Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/239

SICILIAN AFFAIRS. -GELO AND HIS DYNASTY. 215 the neighboring towns of Megara and Euboea. Both these towns, like Syracuse, were governed by ohgarchies, with serf cultivators dependent upon them, and a Demos, or body of smaller freemen, excluded from the political franchise : both were involved in war with Gelo, probably to resist his encroachments, — both were besieged and taken. The oligarchy who ruled these cities, and who were the authors as well as leaders of the year, anticipated nothing but ruin at the hands of the conqueror ; while the De- mos, who had not been consulted and had taken no part in the ■war (which we must presume to have been carried on by the oligarchy and their serfs alone), felt assured that no harm would be done to them. His behavior disappointed the expectations of both. After transporting both of them to Syracuse, he estab- lished the ohgarchs in that town as citizens, and sold the Demos as slaves, under covenant that they should be exported from Sicily. " His conduct (says Herodotus i) was dictated by the conviction, that a Demos was a most troublesome companion to live with." It appears that the state of society which he wished to estabUsh was that of Patricians and cUents, without any Plebs ; something like that of Thessaly, where there was a proprietary oligarchy living in the cities, with Penestae, or dependent cultiva- tors, occupying and tilling the land on their account, — but no small self-working proprietors or tradesmen in sufficient number to form a recognized class. And since Gelo was removing the free population from these conquered towns, and leaving in or around the towns no one except the serf-cultivators, we may pre- sume that the oligarchical proprietors when removed might still continue, even as residents at Syracuse, to receive the produce raised for them by others : but the small self-working proprie- tors, if removed in like manner, would be deprived of subsist- ence, because their land would be too distant for personal tillage, ' Herodot. vii, 156. 'Meyapiag te ~oi'c kv ^iKsTiiy, wf ■:ro?uopKe6fzevoi cf bjio/.oyLrjv ~pocEX(^p'r).oav, Tovg jiev avTuv naxeaf, aeipajxevov^ re ttoXe/iov avTui Kal TTpoadoKEOvra^ uTToXeea&ai did. rovro, ayuv if livpaKOvaag TTo7.irj-ag hnoLTjae- rbv de drj^ov tuv Meyapeuv, oIk tovra fiera'cTiov tov 7i07i€p.ov TovTov, ovSe TT-poadEKofiEvov KOKdv ovdkv Tzeiaea^ai, ayayuv Kal tovtov^ kr -uc 'EvpOKOvaac, aizidoTO in e^ayuyy kn "EikeHtjc. Tdwrd 6e tovtov koI 'EiifioEai ToiSc iv 'EiKE/uTi E-oirjaE diaKpiva^. 'ETrotee 6e ravra tovtov^ u/2<poTE0ovg, vauiaac 6tjixov elvai avvo'iKTifia dxapiTuraTw