the sovereign was indeed ideally distinguishable from his regal one; for Agamemnon was" ἀμφότερον, βασιλεύς τ ̓ ἀγαθὸς, κρατερός τ' αἰχμητής. Still, martial excellence was expected of him. When Hippolochus despatched his son Glaucus to Troy, he enjoined him always to be valiant, and always to excel his comrades in armsx. Lastly, the king was a proprietor. Ulysses had very large landed property, and as many herds and flocks, says Eumæus in a spirit of loyal exaggeration, as any twenty chiefs alive. And Homer, who always reserves his best for the Lycians, has made Sarpedon declare, in an incomparable speech, the virtual condition on which estates like these were held. He desires Glaucus to recollect, why it is that they are honoured in Lycia with precedence at banquets, and with greater portions than the rest, why looked upon as deities, why endowed with great estates of pasture and corn land by the banks of Xanthus; it is that they may the more boldly face the burning battle, and be great in the eyes and in the minds of their companions. So entirely is the idea of dignity and privilege in the Homeric king founded upon the sure ground of duty, of responsibility, and of toil. What Hippolochus taught, and Sarpedon stated, is in exact correspondence with the practical part of the narrative of Glaucus in the Sixth Book. When Bellerophon had fully approved himself in Lycia by his prowess, the king of the country gave him his daughter in marriage, together with one half of his kingdom; and the Lycians presented him with a great and fertile demesne. u Il. iii. 179. y Od. xiv. 98. x Il. vi. 207. As proprietor; the réuevos. 59 This estate is called réuevos; a name never applied in Homer but to the properties of deities and of rulers. He uses the word with reference to the glebe-lands of Spercheius, Il. xxiii. 148. Venus, Od. viii. 362. Ceres, II. ii. 696. Jupiter, Il. viii. 48. And to the domains of Bellerophon, Il. vi. 194. Æneas (promised by the Trojan community if he should slay Achilles), Il. xx. 184. Meleager, Il. ix. 574. Sarpedon and Glaucus, Il. xii. 313. The Bariles on the Shield, Il. xviii. 550. Ulysses, Od. xi. 184, and xvii. 299. On the other hand, the merely rich man (Il. xi. 68) has an ἄρουρα, not a τέμενος ; and the farm of Laertes is called ȧypòs, not réuevos. And why? Because it was a private possession, acquired by him apparently out of savings (Od. xxiv. 206); ὅν ῥά ποτ' αὐτὸς Λαέρτης κτεάτισσεν, ἐπεὶ μάλα πόλλ' εμόγησεν. The word τέμενος is probably from τέμνω, or from the same root with that verb, and signifies land which, having been cut off from the original common stock, available for the uses of private persons, has been set apart for one of the two great public purposes, of government or of religion. Besides their great estates, the kings appear to have had at least two other sources of revenue. One of these was not without resemblance in form to what we now call customs'-duties, and may have contained their historical germ. In the Book of Genesis, where the sons of Jacob go down to buy corn in Egypt, they carry with them a present for the ruler; and doubtless the object of this practice was to conciliate the protection to which, as foreigners, and perhaps as suspected persons, avowedly seeking their own gain, they would not otherwise have had a claim. Take of the best fruits of the land in your vessels, and carry down the man a present; a little balm, and a little honey, spices, and myrrh, nuts, and almonds". In conformity with the practice thus exemplified, when Euneus in the Seventh Iliad despatches his ships from Lemnos to sell wine to the Greek army, in return for which they obtain slaves, hides, and other commodities, he sends a separate supply, xiλia μéтpa, as a present to the two sons of Atreus". Agamemnon indeed is, in the Ninth Book, slily twitted by Nestor with the largeness of the stores of wine, that he had contrived to accumulate. So likewise we find that certain traders, sailing to Scheria, made a present to Alcinous, as the sovereign, of the captive Eurymedusa. When we compare this with the case of Euneus, the gift obviously appears to have been a consideration for permission to trade. The other source of revenue traceable in the Iliad was one sure to lead to the extensive corruptions, which must already have prevailed in the time of Hesiod. It consisted in fees upon the administration of justice. In the suit described upon the shield, the matter at issue is a fine for homicide. But quite apart, as it would seem, from this fine, there lie in the midst, duly 'paid into court,' two talents of gold, to be given at the close to him, of all the judges, who should deliver z Gen. xliii. 11. a II. vii. 467-75 b Od. vii. 8-11. Revenues and burdens on them. 61 the most upright, that is the most approved, judgment b: τῷ δόμεν ὃς μετὰ τοῖσι δίκην ἰθύντατα εἴποι. However righteous the original intention of a payment in this form, it is easy to estimate its practical tendencies, and curious to remark how early in the course of time they were realized. On the other hand, the great possessions of the king were not given him for his own use alone. Over and above the general obligation of hospitality to strangers, it was his duty to entertain liberally the principal persons among his subjects. Doubtless this provided the excuse, which enabled the Suitors to feast upon the stores of Ulysses, without the shame, in the very outset, of absolute rapine. And it would appear from the Odyssey that Alitherses and other friends of the royal house, frequented the table there as well as its enemies, though not perhaps so constantly. In the Seventh Iliad, after his fight with Hector, Ajax repairs, not invited, but as if it were a matter of course, to share the hospitality of Agamemnon. In the Ninth Book, Nestor urges Agamemnon to give a feast to the elders, as a duty of his office: adding, ἔοικέ τοι, οὗτοι ἀεικές πολέεσσι δ ̓ ἀνάσσεις, and then to take their counsel. But perhaps the ordinary exercise of this duty is best exhibited in the case of Alcinous, who is discovered by Ulysses on his arrival entertaining his brother kings in his palace. I have not here taken specific notice of the dútivai, or tributes, which, as Agamemnon promised, Achilles d Il. vii. 313. g Od. vii. 49, 108. b Il. xviii. 508. e Il. ix. 70. c Od. xvii. 68. f Ibid. 73. was to receive, from the seven cities, that it was proposed to place under his dominion. The expression is", οἵ κέ ἑ δωτίνῃσι θεὸν ὡς τιμήσουσι, καί οἱ ὑπὸ σκήπτρῳ λιπαρὰς τελέουσι θέμιστας. The connection of the ideas in the two lines respectively would appear to show, that the driva may be no more than the fees payable to the sovereign on the administration of justice. Thus then the king might draw his ordinary revenues mainly from the following sources: First and principally, the public Téuevos, or demesne land. Next, his own private acquisitions, such as the aypos of Laertes. Thirdly, the fees on the administration of justice. The position of Agamemnon, the greatest king of the heroic age, constitutes in itself too considerable a feature of Greek polity at that period to be dismissed without especial notice. He appears to have united in himself almost every advantage which could tend to raise regal power to its acmè. He was of a house moving onward in its as yet unbroken career of accumulating greatness: he was the head of that house, supported in Lacedæmon by his affectionate brother Menelaus; and the double title of the two was fortified with twin supports, by their marriages with Clytemnestra and Helen respectively. This family was at the head of the energetic race which ruled, and deserved to rule, in the Greek peninsula; and which apparently produced such large and full developments of personal character, as the world has never h Il. ix. 155 |