[111] Aristot. Polit. vii. 6, 1; Hippocrat. De Aëre, Loc. et Aq. v. 85-86; Herodot. vii. 135.
[112] The σκῆπτρον, θέμιστες, or θέμις, and ἀγορὴ, go together, under the presiding superintendence of the gods. The goddess Themis both convokes and dismisses the agora (see Iliad, xi. 806; Odyss. ii. 67; Iliad, xx. 4).
The θέμιστες, commandments and sanctions, belong properly to Zeus (Odyss. xvi. 403); from him they are given in charge to earthly kings along with the sceptre (Iliad, i. 238; ii. 206).
The commentators on Homer recognized θέμις, rather too strictly, as ἀγορᾶς καὶ βουλῆς λέξιν (see Eustath. ad Odyss. xvi. 403).
The presents and the λιπαραὶ θέμιστες (Iliad, ix. 156).
[113] Hesiod, Theogon. 85; the single person judging seems to be mentioned (Odyss. xii. 439).
It deserves to be noticed that, in Sparta, the senate decided accusations of homicide (Aristot. Polit. iii. 1, 7): in historical Athens, the senate of Areiopagus originally did the same, and retained, even when its powers were much abridged, the trial of accusations of intentional homicide and wounding.
Respecting the judicial functions of the early Roman kings, Dionys. Hal. A. R. x. 1. Τὸ μὲν ἀρχαῖον οἱ βασιλεῖς ἐφ᾽ αὐτῶν ἔταττον τοῖς δεομένοις τὰς δίκας, καὶ τὸ δικαιωθὲν ὑπ᾽ ἐκείνων, τοῦτο νόμος ἦν (compare iv. 25; and Cicero, Republic. v. 2; Rubino, Untersuchungen, i. 2, p. 122).
[114] Iliad, xviii. 504.—
Οἱ δὲ γέροντες