COMPOUND POLITICAL HEADS. 205 



The Romans exemplify the rise of a compound headship under con- 

 ditions which, though partially different from those the Greeks were 

 subject to, were allied fundamentally. In its earliest-known state, 

 Latium was occupied by village-communities, which were united into 

 cantons ; while these cantons formed a league headed by Alba a can- 

 ton regarded as the oldest and most eminent. This combination was 

 for joint defense ; as is shown by the fact that each group of clan-vil- 

 lages composing a canton had an elevated stronghold in common, and 

 also by the fact that the league of cantons had for its center and place 

 of refuge Alba, the most strongly placed as well as the oldest. The 

 component cantons of the league were so far independent that there 

 were wars between them ; whence we may infer that when they co- 

 operated for joint defense it was on substantially equal terms. Thus, 

 before Rome existed, the people who formed it had been habituated to 

 a kind of life such that, with great subordination in each family and 

 clan, and partial subordination within each canton (which was gov- 

 erned by a prince, council of elders, and assembly of warriors), there 

 went a union of heads of cantons, who were in no degree subordinate 

 one to another. When the inhabitants of three of these cantons, the 

 Ramnians, Titles, and Luceres, began to occupy the tract on which 

 Rome stands, they brought with them their political organization. 

 The oldest Roman patricians bore the names of rural clans belonging 

 to these cantons. Whether, when seating themselves on the Palatine 

 Hills and on the Quirinal, they preserved their cantonal divisions, is 

 not clear, though it seems probable ajyinori. But, however this may 

 be, there is proof that they fortified themselves against one another, as 



especially strong where the eflFect is one of which the causation is involved. Our own 

 time has furnished an illustration in the ascription of Corn-law Repeal to Sir Robert 

 Peel, and after him to Messrs. Cobden and Bright, leaving Colonel Thompson unnamed. 

 In the next generation the man who for a time carried on the fight single-handed, and 

 forged sundry of the weapons used by the victors, will be unheard of in connection with 

 it. It is not enough, however, to suspect that Lykurgus was simply the finisher of other 

 men's work. We may reasonably suspect that the work was that of no man, but simply 

 that of the needs and conditions. This may be seen in the institution of the public mess. 

 If we ask what will happen with a small people who, for generations spreading as conquer- 

 ors, have a contempt for all industry, and who, when not at war, pass their time in exer- 

 cises fitting them for war, it becomes manifest that at first the daily assembling to carry 

 on these exercises will entail the daily bringing of provisions by each. As happens in 

 those picnics in which all who join contribute to the common repast, a certain obligation 

 respecting qualities and quantities will naturally arise an obligation which, repeated 

 daily, will pass from custom into law ; ending in a specification of the kinds and amounts 

 of food. Further, it is to be expected that as the law thus arises in an age when food is 

 coarse and unvaried, the simplicity of the diet, originally unavoidable, will eventually be 

 considered as intended as an ascetic regimen deliberately devised. (When writing this 

 I was not aware that,.as pointed out by Professor Paley in " Eraser's Magazine," for Feb- 

 ruary, 1881, that among the Greeks of later times it was common to have dinners to 

 which each guest brought his share of provisions, and that those who contributed little 

 and consumed much were objects of satire. This fact greatly increases the probability 

 that the Spartan mess originated as suggested.) 



