2. It will next be necessary to ascertain what were the political rights and condition of the Periœci. The main circumstances are without doubt correctly given by Ephorus. “They were,” he says, “tributary to Sparta, and had not equal rights of citizenship.” If these words are taken in their literal sense, it is plain that the Periœci had not a share in the great legislative assembly of the citizens. And in truth the passages adduced by modern writers to show that they had a vote in this assembly are not by any means satisfactory.(64) Perhaps the following considerations are sufficient to convince us of the impossibility of such general assemblies. Had the Spartan constitution permitted the whole people to hold large assemblies with the right of deciding on all public questions, it would have been in principle completely democratic, and would have had a perpetual tendency to become more so, in the necessary course of events. But, in addition to this objection, let us only picture to ourselves the absurdity of the Periœci, in the neighbourhood of Sparta, all flocking together between the brook Babyca and the bridge Cnacion! Where again were those, who took several days to arrive at Sparta from Cyphanta, Pylos, or Tænarus, to find houseroom and food? How could any of them be ready to leave their homes and trades at such a summons? It was esteemed a difficult matter even to collect an armed force of Periœci at a short notice. A _city-community_ was doubtless everywhere requisite for a popular assembly; and hence in the Athenian, and every similar democracy, each citizen was in some way settled in the town, and had the right of there possessing an house (ἔγκτησις οἰκίας), which a Periœcus most assuredly had not.(65)