The similarities between the Grecian and the Iroquois gens will at once be recognized. Differences in characteristics will also be perceived, growing out of the more advanced condition of Grecian society, and a fuller development of their religious system. It will not be necessary to verify the existence of the several attributes of the gens named by Mr. Grote, as the proof is plain in the classical authorities. There were other characteristics which doubtless pertained to the Grecian gens, although it may be difficult to establish the existence of all of them; such as: 7. The limitation of descent to the male line; 8. The prohibition of intermarriage in the gens excepting in the case of heiresses; 9. The right of adopting strangers into the gens; and 10. The right of electing and deposing its chiefs.
The rights, privileges and obligations of the members of the Grecian gens may be recapitulated, with the additions named, as follows:
III. _Mutual rights of succession to property of deceased members._
IV. _Reciprocal obligations of help, defense and redress of injuries._
V. _The right to intermarry in the gens in the cases of orphan daughters and heiresses._
VI. _The possession of common property, an archon, and a treasurer._
VII. _The limitation of descent to the male line._
VIII. _The obligation not to marry in the gens except in specified cases._
IX. _The right to adopt strangers into the gens._
X. _The right to elect and depose its chiefs._
A brief reference to the added characteristics should be made.
7. _The limitation of descent to the male line._ There is no doubt that such was the rule, because it is proved by their genealogies. I have not been able to find in any Greek author a definition of a gens or of a gentilis that would furnish a sufficient test of the right of a given person to the gentile connection. Cicero, Varro and Festus have defined the Roman gens and gentilis, which were strictly analogous to the Grecian, with sufficient fullness to show that descent was in the male line. From the nature of the gens, descent was either in the female line or the male, and included but a moiety of the descendants of the founder. It is precisely like the family among ourselves. Those who are descended from the males bear the family name, and they constitute a gens in the full sense of the term, but in a state of dispersion, and without any bond of union excepting those nearest in degree. The females lose, with their marriage, the family name, and with their children are transferred to another family. Grote remarks that Aristotle was the "son of the physician Nikomachus who belonged to the gens of the Asklepiads."[239] Whether Aristotle was of the gens of his father depends upon the further question whether they both derived their descent from Aesculapius, through males exclusively. This is shown by Laertius, who states that "Aristotle was the son of Nikomachus ... and Nikomachus was descended from Nikomachus the son of Machaon, the son of Aesculapius."[240] Although the higher members of the series may be fabulous, the manner of tracing the descent would show the gens of the person. The statement of Hermann, on the authority of Isaeus, is also to the point. "Every infant was registered in the phratria and clan (genos) of its father."[241] Registration in the gens of the father implies that his children were of his gens.