they would not have been able to convene an assembly of the people. For although the appellation of δήμου προστάτης in the Doric states, as well as at Athens, sometimes denotes merely a person who by his character and eloquence had placed himself at the head of the people; we shall produce hereafter certain proofs, when we speak of Gela and Calymna, that it was also the title of a public officer.(637) When, during the peace of Artaxerxes, the Lacedæmonians had ceased to possess any extensive share in the direction of public affairs in Peloponnesus, a spirit of ungovernable licentiousness and ochlocracy arose in those cities which had hitherto been under an oligarchical rule; everywhere there were vexatious accusations, banishments, and confiscations of property, especially of the property of such persons as had filled public offices under the guidance of Sparta, though, even during that period, (B.C. 374.) Argos had been a place of refuge for banished democrats.(638) But after the battle of Leuctra, when the power of Lacedæmon was completely broken, and Peloponnesus had for a certain time lost its leader, the greatest anarchy began to prevail in Argos. Demagogues stirred up the people so violently against all privileged or distinguished persons, that the latter thought themselves driven to plot the overthrow of the democracy.(639) The scheme was discovered, and the people raged with the greatest ferocity against the real or supposed conspirators. On this occasion, more than 1200 of the chief persons (many upon mere suspicion) were put to death;(640) and at length the demagogues, fearing to carry through the measures which themselves had originated, suffered the same fate. This state of things was called by the name of σκυταλισμὸς, or _club-law_; it appears to have been a time when the strongest man was the most powerful. When the Athenians heard of these transactions, they purified their market-place, thinking that the whole of Greece was polluted by such atrocities:(641) it was probably at the same time that the Argives themselves offered an expiatory sacrifice to the mild Zeus (Ζεὺς Μειλίχιος), for the free blood which had been shed.(642) Notwithstanding these proceedings, the rich and distinguished continued to be persecuted at Argos with the greatest violence;(643) for which the ostracism, a custom introduced from Athens,(644) together with other democratic institutions,(645) was the chief instrument. In times such as these, the chief and most noble features of the Doric character necessarily disappeared; the unfortunate termination of nearly all military undertakings(646) proves the decline of bravery. In so unsettled a state of public affairs, sycophancy and violence became prevalent:(647) notwithstanding which, their eagerness and attention to public speaking produced no orator, whose fame was sufficient to descend to posterity.(648)