314 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. 



be present when we pass to sundry historic peoples. Even 

 of the Phoenicians, Movers notes that &quot; in the time of Alex 

 ander a war was decided upon by the Tyrians without tho 

 consent of the absent king, the senate acting together with 

 the popular assembly.&quot; Then there is the familiar case of 

 the Homeric Greeks, whose Agora, presided over by the king, 

 was &quot; an assembly for talk, communication and discussion to 

 a certain extent by the chiefs, in presence of the people as 

 listeners and sympathisers,&quot; wh WPIG seated around ; and 

 that the people were not always passive is shown by the story 

 of Thersites, who, ill-used though he was by Odysseus and 

 derided by the crowd for interfering, had first made his 

 harangue. Again, the king, the senate, and the freemen, in 

 early Eoman times, stood in relations which had manifestly 

 grown out of those existing in the original assembly ; for 

 though the three did not simultaneously co-operate, yet on 

 important occasions the king communicated his proposals to 

 the assembled burgesses, who expressed their approval or dis 

 approval, and the clan-chiefs, forming the senate, though they 

 did not debate in public, had yet such joint power that they 

 could, on occasion, negative the decision of king and bur 

 gesses. Concerning the primitive Germans, Tacitus, as trans 

 lated by Mr. Freeman, writes 



&quot; On smaller matters the chiefs debate, on greater matters all men ; but 

 so that those things whose final decision rests with the whole people 

 are first handled by the chiefs. . . . The multitude sits armed in such 

 order as it thinks good ; silence is proclaimed by the priests, who have also 

 the right of enforcing it. Presently the king or chief, according to the 

 age of each, according to his birth, according to his glory in war or his 

 eloquence, is listened to, speaking rather by the influence of persuasion 

 than by the power of commanding. If their opinions give offence, 

 they are thrust aside with a shout ; if they approved, the hearers clash 

 their spears.&quot; 



Similarly among the Scandinavians, as shown ITS in Iceland, 

 where, besides the general Al-thing annually held, which it 

 was &quot; disreputable for a freeman not to attend,&quot; and at which 

 &quot; people of all classes in fact pitched their tents,&quot; there were 

 local assemblies called Var-things &quot; attended by all the free- 



