of Crete, and the Helots of Laconia, with whom they are generally compared.(257) For, like these, they were reduced to servitude by conquest, although they cannot properly be called slaves taken in war.(258) Further, they were not subject to the whole community, but belonged to particular houses and families:(259) hence also they were called Θεσσαλοικέται.(260) They were particularly numerous in the great families of the Aleuadæ and Scopadæ.(261) Their principal employment was agriculture,(262) from the produce of which they paid a rent to the proprietors of the soil.(263) At the same time this did not prevent them from gaining property of their own, and they were frequently richer than their masters.(264) In war they attended their lords, protecting and fighting before them, like knights and their squires; generally, however, contrary to the custom of other Greeks, on horseback.(265) All these accounts respecting the Penestæ agree sufficiently well with one another, and refer to one and the same class; although it is certain that the attempts to obtain civil liberty had much increased amongst the Penestæ at the time of the Peloponnesian war, and were now and then, though not constantly, supported by Athens.(266) The other internal affairs of the Thessalians do not lie within the range of our inquiry. They had little adapted themselves to a quiet course of events, nor indeed did the turbulent and haughty disposition of their race allow of a life of inactivity. In each town of Thessaly we find a constant struggle between the commons and a number of oligarchical families; from these arise several princely races, such as the Aleuadæ, Scopadæ,(267) &c. The states themselves were generally at war with one another: thus their political constitution, as well as the want of steadiness and forbearance in the national character, must be regarded as the chief reasons why Thessaly was of so little importance in Greece. The external means which a wide territory and military power afforded them were here doubtless present in a greater degree than in any other country; the Thessalians were also distinguished for their bravery, and the ancient fame of the country would have supported claims in themselves well founded; how came it then that the history of Thessaly was a blank in the annals of Greece, while Sparta was so long its very soul? The only answer is, that the national character of the Thessalians was altogether different; for wisdom they had only cunning; for rational valour only a restless love of war; for strict self-command only unrestrained passions.