enlarge by natural increase and by adoption, all
those coming into the gens submitting to its laws, customs, and social
usage. Finally several gentes united into a brotherhood association
called by the Greeks a _phratry_, by the Romans a _curia_. This
brotherhood was organized on a common religious basis, with a common
deity and a central place of worship. It also was used partially as
the basis of military organization. This group represents the first
unit based upon locality. From it spring the ward idea and the idea of
local self-government.

The _tribe_ represented a number of gentes united for religious and
military purposes. Although its principal power was military, there
were a common altar and a common worship for all members of the tribe.
The chief, or head of the tribe, was the military leader, and usually
performed an important part in all the affairs of the tribe. As the
tribe became the seat of power for military operations, the gens
remained as the foundation of political government, for it was the
various heads of the gentes who formed the council of the chief or king
and later laid the foundation of the senate, wherever instituted. It
was common for the tribe in most instances to pass into a village
community before developing full national life. There were exceptions
to this, where tribes have passed directly into {44} well-organized
groups without the formation of the village or the city.

The _village community_, next in logical order, represents a group of
closely related people located on a given territory, with a
half-communal system of government. There were the little group of
houses forming the village proper and representing the different homes
of the family group. There were the common pasture-land, the common
woodland, and the fertile fields for cultivation. These were all
owned, except perhaps the house lot, by the entire community, and every
year the tillable land was parcelled out by the elders of the community
to the heads of families for tillage. Usually the tiller of the soil
had a right to the crop, although among the early Greeks the custom
seems to be reversed, and the individual owned the land, but was
compelled to place its proceeds into a common granary. The village
community represents the transition from a nomadic to a permanent form
of government, and was common to all of the Aryan tribes. The
federation of the village communities or the expansion of the tribes