while the four Ionic tribes were abolished, the gentes and phratries
which composed them were left untouched, and continued to subsist
as family and religious associations, though carrying with them no
political privilege.
[247] In illustration of what is here stated, see the account of
the modifications of the constitution of Zurich, in Blüntschli,
Staats und Rechts Geschichte der Stadt Zurich, book iii. ch. 2,
p. 322; also, Kortüm, Entstehungs Geschichte der Freistädtischen
Bünde im Mittelalter, ch. 5, pp. 74-75.
The ten newly-created tribes, arranged in an established order of
precedence, were called,—Erechthêis, Ægêis, Pandiŏnis, Leontis,
Akamantis, Œnêis, Kekrŏpis, Hippothoöntis, Æantis, Antiochis; names
borrowed chiefly from the respected heroes of Attic legend.[248]
This number remained unaltered until the year 305 B. C., when it was
increased to twelve by the addition of two new tribes, Antigonias
and Demetrias, afterwards designated anew by the names of Ptolemais
and Attalis. The mere names of these last two, borrowed from living
kings, and not from legendary heroes, betray the change from
freedom to subservience at Athens. Each tribe comprised a certain
number of demes,—cantons, parishes, or townships,—in Attica. But
the total number of these demes is not distinctly ascertained; for
though we know that, in the time of Polemô (the third century B.
C.), it was one hundred and seventy-four, we cannot be sure that
it had always remained the same; and several critics construe the
words of Herodotus to imply that Kleisthenês at first recognized
exactly one hundred demes, distributed in equal proportion among his
ten tribes.[249] But such construction of the words is more than
doubtful, while the fact itself is improbable; partly because if the
change of number had been so considerable as the difference between
one hundred and one hundred and seventy-four, some positive evidence
of it would probably be found,—partly because Kleisthenês would,
indeed, have a motive to render the amount of citizen population
nearly equal, but no motive to render the number of demes equal,
in each of the ten tribes. It is well known how great is the force
of local habits, and how unalterable are parochial or cantonal
boundaries. In the absence of proof to the contrary, therefore, we
may reasonably suppose the number and circumscription of the demes,
as found or modified by Kleisthenês, to have subsisted afterwards
with little alteration, at least until the increase in the number of
the tribes.
[248] Respecting these Eponymous Heroes of the Ten Tribes,
and the legends connected with them, see chapter viii of the
Ἐπιτάφιος Λόγος, erroneously ascribed to Demosthenês.
[249] Herodot. v, 69. δέκα δὲ καὶ τοὺς δήμους κατένεμε ἐς τὰς
φυλάς.
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