Comparison with the Lacedæmonian Kryptia.
Plato considers that these Agronomi will go through hard work during their two years of service, inasmuch as they will have no slaves, and will have to do everything for themselves: though in the performance of any public work they are empowered to put in requisition both men and cattle from the neighbourhood.[185] He pronounces it to be a salutary discipline for the young men, whom he admonishes that an apprenticeship in obedience is indispensable to qualify them for command, and that exact obedience to the laws and magistrates will be their best title to posts of authority when older.[186] Moreover, he insists on the necessity that all citizens should become minutely acquainted with the whole territory: towards which purpose he encourages young men in the exercise of hunting. He compares (indirectly) his movable guard of Agronomi to the Lacedæmonian Krypti, who maintained the police of Laconia, and kept watch over the Helots:[187] though they are also the parallel of the youthful Peripoli at Athens, who were employed as Guards for two years round various parts of Attica.
[185] Plato, Legg. vi. pp. 760 E-763 A.
[186] Plato, Legg. vi. p. 762 E.
[187] Plato, Legg. vi. p. 763 A-B. εἴτε τις κρυπτοὺς εἴτε ἀγρονόμους εἴθ’ ὅ, τι καλῶν χαίρει, &c. He notes the hardships endured by these Κρυπτοὶ in their Κρυπτεία, i. p. 633 C.
The phrase seems however to indicate that Plato did not much like to call his Agronomi by the name of Κρυπτοί. The duties performed by the Lacedæmonian Κρυπτοὶ against the Helots were of the harshest character. See chap. vi. p. 509 of my ‘History of Greece’. Schömann, Antiq. Juris Publ. Græc. iv. 1-4, p. 111, v. 1, 21, p. 199.
Priests — Exêgêtæ — Property belonging to temples.
Besides Astynomi and Agoranomi, Plato provides priests for the care of the sacred buildings in the city, and for the service of the Gods. In choosing these priests, as in choosing the other magistrates, election and sortition are to be combined: to satisfy at once the oligarchical and the democratical sentiment. The lot will be peculiarly suitable in a case where priests are to be chosen — because the God may be expected to guide it in a manner agreeable to himself.[188] Plato himself however is not confident on this point, for he enjoins additional precautions: the person chosen must be sixty years old at least, free from all bodily defect, of legitimate birth, and of a family untainted by previous crime. Plato prescribes farther, that laws or canons respecting matters of divine concern shall be obtained from the Delphian oracle: and that certain Exêgêtæ shall be named as authorised interpreters of these canons, as long as they live.[189] Treasurers or stewards shall also be chosen, out of the two richer classes of the census, to administer the landed property and produce belonging to the various temples.[190]
[188] Plato, Legg. vi. p. 749 D.
[189] Plato, Legg. vi. p. 759 E.