2. Wherever the Dorians alone had the full rights of citizenship, no other tribes of the highest ranks could exist; but if other persons were admitted in any considerable number to a share in the government, there were necessarily either one or more tribes in addition to these three. Thus a fourth, named Hyrnathia,(309) is known to us in the states of Argos and Epidaurus; in Ægina also an additional tribe of this kind must have existed, for in this island there were distinguished families not of Doric origin.(310) In Sicyon the fourth tribe was called the Ægialean. In Corinth also it appears that there were altogether eight tribes.(311) But in Sparta, the city of pure Doric customs, we cannot suppose the existence of any other than the three genuine Doric tribes. At first sight, indeed, it might appear that the great and distinguished house of the Ægidæ, of Cadmean descent, was without the pale of these tribes; but it must have been adopted into one of the three at its admission to the rights of citizenship.(312) For the number of the Spartan obæ, the gerontes, the knights, the landed estates, viz., 30, 300, 9000, &c., manifestly allow of division by the number 3, while they have no reference to the number 4.
3. The tribes of Sparta were again divided into obæ, which are also called phratriæ.(313) The term _phratria_ ({ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER PHI~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH VARIA~}) signified among the Greeks an union of houses, whether founded upon the ties of actual relationship, or formed for political purposes, and according to some fixed rule, for the convenience of public regulations. Thus the word _oba_ comprehends houses ({ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH OXIA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}, _gentes_), which were either really founded on descent from the same stock, or had united themselves in ancient times for civil and religious purposes, and afterwards continued to exist as political bodies under certain regulations.(314) The Spartan obæ appear to have likewise been local divisions, since the name { ~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA WITH PSILI~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER BETA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH VARIA~}, _i.e._, { ~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH PSILI AND OXIA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}, signifies _single_ hamlets or districts of a town; although in the case of Sparta it is not evident what relation they bore to the five divisions of the city, of which we have spoken above.(315) It should be, moreover, observed, that this does not prevent us from supposing that, as in the parallel case of the phratriæ, the obæ contained the houses; since we may be allowed to infer with great probability, from the simple and coherent regularity of the Spartan institutions, that the tribes had taken possession of particular districts of the town, and that these were again divided into smaller partitions, according to the obæ; a conjecture which, perhaps, will be confirmed by the statement, that a place in Sparta was called Agiadæ:(316) now this was the name of one of the royal families, which, as being an oba, appears to have given its name to one district of the town.