aristocracy

70:6.5The early fe­tish king was of­ten kept in seclu­sion; he was re­garded as too sa­cred to be viewed ex­cept on feast days and holy days. Or­di­nar­ily a rep­re­sen­ta­tive was cho­sen to im­per­son­ate him, and this is the ori­gin of prime min­is­ters. The first cab­i­net of­fi­cer was a food ad­min­is­tra­tor; oth­ers shortly fol­lowed. Rulers soon ap­pointed rep­re­sen­ta­tives to be in charge of com­merce and re­li­gion; and the de­vel­op­ment of a cab­i­net was a di­rect step to­ward de­per­son­al­iza­tion of ex­ec­u­tive au­thor­ity. These as­sis­tants of the early kings be­came the ac­cepted no­bil­ity, and the king’s wife grad­u­ally rose to the dig­nity of queen as women came to be held in higher es­teem.

69:5.74. Po­si­tion—ea­ger­ness to buy so­cial and po­lit­i­cal pres­tige. There early sprang up a com­mer­cial­ized no­bil­ity, ad­mis­sion to which de­pended on the per­for­mance of some spe­cial ser­vice to roy­alty or was granted frankly for the pay­ment of money.

70:6.6Un­scrupu­lous rulers gained great power by the dis­cov­ery of poi­son. Early court magic was di­a­bol­i­cal; the king’s en­e­mies soon died. But even the most despotic tyrant was sub­ject to some re­stric­tions; he was at least re­strained by the ever-pres­ent fear of as­sas­si­na­tion. The med­i­cine men, witch doc­tors, and priests have al­ways been a pow­er­ful check on the kings. Sub­se­quently, the landown­ers, the aris­toc­racy, ex­erted a re­strain­ing in­flu­ence. And ever and anon the clans and tribes would sim­ply rise up and over­throw their despots and tyrants. De­posed rulers, when sen­tenced to death, were of­ten given the op­tion of com­mit­ting sui­cide, which gave ori­gin to the an­cient so­cial vogue of sui­cide in cer­tain cir­cum­stances.

90:2.12The shamans dressed well and usu­ally had a num­ber of wives; they were the orig­i­nal aris­toc­racy, be­ing ex­empt from all tribal re­stric­tions. They were very of­ten of low-grade mind and morals. They sup­pressed their ri­vals by de­nom­i­nat­ing them witches or sor­cer­ers and very fre­quently rose to such po­si­tions of in­flu­ence and power that they were able to dom­i­nate the chiefs or kings.