[(19)] We hear the applause of the assembly in i. 23 and ii. 333, and in the Trojan Assembly, xviii. 313.
[(20)] On the whole nature of the Homeric ἀγορή see Gladstone’s Homer and the Homeric Age, iii. 14. Mr. Gladstone has to my thinking understood the spirit of the old Greek polity much better than Mr. Grote.
[(21)] There is no need to go into any speculations as to the early Roman Constitution, as to the origin of the distinction of patres and plebs, or any of the other points about which controversies have raged among scholars. The three elements stand out in every version, legendary and historical. In Livy, i. 8, Romulus first holds his general Assembly and then chooses his Senate. And in c. 26 we get the distinct appeal from the King, or rather from the magistrates acting by his authority, to an Assembly which, whatever might be its constitution, is more popular than the Senate.
[(22)] It is hardly needful to show how the Roman Consuls simply stepped into the place of the Kings. It is possible, as some have thought, that the revolution threw more power into patrician hands than before, but at all events the Senate and the Assembly go on just as before.
[(23)] Tacitus, de Moribus Germaniæ, c. 7-13:
“Reges ex nobilitate; Duces ex virtute sumunt. Nec Regibus infinita aut libera potestas; et Duces exemplo potius quam imperio: si prompti, si conspicui, si ante aciem agant, admiratione præsunt.... De minoribus rebus Principes consultant; de majoribus omnes; ita tamen ut ea quoque quorum penes plebem arbitrium est apud Principes pertractentur.... Ut turbæ placuit, considunt armati. Silentium per Sacerdotes, quibus tum et coercendi jus est, imperatur. Mox Rex, vel Princeps, prout ætas cuique, prout nobilitas, prout decus bellorum, prout facundia est audiuntur, auctoritate suadendi magis quam jubendi potestate. Si displicuit sententia, fremitu adspernantur; sin placuit, frameas concutiunt. Honoratissimum adsensûs genus est, armis laudare. Licet apud concilium adcusare quoque et discrimen capitis intendere.... Eliguntur in iisdem conciliis et Principes, qui jura per pagos vicosque reddant. Centeni singulis ex plebe comites, consilium simul et auctoritas, adsunt. Nihil autem neque publicæ neque privatæ rei nisi armati agunt.”
For a commentary, see Zöpfl, Geschichte der deutschen Rechtsinstitute, p. 94. See also Allen, Royal Prerogative, 12, 162.
[(24)] See Norman Conquest, i. 95. The primitive Constitution lasted longest at the other end of the Empire, in Friesland. See Eichhorn, Deutsche Staats-und Rechtsgeschichte, ii. 265, iii. 158. Zöpfl, Geschichte der deutschen Rechtsquellen, p. 154.
[(25)] Τὰ ἀρχαῖα ἤθη κρατείτω is an ecclesiastical maxim; rightly understood, it is just as true in politics.
[(26)] See my papers on “the Origin of the English Nation” and “the Alleged Permanence of Roman Civilization in England” in Macmillan’s Magazine, 1870.