862 . HISTORY OF GREECE. Obes in all, ten to each tribe rests upon no other evidence than a peculiar punctuation of this Rhetra, which various other critics reject ; and seemingly, with good reason. We are thus left with- out any information respecting the Obe, though we know that it was an old, peculiar, and lasting division among the Spartan people, since it occurs in the oldest Rhetra of Lykurgus, as well as in late inscriptions of the date of the Roman empire. In similar inscriptions, and in the account of Pausanias, there in, however, recognized a classification of Spartans distinct from and independent of the three old Dorian tribes, and founded upon the different quarters of the city, Limnze, Mesoa, Pitane, and Kynosura ; l from one of these four was derived the usual de- scription of a Spartan in the days of Herodotus. There is reason to suppose that the old Dorian tribes became antiquated at Sparta, (as the four old Ionian tribes did at Athens,) and that the topical classification derived from the quarters of the city superseded it, these quarters having been originally the sepa- rate villages, of the aggregate of which Sparta was composed. 2 That the number of the old senators, thirty, was connected with the three Dorian tribes, deriving ten members from each, is probable enough, though there is no proof of it. Of the population of Laconia, three main divisions are recog- nized, Spartans, Perioekt, and Helots. The first of the three were the full qualified citizens, who lived in Sparta itself, fulfilled all the exigences of the Lykurgean discipline, paid their quota to the SySfeitia, or public mess, and were alone eligible to honors 3 or 1 Pausan. iii. 16, 6; Herodot. iii. 55; Bocckh, Corp. Inscript. Nos. 1241, 1338, 1347, 1425 j Stcph. Byz. v. Meaoa; Strabo, viii. p. 364; Hesych. v. Tliravri. There is much confusion and discrepancy of opinion about the Spartan tribes. Cragins admits six (De Republ. Lacon. i. 6) ; Meursius, eight (Rep. Lacon. i. 7): Barthe'lemy (Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis, iv. p. 185) makes them five. Manso has discussed the subject at large, but I think not very satisfactorily, in the eighth Beilagc to the first book of his History of Sparta (vol. ii. p. 125) ; and Dr. ThirlwalPs second Appendix (vol. i. p. 517) botli notices all the different modern opinions on this obscure topic, and adds several useful criticisms. Our scanty stock of original evidence .leaves much room for divergent hypotheses, and little chance of any certain conclusion. 2 Thucyd. i. 10.
- One or two Perioekic officers appear in military command towards th
