In a city, or near it, free men once had their birthplace, their residence; and so had all their known ancestors, relations, and acquaintance. Its authorities controlled their religion, their civil law, their military fortunes, and their festivals and sports. If it was ever in peril, they were in equal peril too, and they normally prospered in its prosperity. It was familiar to them in its entirety, and they knew all its principal men by sight, and heard their orations. And it was as citizens of that city that, if by chance they ever left it, they were known and judged by the rest of the world.