[617] See Tyrtæus, Fragm. 8, 1, ed. Schneidewin, and Pindar, Pyth. i. 61. v. 71, where the expressions “descendants of Hêraklês” plainly comprehend more than the two kingly families. Plutarch, Lysand. c. 22; Diodor. xi. 58.
[618] Herodot. iv. 149; Pindar, Pyth. v. 67; Aristot. Λακων. Πολιτ. p. 127, Fragm. ed. Neuman. The Talthybiadæ, or heralds, at Sparta, formed a family or caste apart (Herod. vii. 134).
O. Müller supposes, without any proof, that the Ægeids must have been adopted into one of the three Dorian tribes; this is one of the corollaries from his fundamental supposition, that Sparta is the type of pure Dorism (vol. ii. p. 78). Kopstadt thinks (Dissertat. p. 67) that I have done injustice to O. Müller, in not assenting to his proof: but, on studying the point over again, I can see no reason for modifying what is here stated in the text. The Section of Schömann’s work (Antiq. Jur. Publ. Græc. iv. 1, 6, p. 115) on this subject asserts a great deal more than can be proved.
[619] Herod. v. 68-92; Boeckh, Corp. Inscrip. Nos. 1130, 1131; Stephan. Byz. v. Ὑρνίθιον; Pausan. ii. 28, 3.
[620] Photius Πάντα ὀκτώ; also. Proverb. Vatic. Suidas, xi. 64; compare Hesychius, v. Κυνόφαλοι.
[621] Müller, Dorians, iii. 5, 3-7; Boeckh ad Corp. Inscription. part iv. sect. 3, p. 609.
[622] Pausan. iii. 16, 6; Herodot. iii. 55; Boeckh, Corp. Inscript. Nos. 1241, 1338, 1347, 1425; Steph. Byz. v. Μεσόα; Strabo, viii. p. 364; Hesych. v. Πιτάνη.
There is much confusion and discrepancy of opinion about the Spartan tribes. Cragius admits six (De Republ. Lacon. i. 6); Meursius, eight (Rep. Lacon. i. 7): Barthélemy (Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis, iv. p. 185) makes them five. Manso has discussed the subject at large, but I think not very satisfactorily, in the eighth Beilage to the first book of his History of Sparta (vol. ii. p. 125); and Dr. Thirwall’s second Appendix (vol. i. p. 517) both notices all the different modern opinions on this obscure topic, and adds several useful criticisms. Our scanty stock of original evidence leaves much room for divergent hypotheses, and little chance of any certain conclusion.
[623] Thucyd. i. 10.
[624] One or two Periœkic officers appear in military command towards the end of the Peloponnesian war (Thucyd. viii. 6, 22), but these seem rare exceptions, even as to foreign service by sea or land, while a Periœkus, as magistrate at Sparta, was unheard of.