 170
towns_, into twelve cities, whose names were _Cecropia_, _Tetrapolis_,
_Epacria_, _Decelia_, _Eleusis_, _Aphydna_, _Thoricus_, _Brauron_,
_Cytherus_, _Sphettus_, _Cephissia_, and _Phalerus_; and that _Theseus_
contracted those twelve cities into one, which was _Athens__.

The original of the Kingdom of the _Argives_ was much after the same
manner: for _Pausanias_ [206] tells us, _that _Phoroneus_ the son of
_Inachus_ was the first who gathered into one community the _Argives_, who
'till then were scattered, and lived every where apart, and the place where
they were first ass