Note 186 — Chapter IV · NOMADISM AND AGRICULTURE.

The literature is clearly and concisely enumerated in G. Rawlinson’s essay On the Early History of the Athenians, §8-11 (Hist. of Herod., Bk. II. Essay II.). But it must be added that the idea of the learned author—‘The Attic castes, if they existed, belong to the very infancy of the nation, and had certainly passed into tribes long before the reign of Codrus’—does not agree with the historical sequence demanded by the connexion of the tribes with nomadic life and that of the caste with fixed tenure. In the very nature of the case the division into tribes is proper to nomadism, which knows of no systematic occupation with arts and trades, whereas the division into castes presupposes such an occupation with trades and arts as only a sedentary life renders possible. Therefore, between tribes and castes the priority will always have to be assigned to the former.