[Footnote 14: See _Fall of Troy_, page 70.]

Still both the _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_ are good enough history for
most of us, in that they give a full, outline of Grecian life and
society as Homer knew it. We see the little, petty states, with their
chiefs all-powerful, and the people quite ignored. We see the heroes
driving to battle in their chariots, guarded by shield and helmet,
flourishing sword and spear. We learn what Ulysses did not know of
foreign lands.. We hear Achilles' famed lament amid the dead, and note
the vague glimmering idea of a future life, which the Greeks had caught
perhaps from the Egyptians, perhaps from the suggestive land of dreams.

With the year B.C. 776 we come in contact with a clear marked
chronology. The Greeks themselves reckoned from that date by means of
olympiads or intervals between the Olympic games. The story becomes
clear. The autocratic little city kings, governing almost as they
pleased, have everywhere been displaced by oligarchies. The few leading
nobles may name one of themselves to bear rule, but the real power lies
divided among the class. Then, with the growing prominence of the
Pythian games[15] we come upon a new stage of national development. The
various cities begin to form alliances, to recognize the fact that they
may be made safer and happier by a larger national life. The sense of
brotherhood begins to extend beyond the circle of personal acquaintance.

[Footnote 15: See _Pythian Games at Delphi_, page 181.]

This period was one of lawmaking, of experimenting. The traditions, the
simple customs of the old kingly days, were no longer sufficient for the
guidance of the larger cities, the more complicated circles of society,
which were growing up. It was no longer possible for a man who did not