y called into council, though they
too were free, and could choose their governors, and vote in great
matters, were termed _demos_, the people. This is why we hear of
aristocracy and democracy. Under these freemen were the people of the
country they had conquered, or any slaves they had bought or taken
captive, or strangers who had come to live in the place, and these had no
rights at all.

Greek cities were generally beautiful places, in valleys between the
hills and the sea. They were sure to have several temples to the gods of
the place. These were colonnades of stone-pillars, upon steps, open all
round, but with a small dark cell in the middle, which was the shrine of
the god, whose statue, and carvings of whose adventures, adorned the
outside. There was an altar in the open-air for sacrifices, the flesh of
which was afterwards eaten. In the middle of a town was always a
market-place, which served as the assembling-place of the people, and it
had a building attached to it where the fire of Vesta was never allowed
to go out. The charge of it was given to the best men who could be
found; and when a set of citizens went forth to make a new home or colony
in Asia, Sicily, or Italy, they always took brands from this fire,
guarded them carefully in a censer, and lighted their altar-fires
therefrom when they settled down.

[Picture: Greek Interior]

These cities were of houses built round paved courts. The courts had
generally a fountain in the middle, and an altar to the hero forefather
of the master, where, before each meal, offerings were made and wine
poured out. The rooms were very small, and used for little but sleeping;
and the men lived chiefly in the cloister or pillared walks round the
court. There was a kind of back-court for the women of the family, who
did not often appear in the front one, though they were not shut up like
Eastern women. Most Greeks had farms, which they worked by the help of
their slaves, and whence came the meat, corn, wine, and milk that
maintained the family. The women spun the wool of the sheep, wove and
embroidered it, making for the men short tunics reaching to the knee,
with a longer mantle for dignity or for need; and for themselves long
robes [Picture: Greek robe] reaching to the feet--a modest and graceful
covering--but leaving the arms bare. Men cut their hair close; women
folded their tresses round their heads in the simplest and most becomi