In the subsequent dismemberment of the Argive empire, we find the elements of its origin, which, in the two other Doric states, are indeed likewise visible, but produce the opposite effect. In all the three Doric states, the principle of the constitution is that of feudalism, a term which may be offensive to some, because it is not usually applied to the affairs of early Greece. These kingdoms were divided into several principalities, where Dorian chiefs had settled as vassal princes with a colony, or ruled over the ancient Achaean inhabitants; in some instances they were ancient Achaean principalities, whose rulers maintained themselves by submitting to the power of the Dorians. The number of such principalities seems to have been particularly great in Argolis, in consequence of which the country could afterwards be divided into so many separate towns. As such we find the two ancient capitals, Mycenae and Tiryns, Corinth, Sicyon, Troezen, Hermione, and Epidaurus, for even these smaller towns of the Acte had formerly had their own vassal princes, as is attested by the unanimous mythical accounts of their kings, especially in the case of Troezen and Epidaurus. It was essentially the same relation as that between the Lombard kings and their dukes; a parallel to the case of native princes occurs in the fact, that the Frankish kings, at the beginning of the middle ages, sometimes appointed Gauls and Romans as their vassal princes in Italy. The same system occurs in Laconia: the ruling tribe and the chief king settled in one town, but there existed six principalities. These constitutions, however, in their development, took quite opposite directions. In Laconia, as in France, the vassal princes disappear, and all the country becomes united under one government; while in Argos, as in Germany, the union is broken up into small principalities. Corinth, for example, which, before the Doric conquest, cannot be regarded as an independent state, is known to have risen to the rank of a state through the Dorians, and Prumnis, the father of Bacchis,[13] was the first Doric prince there. In like manner we know, from scanty notices of Ephorus, Scymnus, and others, that Doric chiefs were the founders of dynasties at Troezen and Epidaurus: Mycenae and Tiryns alone continued to exist as native Achaean states under the supremacy of the king of Argos. This kingdom of Argos was weaker than, for example, that of the Franks, for the Heracleids were only commanders in war, whose power was by no means unlimited; each tribe had its own king, and accordingly the three Doric tribes had three. It is clear that such a distribution of the country could not remain free from disturbances; hence the power of the kings of Argos could not last long, and a conflict necessarily arose as soon as one of them ventured to step beyond the bounds of his prerogatives. This was done by Pheidon, who ruled first as king, and afterwards as tyrant. He was indeed still