APPENDIX

Summary

ON THE NUMBER OF THE SPARTAN TRIBES.

That before the conquest of Peloponnesus, the Dorians were divided into three tribes, which were supposed to have derived their names from Hyllus, the son of Hercules, and from Dymas and Pamphylus, sons of the Dorian king, Ægimius, seems sufficiently certain (Steph. Byz. Δυμᾶν). This, of itself, without any direct testimony, raises a presumption that the same division prevailed in all the Dorian states, where the contrary cannot be distinctly proved. Beside this, there appears to be scarcely any valid ground for assigning the same number to the Spartan tribes. Pindar's allusion to the forefathers of the Dorian race (Pyth. 1. 61.), seems not to deserve the stress which is laid upon it by Mueller (Dor. iii. 5. 1.), whose argument does not need it. It gains little from the remark of the scholiast, who introduces Dorus among the sons of Ægimius. The main question is, whether there is any reason for preferring a different number for the Spartan tribes.