On the Homeric use of the word Hpcos. 91 Achaean, and then to the Hellenic name, it is clear that the members of these bands must have learnt to consider them- selves as the superior and predominant caste. And the ap- plication of their own title to any one whom they respected, would follow naturally enough. In Lydgates story of Thebes, Amphiaraus is called the bishop Amphiorax, and the warriors are termed knights ; and one can easily understand how ballads of the age of the Crusaders came to represent the Saracen warriors as knights, and how the Moors were so represented in Spanish ballads. It may be worth while to remind the reader of a passage in Ivanhoe, where a leader of a band of free companions gives an account of the marriages of the tribe of Benjamin ^^^ : -^ How, long since in Palestine, a deadly feud arose between the tribe of Benjamin and the rest of the Israelitish nation ; and how they cut to pieces well nigh all the chivalry of that tribe; and how they swore by our blessed Lady, that they would not permit those who remained to marry in their lineage ; and how they became grieved for their vow, and sent to consult his holiness the Pope how they might be absolved from it ; and how, by the advice of the Holy Father, the youth of the tribe of Benjamin carried off from a superb tournament all the ladies who were present, and thus won them wives without the consent either of their brides or their brides'* families/ There is less difficulty in understanding the presence of the ijpcoe^ in the dyoprj- The army of a pre- dominant tribe is, in early times, the assembly : in fact the array is the assembly, whether at home or abroad ; and when inferior castes are admitted to higher political privileges, in the early history of nations, it is almost always, by their being admitted to bear arms. The comitia ceiituriata are a very remarkable instance of this. Another illustration is furnished by the testamentum in procinctu, which was a will made be- fore the general assembly^ whether on military service or not. See Niebuhr Roman History i. 473. It seems to have been originally no more than a particular form of the testamentum in comitiis calatis. See Heinec. Antiq. Syntagm. ii. Tit. X. XI. XII. ^ 1, 2j 3, 4. »^^ Chap, XVI.
