he state gradually developed by partly transforming the organs of
the gentile constitution, partly replacing them by new organs and
finally installing real state authorities; how the place of the nation
in arms defending itself through its gentes, phratries and tribes, was
taken by an armed public power of coercion in the hands of these
authorities and available against the mass of the people; nowhere can we
observe the first act of this drama so well as in ancient Athens. The
essential stages of the various transformations are outlined by Morgan,
but the analysis of the economic causes producing them is largely added
by myself.

In the heroic period, the four tribes of the Athenians were still
installed in separate parts of Attica. Even the twelve phratries
composing them seem to have had separate seats in the twelve different
towns of Cecrops. The constitution was in harmony with the period: a
public meeting (agora), a council (bule) and a basileus.

As far back as we can trace written history we find the land divided up
and in the possession of private individuals. For during the last period
of the higher stage of barbarism the production of commodities and the
resulting trade had well advanced. Grain, wine and oil were staple
articles. The sea trade on the Aegean Sea drifted more and more out of
the hands of the Phoenicians into those of the Athenians. By the
purchase and sale of land, by continued division of labor between
agriculture and industry, trade and navigation, the members of gentes,
phratries and tribes very soon intermingled. The districts of the
phratry and the tribe received inhabitants who did not belong to these
bodies and, therefore, were strangers in their own homes, although they
were countrymen. For during times of peace, every phratry and every
tribe administered its own affairs without consulting the council of
Athens or the basileus. But inhabitants not belonging to the phratry or
the tribe could not take part in the administration of these bodies.

Thus the well-regulated functions of the gentile organs became so
disarranged that relief was already needed during the heroic period. A
constitution attributed to Theseus was introduced. The main feature of
this change was the institution of central administration in Athens. A
part of the affairs that had so long been conducted autonomously by the
tribes was declared collective business and transferred to a general
council in Athens. This step o