ABSTRACT
We have defined personal power as power which depends on personal relationships between the holders of power and those subject to them. Was government based on power of that type? Did, for example, rulers depend on aristocratic elites obedient to them by virtue of bonds of personal obedience and loyalty? And, if so, how was power and the way it was exercised affected by the nature of those aristocratic elites and their dependence or otherwise on the rulers?
