in mind when we come in the next chapter to the period of aristocratic government.
The King as Commander of the Host. — All that needs to be remarked on this point is, that not even in war does the Homeric king appear to be absolute. Aristotle indeed says that he had the power of life and death in the field, and quotes Homer to prove it; but the words (πὰρ γὰρ ἐμοὶ θάνατος) of his quotation are not to be found in the poems as we have them.[1] Such power would seem to postulate a much more clearly defined polity than that which Homer depicts. We find the king in the Iliad deliberating with other chiefs; — with his council of elderly men[2] and wise, the Witenagemot of that day; and we find even the people present at these deliberations as listeners who may express their approval or disapproval. Thus, though there is no constitution here, even in time of war, there are, in solution as it were, the elements of a constitution; the nobility is there to advise, and the people have a right to express their feelings. And that these elements of a constitution, as we see them in time of war, also represent in the main the relations of king, council, and commons in time of peace can admit of no doubt. We should, however, remember
2 The γέροντες in Homer are not necessarily elderly men. But the word itself, like Senatus, is proof of the idea on which the institution is based, i.e. chieftaincy of some degree, for which the son has had to wait till his father has died or stepped aside, and he himself is growing old. At Sparta the fact as well as the word survived; no one under sixty years of age could be a member of the Gerousia. Plutarch, Lycurgus, 26.
