Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c7.218

c7.218

Here we come into contact with a powerful race of state-builders, nations endowed with a strong social instinct and at the same time exhibiting a force of individualism that makes us see the single man in his full personality. When asked for their chief, the Vikings of Rollo proudly answered: ‘We have no chief, we are all equals.’ In the same way the sagas of the north give the impression of a society made up of chiefs, of strong and independent individuals, and these men are not only warriors and wild barbarians, they are also jurists, refined poets, and artists.⁷