There is no lack of evidence at the present time going to prove that all these early tribes were originally organized on thoroughly democratic principles, and that there never was any dignity conferred on the leader of the early Grecian hosts answering to the present definition of king; also that prior to the time of Romulus, no chieftain of the Latin tribes was ever invested with sufficient authority to have constituted him an imperial ruler. The term basileus, as applied to a leader of a military democracy in the early ages of Grecian history, doubtless implies simply the war-chief of the primitive tribe, an officer chosen from among the chiefs of the gentes as a leader of the hosts in battle, but as claiming no civil functions, and as possessing no authority outside the office of military chieftain.

The Homeric writings, which contain the earliest direct information which we have of the Greeks, and in which are doubtless mirrored forth a tolerably correct picture of the customs, institutions, and manners of this people, when read by the light of more recently developed facts relative to the early constitution of society, are invested with new interest, and a fresh charm and a new significance are added to every detail connected with the narrative. As to the extent of authority attached to the office of military leader among the Greeks, Homer has given us a fair illustration in the person of Agamemnon—“shepherd of the people.” That the position of this chieftain differs widely from that occupied by the king of succeeding ages is apparent. At the outset we find the injured Achilles, after he has taunted the chieftain with being the “greediest of men,” addressing him in the following language:

Ha, thou mailed in impudence

And bent on lucre! Who of all the Greeks

Can willingly obey thee, on the march,

Or bravely battling with the enemy![155]

Then Pelides takes up the strain and with opprobrious words thus addresses the son of Atreus:

Wine-bibber with the forehead of a dog

And a deer’s heart. Thou never yet hast dared

To arm thyself for battle with the rest,