[102] That this was the primitive custom, and that the limitation
μέχρις ἀνεψιαδῶν (Meier, De Bonis Damnat. p. 23, cites ἀνεψιαδῶν
καὶ φρατόρων) was subsequently introduced (Demosth. cont. Euerg.
et Mnesib. p. 1161), we may gather from the law as it stands in
Demosth. cont. Makartat. p. 1069, which includes the phrators,
and therefore, _à fortiori_, the gennêtes, or gentiles.
The same word γένος is used to designate both the circle of
nameable relatives, brothers, first cousins (ἀγχιστεῖς, Demosth.
cont. Makartat. c. 9, p. 1058), etc., going beyond the οἶκος,—and
the quasi-family, or gens. As the gentile tie tended to become
weaker, so the former sense of the word became more and more
current, to the extinction of the latter. Οἱ ἐν γένει, or οἱ
προσήκοντες, would have borne a wider sense in the days of Drako
than in those of Demosthenes: Συγγενὴς usually belongs to γένος
in the narrower sense, γεννήτης to γένος in the wider sense; but
Isæus sometimes uses the former word as an exact equivalent of
the latter (Orat. vii, pp. 95, 99, 102, 103, Bekker). Τριακὰς
appears to be noted in Pollux as the equivalent of γένος, or
gens (viii, 111), but the word does not occur in the Attic
orators, and we cannot make out its meaning with certainty: the
Inscription of the Deme of Peiræeus given in Boeckh (Corp. Insc.
No. 101, p. 140,) rather adds to the confusion by revealing the
existence of a τριακὰς constituting the fractional part of a
deme, and not connected with a gens: compare Boeckh’s Comment.
_ad loc._ and his Addenda and Corrigenda, p. 900.
Dr. Thirlwall translates γένος, _house_; which I cannot but think
inconvenient, because that word is the natural equivalent of
οἶκος,—a very important word in reference to Attic feelings, and
quite different from γένος (Hist. of Greece, vol. ii, p. 14, ch.
11). It will be found impossible to translate it by any known
English word which does not at the same time suggest erroneous
ideas: which I trust will be accepted as my excuse for adopting
it untranslated into this History.
[103] Demosthen. cont. Makartat _l. c._
[104] See Æschines de Falsâ Legat. p. 292, c. 46; Lysias cont.
Andokid. p. 108; Andokid. de Mysteriis, p. 63, Reiske; Deinarchus
and Hellanikus ap. Harpokration. v. Ἱεροφάντης.
In case of crimes of impiety, particularly in offences against
the sanctity of the Mysteries, the Eumolpidæ had a peculiar
tribunal of their own number, before which offenders were brought
by the king archon. Whether it was often used, seems doubtful;
they had also certain unwritten customs of great antiquity,
according to which they pronounced (Demosthen. cont. Androtion.
p. 601; Schol. ad Demosth. vol. ii, p. 137, Reiske: compare Meier
and Schömann, Der Attische Prozess, p. 117). The Butadæ, also,
had certain old unwritten maxims (Androtion ap. Athenæ. ix, p.
374).
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