an history. The
historical memory of the Greeks themselves does not reach beyond the
heroic age.

Closely packed in a comparatively small territory as the Greeks were,
their dialectic differences were less conspicuous than those developed
in the wide American forests. Yet even here we find only tribes of the
same main dialect united in a larger organization. Little Attica had its
own dialect which later on became the prevailing language in Grecian
prose.

In the epics of Homer we generally find the Greek tribes combined into
small nations, but so that their gentes, phratries and tribes retained
their full independence. They already lived in towns fortified by walls.
The population increased with the growth of the herds, with agriculture
and the beginnings of the handicrafts. At the same time the differences
in wealth became more marked and gave rise to an aristocratic element
within the old primordial democracy. The individual little nations
carried on an unceasing warfare for the possession of the best land and
also for the sake of looting. Slavery of the prisoners of war was
already well established.

The constitution of these tribes and nations was as follows:

1. A permanent authority was the council (bule), originally composed of
the gentile archons, but later on, when their number became too great,
recruited by selection in such a way that the aristocratic element was
developed and strengthened. Dionysios openly speaks of the council at
the time of the heroes as being composed of nobles (kratistoi). The
council had the final decision in all important matters. In Aeschylos,
e. g. the council of Thebes decides that the body of Eteokles be buried
with full honors, the body of Polynikes, however, thrown out to be
devoured by the dogs. With the rise of the state this council was
transformed into the senate.

2. The public meeting (agora). We saw how the Iroquois, men and women,
attended the council meetings, taking an orderly part in the discussions
and influencing them. Among the Homeric Greeks, this attendance had
developed to a complete public meeting. This was also the case with the
Germans of the archaic period. The meeting was called by the council.
Every man could demand the word. The final vote was taken by hand
raising (Aeschylos in "The Suppliants," 607), or by acclamation. The
decision of the meeting was supreme and final. "Whenever a matter is
discussed," says Schoemann in "Antiquities of Greece," "wh