ninth, the Tegeatans of the ancient town,(274) who had previously been the citizens properly so called, while the former had been the inhabitants of the open country; a distinction, which, upon their union, must either instantly or very soon have disappeared. 8. Since it has been ascertained in the course of these inquiries that the distinction between πόλις and δῆμος, that is, town and country, was of great political importance in the ancient states, we will conclude this chapter with some remarks upon those terms. The word δῆμος originally signified the ground and soil on which the people lived,(275) and afterwards the whole number of persons inhabiting it. Πόλις, on the contrary, means the city, which in the time of Homer was probably always fortified. Now with the city everything that concerned the government of a state was connected, and those exempt from all personal share in the labours of the field, namely, the military families and the nobles,(276) dwelt in it; hence it is viewed in Homer as a disgrace or a misfortune, for a noble to live among the bondsmen in the country.(277) This is the state of things described by the most ancient poet; and particular accounts of an historical nature present the same picture. When the Achæans settled on the coast of Ægialea, they fortified themselves in the towns and strongholds, and kept entirely aloof from the natives; at least we know this to have been the case at Patræ;(278) so that the same race here inhabited the principal city as conquerors, who in Laconia were scattered about in the country-towns as a conquered people. Hence also the town of Dyme was originally called _Stratos_;(279) that is, the station of the army, the abode of the male population who had the means and the privilege of bearing arms. It was not till a later period that the Achæan towns, Patræ, Dyme, and Ægium, incorporated their villages.(280) At Athens the Eupatridæ are stated to have had possession of the city;(281) an account which is strikingly confirmed by the circumstance that Cydathenæum, one of the Attic demi, was situated within the city,(282) and it had evidently taken its name from Cydathenæus, _i.e._, _a noble and illustrious Athenian_.(283) Hence is explained the distinction between the terms “Athenian,” and “inhabitant of Attica (Ἀττικὸς),” which was still preserved in common language after it had been in fact abolished by the democracy. Thus Plato uses the former, as a more honourable appellation than the latter;(284) and when Dicæarchus, describing the manners of Greece, contrasts the inhabitants of Attica as loquacious, sycophantic, and fickle, with the noble-minded, simple, and honest Athenians, by the latter he means the ancient families, and by the former the Demus, which, since the time of Cleisthenes, had been compounded of the most heterogeneous elements. Thus the πόλις and δῆμος became identical in Athens, and the latter word was used by preference to signify the whole community.