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ANCIENT GREECE.[CHAP.IV.in the internal division of the several tribes. Even wherethose of the same tribe made their settlements, they wereimmediately split into separate townships. According tothese ,the troops of soldiers are distinguished in Homer.Proofs of it are found in all parts of his poems,, especially inthe catalogue of the ships.If these townships stood underone common head, they were still united only by a feeblebond. The germ of division was deeply fixed, even in thoseearlier times ;and as itunfolded, it was destined to maturethe whole subsequent political condition of Greece,Yet though the divisions of the country were then as numerous, the forms of government iu those early times wereentirely different from the later ones. We meet with nogovernments but those of princes or kings jthere were thenno republics ;and yet republicanism was eventually to decide the political character of Greece. These monarchicalconstitutions, if that name may be applied to them, wererather the outlines of constitutions man regular, finishedforms of government. They were a consequence of themost ancient condition of the nation, when either rulingfamilies sprung up in the several tribes, or the leaders offoreign colonies had known how to secure to themselves andtheir posterity the government over the natives. The familiesof Peleus, Cadmus, Pelops, and others, have already beenmentioned. It was a great recommendation of the later rulers,to be able to trace their lineage to one of the ancient heroesor gods and; Alexander himself sought the confirmation ofhis own descent from the temple of Ammon. But thoughmuch depended on descent, we learn from observing thoseancient families, that it was not only necessary that the founder of the family should be a hero, but, if its elevation was tobe preserved, that many heroes like him should arise amonghis posterity. For.tjhis the houses of Pelops and Cadmuswere the most illustrious.But only certain branches of thefamily of Hercules, the first of Grecian heroes, were remembered by the nation, while others passed into oblivion* TheGreeks paid respect to birth, yet they never attributed everything to it jand if in those republican times, the noble families were preserved distinct from the rest, their superioritydepended seldom on birth alone ;and no line was drawnbetween them and the rest of the people, such as divided the