Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/151

THE DEMES OF EACH TRIBE NOT CONTIGUOUS. IjJ proof to the contrary, therefore, we may reasonably suppose the number and circumscription of the demes, as found or modified by Kleisthenes, to have subsisted afterwards with little alteration, at least until the increase in the number of the tribes. There is another point, however, which is at once more certain, and more important to notice. The demes which Kleisthenea assigned to each tribe were in no case all adjacent to each other ; a id therefore the tribe, as a whole, did not correspond with any ci ntinuous portion of the territory, nor could it have any peculiar local interest, separate from the entirf community. Such system- atic avoidance of the factions arising out of neighborhood will appear to have been more especially necessary, when we recollect that the quarrels of the Parali, the Diakrii, the Pediaki, during the preceding century, had all been generated from local feud, though doubtless artfully fomented by individual ambition. More- over, it was only by this same precaution that the local predomi- nance of the city, and the formation of a city-interest distinct from that of the country, was obviated ; which could hardly have failed to arise had the city by itself constituted either one deme or one tribe. Kleisthenes distributed the city (or found it already distributed) into several demes, and those demes among several tribes ; while Peineus and Phalerum, each constituting a sepa- rate deme, were also assigned to different tribes ; so that there were no local advantages either to bestow predominance, or to create a struggle for predominance, of one tribe over the rest. 1 1 The deme MelitS belonged to the tribe Kekropis ; Kollytus, to the tribe JEgeis ; Kydathenceon, to the tribe Pandionis ; Kerameis, or Kemmeikus, to the Akamantis ; Skamb6nid(e> to the Leontis. All these five were demes within the city of Athens, and all belonged to different tribes. Peirceus belonged to the Hippothoontis ; Phalerum, to the Mantis ; XypetS, to the Kekropis ; Tliymatcida:, to the Hippothoontis. These four domes, adjoining to each other, formed a sort of quadruple local union, for festivals and other purposes, among themselves ; though three of them belonged to different tribes. See the list of the Attic demes, with a careful statement of their localities In SD fcr as ascertained, in Professor Ross, Die Demen von Attika, Halle, IS45. The distribution of the city-demes, a ad of Peirrcus and Phaleram, wnong different tribes, appears to me a clear proof of the intention of the original distributors. It shows that thej wished from die beginning to