A man had a [Greek: klaeros] or lot (_ILIAD_, XV. 448), but what was a "lot"? At first, probably, a share in land periodically shifted-& _partage noir_ of the Russian peasants. Kings and men who deserve public gratitude receive a [Greek: temenos] a piece of public land, as Bellerophon did from the Lycians (VI. 194). In the case of Melager such an estate is offered to him, but by whom? Not by the people at large, but by the [Greek: gerontes] (IX. 574).
Who are the [Greek: gerontes]? They are not ordinary men of the people; they are, in fact, the gentry. In an age so advanced from tribal conditions as is the Homeric time--far advanced beyond ancient tribal Scotland or Ireland--we conceive that, as in these countries during the tribal period, the [Greek: gerontes] (in Celtic, the _Flaith_) held in POSSESSION, if not in accordance with the letter of the law, as property, much more land than a single "lot." The Irish tribal freeman had a right to a "lot," redistributed by rotation. Wealth consisted of cattle; and a _bogire_, a man of many kine, let _them_ out to tenants. Such a rich man, a _flatha_, would, in accordance with human nature, use his influence with kineless dependents to acquire in possession several lots, avoid the partition, and keep the lots in possession though not legally in property. Such men were the Irish _flaith_, gentry under the _RI_, or king, his [Greek: gerontes], each with his _ciniod_, or near kinsmen, to back his cause.
"_Flaith_ seems clearly to mean land-owners," or squires, says Sir James Ramsay. [Footnote: _Foundations of England_, i. 16, Note 4.] If land, contrary to the tribal ideal, came into private hands in early Ireland, we can hardly suppose that, in the more advanced and settled Homeric society, no man but the king held land equivalent in extent to a number of "lots." The [Greek: gerontes], the gentry, the chariot-owning warriors, of whom there are hundreds not of kingly rank in Homer (as in Ireland there were many _flaith_ to one _Ri_) probably, in an informal but tight grip, held considerable lands. When we note their position in the _Iliad_, high above the nameless host, can we imagine that they did not hold more land than the simple, perhaps periodically shifting, "lot"? There were "lotless" men (Odyssey, XL 490), lotless _freemen_, and what had become of their lots? Had they not fallen into the hands of the [Greek: gerontes] or the _flaith_?