317] INTRODUCTION 1 9 



law for all Roman citizens including the patricians, and, of 

 course, for all non-freemen. Also in the Greek city states 

 the popular vote was limited to one stratum of the popula- 

 tion, but here the privilege favored the ruling class as 

 represented by all freemen, for only the latter were entitled 

 to the vote, not the conquered and the natives and their de- 

 scendants, the perioikoi and the helotes in Sparta and the 

 metoikoi in Athens. To appreciate the significance of this 

 restriction of the unfree, one need only consider that in the 

 year 309 B. C. the population of Attica numbered 21,000 

 citizens, 10,000 metoikoi and domiciled strangers, and 

 400,000 heads of slaves. The figures for the citizens and 

 the metoikoi include only the major males.^® 



In the first century of the Christian era Tacitus, describ- 

 ing the land and customs of the Germum, told his fellow 

 Romans that among the German tribes " on affairs of 

 smaller moment, the chiefs consult; on those of greater 

 importance, the whole community, yet with this circum- 

 stance, that what is referred to the decision of the people, 

 is first maturely discussed by the chiefs. They assemble, 

 unless upon some sudden emergency, on stated days. . . . 

 An inconvenience produced by their liberty is, that they do 

 not all assemble at a stated time, as if it were in obedience 

 to a command ; but two or three days are lost in the delays 

 of convening. When they all think fit, they sit down armed, 

 . . . Then the king, or chief, and such others as are con- 

 spicuous for age, birth, military renown, or eloquence are 

 heard, and gain attention rather from their ability to per- 

 suade than their authority to command. If a proposal dis- 

 please, the assembly reject it by an inarticulate mumiur ; 

 if it prove agreeable, they clash their javelins. . , ."^° It 

 is to this division of, and balance between, authority that 

 Montesquieu traces the origin of the English free institu- 



'^^ HorKcaiid, pp. 7, 174. 



""Tacitus, (u-rmaiiy (Tlie Works . . .), Oxford translation, vol ii. 



