43G THE REVOLUTIONS. BOOK IV. a midtitudo of Perioeci} It Avas to avoid falling into this extremity that Sparta was so sparing of the blood of the real Spartans. As to Rome, its revolu- tions are explained, in a great measure, by its con- tinual wars. First, war destroyed its patricians ; of the three hundred families Avhich this caste comprised under the kings, there remained hardly a third part, after the conquest of Samnium. War afterwards har- vested the priniitive plebeians, those rich and coura- geous plebeians who filled the tive classes and formed the legions. One of the effects of war was that the cities were almost always biought to the strait of putting arms into the hands of the lower orders. It was in this way that at Athens, and in all the maritime cities, the need of a navy and the battles upon the water gave the poor class that importance which the constitution refused them. The Thetcs, raised to the rank of row- ers, of sailors, and even of soldiers, and holding in their hands the safety of their country, felt their importance, and took courage. Such was the origin of the Athe- nian democracy. Sparta was afraid of war. We can see in Thucydidcs how slow she was, and how unwilling, to commence a campaign. She allowed her- self to be dragged, in spite of herself, into the Pelopon- nesian war; but how many efforts she made to v>ith- draw ! This was because she was forced to arm her {)7ioi.ibIovf:^ her Neodamodes, lier Mothaccs, her La- conians, and even her Helots; she well knew that every war, by giving arms to the classes that she was op- pressing, threatened her with revolution, and that she would be compelled, on disbanding the army, either to ' Aristotle, Politics, VIII. 2, 8 (V. 2).
