In the first place, the jurisdiction of the ephors was extended[489] chiefly by their privilege of instituting scrutinies (εὔθυναι) into the official conduct of all magistrates, with the exception of the councillors.[490] By this indeed we are not to understand, that all magistrates, after the cessation of their office, rendered [pg 122] an account of their proceedings, but only that the ephors could compel them to undergo a trial, if there had been any thing suspicious in their administration; a right, however, as it extended over the ephors of the preceding year,[491] which restrained the power that it bestowed. But the ephors were not compelled to wait for the natural expiration of an office, they could suspend or deprive the officer by their judicial powers.[492] Now in this respect the king was in the very same situation with the remaining magistrates, and could, as well as the others, be brought before the tribunal of the ephors. Even before the Persian war, Cleomenes was tried before them for bribery.[493] The king was always bound to obey their summons:[494] but the fact of his not being compelled to yield till the third time, was used by Cleomenes III. as an argument to prove that the power of the ephors was originally an usurpation.[495] At the same time, their power extended in practice so far, that they could accuse the king, as well as the other magistrates, in extreme cases, without consulting the assembly, and could bring him to trial for life and death.[496] This larger court consisted of [pg 123] all the councillors, of the ephors, who thus came before it as accusers, besides having the right of sitting as judges, of the other king, and probably of several magistrates, who had all equal votes.[497] From this court there was no appeal; it had power to condemn the king to death;[498] although, until later times, it was prevented by a religious scruple from executing this sentence.[499] That its proceedings were commonly carried on with great propriety and composure, is stated upon the occasion of an instance to the contrary.[500] This great court of magistrates we frequently find deciding concerning public crimes with supreme authority,[501] and the ephors acting in it as accusers:[502] but that the ephors had power of themselves to punish with death, I deny most decidedly:[503] whether they had authority to banish, I even doubt.[504] The inaccuracy of later writers has confounded the steps preparatory to the sentence, with the sentence itself; a power of life and death in the hands of the ephors would have been worse than tyranny. The [pg 124] ephors, when they judged for themselves, were only able to impose fines, and to compel an instantaneous payment.[505] Their power of punishing the kings in this manner, or by a reprimand, was doubtless very extensive, and appears to have been subject to no limitation. Agesilaus was fined by them for endeavouring to make himself popular,[506] and Archidamus was censured for having married too small a wife,[507] which implies the opinion, that the community had a right to require their kings to keep up a robust family.[508] The kings, however, were compelled to submit to this treatment, in a state in which every magistrate exercised the full powers of his office with a certain degree of severity. We find, however, that the ephors had also jurisdiction in cases which were neither civil actions nor the scrutinies of public officers; for example, they punished a man for having brought money into the state;[509] another for indolence;[510] a third from the singular reason that he was generally injured and insulted:[511] and their share in the superintendence of public education,[512] as well as over the celebration of the public games,[513] gave them a jurisdiction in causes relating to these points. In cases [pg 125] of this kind, however, we are ignorant how far they acted as a separate board, and how far in connexion with other magistrates, for example, as assessors of the kings.[514] They judged according to unwritten laws, as Sparta knew no others. Aristotle calls this, deciding according to their will and pleasure.[515]
5. Another more important circumstance, as affecting the extension of the power of the ephors, was, that these officers (from what time we are not informed) placed themselves in connexion with the popular assembly, so that they had a right to transact business with it in preference to all other magistrates. They had power to convene the people,[516] and put the vote to them.[517] They must in early times have had the privilege of proposing laws[518] (but doubtless not till after they had passed through the gerusia), if the ephor Chilon is correctly called a legislator.[519] They also possessed great authority in transactions with foreign nations. They admitted ambassadors, and had also power to dismiss them from the boundary,[520] likewise to expel suspected foreigners from the state,[521] and therefore they were probably the chief managers of the Xenelasia. They frequently carried on the negotiations with foreign ambassadors, with full powers of treating;[522] and had great influence, especially of a preparatory nature,[523] upon declarations of war, as well as armistices and treaties of peace,[524] which the ephors, and [pg 126] particularly the first among them, swore to and subscribed in presence of other persons.[525] To them also was intrusted the right of dismissing ambassadors.[526] In time of war they were empowered to send out troops (φρουρὰν φαίνειν[527]) on whatever day seemed to them expedient;[528] and they even appear to have had authority to determine the number of men.[529] The army they then intrusted to the king, or some other general,[530] who received from them instructions how to act;[531] sent back to the ephors for fresh instructions;[532] were restrained by them through the attendance of extraordinary plenipotentiaries;[533] were recalled by means of the scytale;[534] summoned before a judicial tribunal;[535] and their first duty after their return was to visit the office of the ephors.[536] These officers also sent commands, with respect to discipline, to standing armies abroad,[537] Now in these cases the ephors must [pg 127] have acted, not upon their own authority, but as the agents of the public assembly;[538] it was their duty to execute the decrees of the people, the mode being left in some degree to their discretion. For this reason the assembly is frequently mentioned, together with the ephors, in the same cases in which on other occasions the ephors alone are represented as acting. The ephors were often manifestly mediators between the generals and the assembly. In the field the king was followed by two ephors, who belonged to the council of war;[539] it is probable that they had the chief care of the maintenance of the army, as well as the division of the plunder:[540] those ephors who remained behind in Sparta received the booty in charge, and paid it in to the public treasury.[541] We also find the ephors deciding with regard to conquered cities, whether they should be dependent or independent;[542] they suppressed the ten governors appointed by Lysander, nominated harmosts,[543] &c.; all evidently in the name and authority of that power, which it would have been against all principles of a free constitution to intrust to the college of ephors.
6. Although we are prevented from obtaining an entirely clear view of this subject, and particularly from pointing out all the collisions between the authority [pg 128] of the ephors and other magistrates, by the secret nature of the Spartan constitution,[544] it is yet evident that the powers of the ephors were essentially founded upon the supreme authority of the popular assembly, whose agents and plenipotentiaries they were. Every popular assembly is necessarily an unskilful body, and little able to act both with energy and moderation; least of all was the Spartan assembly capable of transacting and executing any complicated business. For this reason it intrusted to the ephors, who were chosen upon democratic principles from among the people, a power similar to that which the public leaders or demagogues of Athens exercised in so pernicious a manner. Plato and Aristotle compare their authority with a tyranny:[545] and it is to be remembered that in Greece tyrants continually rose from demagogues. Accordingly the ephors reached the summit of their power when they began to lead the public assembly: it is probable that this was first done by the ephor Asteropus, who is one of the first persons to whom the extension of the powers of that office is ascribed,[546] and who probably lived not long before the time of Chilon. The extensive political influence of Lacedæmon also contributed to give a greater importance to the ephoralty. Chasms arose in the constitution of Lycurgus, which had been intended for a simpler state of things, and were filled up by the ambition of these magistrates. The transactions with foreign states required a small number of skilful and clever men; the gerusia was too helpless, simple, and antiquated for this purpose; and accordingly the sphere of its operations [pg 129] appears to have been confined to domestic affairs. And lastly, as the finances of Sparta became continually an object of greater and greater importance, the influence of the officers necessarily increased, who had, as it appears, at all times the management of the treasury.
7. There are some other facts which may be added respecting the official proceedings of the ephors. They commenced their annual office with the autumnal equinox, the beginning of the Lacedæmonian year.[547] The first of them gave his name to the year, which was called after him in all public transactions. They commenced their official duties with a species of edict, by which the secret officers (κρυπτοὶ) were sent out: it appears from this that they also exercised a superintendence over the discipline of the Helots and Periœci.[548] In the same edict it was ordered “to shave the beard,” “and obey the laws,”[549] the former being a metaphorical, and indeed rather a singular expression for subjection and obedience. They held their daily meetings in the ephors' office, in which they also ate together.[550] In this house foreigners and ambassadors were introduced, and hospitably entertained.[551] Next to the Ephoreum stood a temple of Fear, which the dictatorial power of [pg 130] these magistrates doubtless inspired in the citizens.[552] Lastly, these officers also required a religious foundation for their dignity. The ephors at certain periods saw dreams in the temple of Pasiphaa at Thalamæ, and their visions were politically interpreted: we know that a dream of this kind stimulated the Spartans to return to their ancient equality.[553] Of their periodical inspection of the heavens we have already spoken, when treating of the kingly office:[554] and it is remarkable that this custom, which was doubtless of great antiquity, occurs first in very late times, and was used in support of the tyranny of the ephors over the kings. It is these later times in particular which confirm the assertion made in the beginning of the chapter, that the ephoralty was the moving element, the principle of change, in the Spartan constitution, and, in the end, the cause of its final dissolution; for the ephors, being brought by means of their jurisdiction and their political duties into extensive intercourse with foreign nations, were the first to give up the severe customs of ancient Sparta, and to admit a greater luxury of manners. Even Aristotle censures their relaxed mode of life.[555] It is still more to our purpose that the decrees which undermined the constitution of Sparta originated from these magistrates: it was the ephor Epitadeus who first carried through the law permitting the free inheritance of property. For this reason it was necessary for the royal heroes Agis and Cleomenes, when, in a fruitless but glorious struggle with the degenerate age, they undertook to restore the constitution [pg 131] of Lycurgus, to begin with the overthrow of the ephors.[556]
8. The undefined and vague nature of the authority of the ephors[557] is strongly opposed to the accurate designation of the duties of the other annual officers. Although there were many officers of this description at Sparta, we seldom find any mention of them, as they rarely overstepped the legal bounds of their authority. Yet it is possible that the name τέλη,[558] which is so frequently used for the presidents of the assembly, and the high court for state offences, and which to a foreigner rather concealed than explained the internal affairs of Sparta, comprehended other magistrates, according to the circumstances of the case, besides the kings, councillors, and ephors. The nomophylaces and bidiæi,[559] as well as the ephors, had their offices in the market-place. The duties of the former officers are declared by their name, of their number we know nothing; of the latter there were five, and their business was to inspect the gymnastic exercises.[560] The harmosyni were appointed to superintend the manners of the women;[561] the buagi regulated a part of the education; to the empelori belonged the market-police.[562]
The polemarchs also, in addition to their military functions, had a civil, together with a certain judicial power. In some Laconian inscriptions, belonging to the Roman time, many names of nomophylaces, buagi, and σύσσιτοι of the magistrates are recorded; the meaning of the latter distinction is obscure. The election of regular nomophylaces was an occurrence somewhat unusual.[563] With regard to later times we may further observe, that the ephoralty, which was abolished by Cleomenes, was re-established under the Roman dominion;[564] and that the same king instituted a college of πατρονόμοι in the place of the gerusia,[565] although Pausanias again mentions gerontes; unless it is possible that the two councils coexisted. An inscription of the second century of the Christian era[566] mentions a σύνδικος at Sparta, a public advocate, and δαμοσιομάστης, a public inquisitor, and interpreter of the laws of Lycurgus, concerning whom, as well as others of the magistrates here mentioned, we will say more hereafter.[567]
Chapter VIII.
§ 1. The Cosmi of Crete. § 2. Changes in their powers. § 3. The Prytanes of Corinth and Rhodes. § 4. The Prytanes of ancient Athens. § 5. The Artynæ of Argos; the Demiurgi in several states of Peloponnesus.