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56 ANCIENT GBEECE. [CHAP. iv.seemed to stand in need of it, would have been an unexampled outrage. 1Greece, even in those times, was a tlnekly peopled andwell cultivated country. What a crowd of cities is enumerated by the poet And we must not ! imagine these tohave been open towns with scattered habitations. Theepithets applied to them frequently prove the reverse.Theyare in part surrounded with walls ;have gates and regularstreets. 3 Yet the houses stand by themselves; having infront a court, and iu the rear a garden/ 1Such at least werethe houses of the most respectable. Others appear to standdirectly on the street without any court in front. In themiddle of the city there isa public square or market-place;the common place of assembly for the citizens, whether onsolemn occasions, or for deliberation, or courts of justice, orany other purpose.It is surrounded with seats of stone, onwhich the distinguished men are wont on such occasions totake their places.4No trace is to be found of any pavementin the streets.The differentbranches of agriculture were already welladvanced. Property in lands was universal ;of which theboundaries were fixed by measurement, and often designatedby stones. 5The poet describes to us the various labours offarming, ploughing, whether with oxen or mules, sowing,reaping, binding the sheaves, and treading out the corn byoxen on the threshing floor. Nor does he omit to mentionthe culture of the grape,the tilling of gardens, and the various duties of the herdsman, Itmay be doubted whetherthe soil was much better cultivated in the most flourishingperiod of Grecian history.The houses of the heroes were large and spacious, arid at,the same time suited to the climate. The court was surrounded by a gallery, about which the bedchambers were1How warmly Menelaus reproaches Eteoneus for proposing to send thestrangers some where else. Oct. iv. 31 .9 E. g. Athens with broad streets (dpv&ywct). Ocl. vii, 8, Gorlys with firmwalls (mxifoffcra) ;and others .8Thus the palace of Menelaus, CM. ii. jand of Alcmous, Qd, viK Otherson the street. II. xviii. 496.4The city of the Phroacians, Qclvii, gives proof of all this5 II.xii421, xxi.405.6 I need only call to mind the representations on the shield of AchillesIL xvm. 540, etc,