So _Thucydides_ [203] tells us, that _under_ Cecrops _and the ancient Kings, untill _Theseus_; _Attica_ was always inhabited city by city, each having Magistrates and _Prytanea_: neither did they consult the King, when there was no fear of danger, but each apart administred their own common-wealth, and had their own Council, and even sometimes made war, as the _Eleusinians_ with _Eumolpus_ did against _Erechtheus_: but when _Theseus_, a prudent and potent man obtained the Kingdom, he took away the Courts and Magistrates of the other cities, and made them all meet in one Council and _Prytaneum_ at _Athens__. _Polemon_, as he is cited by [204] _Strabo_, tells us, _that in this body of _Attica_, there were 170 _[Greek: dêmoi]_, one of which was _Eleusis__: and _Philochorus_ [205] relates, that _when _Attica_ was infested by sea and land by the _Cares_ and _Boeoti_, _Cecrops_ the first of any man reduced the multitude, _that is the 170 towns_, into twelve cities, whose names were _Cecropia_, _Tetrapolis_, _Epacria_, _Decelia_, _Eleusis_, _Aphydna_, _Thoricus_, _Brauron_, _Cytherus_, _Sphettus_, _Cephissia_, and _Phalerus_; and that _Theseus_ contracted those twelve cities into one, which was _Athens__.
The original of the Kingdom of the _Argives_ was much after the same manner: for _Pausanias_ [206] tells us, _that _Phoroneus_ the son of _Inachus_ was the first who gathered into one community the _Argives_, who 'till then were scattered, and lived every where apart, and the place where they were first assembled was called _Phoronicum_, the city of _Phoroneus__: and _Strabo_ [207] observes, _that _Homer_ calls all the places which he reckons up in _Peloponnesus_, a few excepted, not cities but regions, because each of them consisted of a convention of many_ [Greek: dêmoi], _free towns, out of which afterward noble cities were built and frequented: so the _Argives_ composed _Mantinæa_ in _Arcadia_ out of five towns, and _Tegea_ out of nine; and out of so many was _Heræa_ built by _Cleombrotus_, or by _Cleonymus_: so also _Ægium_ was built out of seven or eight towns, _Patræ_: out of seven, and _Dyme_ out of eight; and so _Elis_ was erected by the conflux of many towns into one city._