is this, that Temenus, the Doric king of Argos, possessed the same supremacy over the sons of Aristodemus at Sparta, and over Cresphontes in Messene, as had in former times been exercised by the king of Mycenae over the whole of Achaean Peloponnesus. But Spartan pride, at an early time, endeavoured to cast this humiliating tradition into the shade. Hence also the statement that Cresphontes drew lots, as to whether he should obtain Laconia or Messene, Argos being altogether out of the question. It is only from a fragment of Ephorus in Strabo, that we know anything about the feudal principalities of the Dorians in Laconia. This piece of information once hung upon a thread, and was nearly destroyed by a mutilation of the passage in the manuscript from which all the others are derived; if the book were lost, or but a little more mutilated, we should know absolutely nothing about this feudal system—so much our knowledge of the most important circumstances often depends upon a mere accident. Hence it is quite legitimate, in case of such information being wanting, to supply the deficiency with rational boldness, in accordance with the general principles of historical development. Now, according to Ephorus, the Dorian kings divided Laconia into six principalities. The first was Sparta, where they themselves exercised the supremacy over the other principalities, just as the Capetingian kings of Paris and Orleans, who ruled over the country as far as Orleans (Isle de France) as a distinct principality, and were recognised as kings in the rest of France, but in such a manner that their vassals again, within their own territories, were true princes or kings. In regard to the other principalities, Strabo (p. 424, D)[28] says, that _Amyclae_, at a distance of about five miles from Sparta, was given to the Achaean who, by his faithless counsel, had induced the Achaean king of the time to capitulate and quit his country; he is elsewhere called Philonomus.[29] The text of Strabo is here much mutilated; there is one line of which the greater part is legible, and of the next only a few words. I am convinced, however, that I have discovered the meaning, namely, that the remaining four kingdoms were _Las_, _Helos_, _Aepys_, and _Pherae_, the two last of which subsequently belonged to Messene.[30] These five states then stood to Sparta in the relation of isopolity, and their citizens might exercise the Spartan franchise; but the sovereignty in all foreign relations belonged to Sparta, so that the Spartan conquest at that time imposed no heavy yoke upon the feudal principalities. This relation was altered by Agis I.[31] The Spartan Dorians broke through the relation of these isopolite states in such a manner as boldly to deprive them of their rights, to depose the kings, and reduce the inhabitants to the condition of περίοικοι, in which they remained indeed free, but became dependent and lost the right of exercising the Spartan franchise.