Note 22 — Chapter I · THE POPULUS AND ITS EARLIEST POLITICAL DIVISIONS

That the primitive Roman tribes were in character substantially identical with the primitive Greek phylae cannot be doubted. Apparently the four Ionic phylae in Attica offered no resistance to dissolution at the hands of Cleisthenes; cf. Hdt. v. 66; Arist. Ath. Pol. 21. (For the best treatment of the Greek phylae, see Szanto, E., Ausgewählte Abhandlungen, 216-88, who maintains that the institution was artificial.) In like manner the three Roman tribes disappeared, leaving but scant traces; p. 7.