A Smaller Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities

by William Smith

ECDĬCUS (ἔκδικος), the name of an officer in many of the towns of Asia Minor during the Roman dominion, whose principal duty was the care of the public money, and the prosecution of all parties who owed money to the state.

ECMARTȲRĬA (ἐκμαρτυρία), signifies the deposition of a witness at Athens, who, by reason of absence abroad, or illness, was unable to attend in court. His statement was taken down in writing, in the presence of persons expressly appointed to receive it, and afterwards, upon their swearing to its identity, was read as evidence in the cause.

ĒDICTUM. The Jus Edicendi, or power of making edicts, belonged to the higher magistratus populi Romani, but it was principally exercised by the two praetors, the praetor urbanus, and the praetor peregrinus, whose jurisdiction was exercised in the provinces by the praeses. The curule aediles likewise made many edicts; and tribunes, censors, and pontifices also promulgated edicts relating to the matters of their respective jurisdictions. The edicta were among the sources of Roman law. The edictum may be described generally as a rule promulgated by a magistratus on entering on his office, which was done by writing it on an album and exhibiting it in a conspicuous place. As the office of a magistratus was annual, the rules promulgated by a predecessor were not binding on a successor, but he might confirm or adopt the rules of his predecessor, and introduce them into his own edict, and hence such adopted rules were called edictum ralatitium, or vetus, as opposed to edictum novum. A repentinum edictum was that rule which was made (prout res incidit) for the occasion. A perpetuum edictum was that rule which was made by the magistratus on entering upon office, and which was intended to apply to all cases to which it was applicable during the year of his office: hence it was sometimes called also annua lex. Until it became the practice for magistratus to adopt the edicta of their predecessors, the edicta could not form a body of permanent binding rules; but when this practice became common, the edicta (edictum tralatitium) soon constituted a large body of law, which was practically of as much importance as any other part of the law.

EICOSTĒ (εἰκοστή), a tax or duty of one-twentieth (five per cent.) upon all commodities exported or imported by sea in the states of the allies subject to Athens. This tax was first imposed B.C. 413, in the place of the direct tribute which had up to this time been paid by the subject allies; and the change was made with the hope of raising a greater revenue. This tax, like all others, was farmed, and the farmers of it were called εἰκοστολόγοι.

EIRĒN or ĪRĒN (εἴρην or ἴρην), the name given to the Spartan youth when he attained the age of twenty. At the age of eighteen he emerged from childhood, and was called μελλείρην. When he had attained his twentieth year, he began to exercise a direct influence over his juniors, and was entrusted with the command of troops in battle. The word appears to have originally signified a commander. The ἰρένες mentioned in Herodotus, in connection with the battle of Plataeae, were certainly not youths, but commanders.

EISANGĔLĬA (εἰσαγγελία), signifies, in its primary and most general sense, a denunciation of any kind, but, much more usually, an information laid before the council or the assembly of the people, and the consequent impeachment and trial of state criminals at Athens under novel or extraordinary circumstances. Among these were the occasions upon which manifest crimes were alleged to have been committed, and yet of such a nature as the existing laws had failed to anticipate, or at least describe specifically (ἄγραφα ἀδικήματα), the result of which omission would have been, but for the enactment by which the accusations in question might be preferred (νόμος εἰσαγγελτικός), that a prosecutor would not have known to what magistrate to apply; that a magistrate, if applied to, could not with safety have accepted the indictment or brought it into court; and that, in short, there would have been a total failure of justice.

EISITĒRĬA (εἰσιτήρια, scil. ἱερά), sacrifices offered at Athens by the senate before the session began, in honour of the Θεοὶ Βουλαῖοι, i.e. Zeus and Athena.

EISPHŎRA (εἰσφορά), an extraordinary tax on property, raised at Athens, whenever the means of the state were not sufficient to carry on a war. It is not quite certain when this property-tax was introduced; but it seems to have come first into general use about B.C. 428. It could never be raised without a decree of the people, who also assigned the amount required; and the strategi, or generals, superintended its collection, and presided in the courts where disputes connected with, or arising from, the levying of the tax were settled. The usual expressions for paying this property-tax are: εἰσφέρειν χρήματα, εἰσφέρειν εἰς τὸν πόλεμον, εἰς τὴν σωτηρίαν τῆς πόλεως, εἰσφορὰς εἰσφέρειν, and those who paid it were called οἱ εἰσφέροντες. The census of Solon was at first the standard according to which the eisphora was raised, until in B.C. 377 a new census was instituted, in which the people, for the purpose of fixing the rates of the property-tax, were divided into a number of symmoriae (συμμορίαι) or classes, similar to those which were afterwards made for the trierarchy. Each of the ten tribes or phylae, appointed 120 of its wealthier citizens; and the whole number of persons included in the symmoriae was thus 1200, who were considered as the representatives of the whole republic. This body of 1200 was divided into four classes, each consisting of 300. The first class, or the richest, were the leaders of the symmoriae (ἡγεμόνες συμμοριῶν), and are often called the three hundred. They probably conducted the proceedings of the symmoriae, and they, or, which is more likely, the demarchs, had to value the taxable property. Other officers were appointed to make out the lists of the rates, and were called ἐπιγραφεῖς, διαγραφεῖς or ἐκλογεῖς. When the wants of the state were pressing, the 300 leaders advanced the money to the others, who paid it back to the 300 at the regular time. The first class probably consisted of persons who possessed property from 12 talents upwards; the second class, of persons who possessed property from 6 talents and upwards, but under 12; the third class, of persons who possessed property from 2 talents upwards, but under 6; the fourth class, of persons who possessed property from 25 minae upwards, but under 2 talents. The rate of taxation was higher or lower according to the wants of the republic at the time; we have accounts of rates of a 12th, a 50th, a 100th, and a 500th part of the taxable property. If any one thought that his property was taxed higher than that of another man on whom juster claims could be made, he had the right to call upon this person to take the office in his stead, or to submit to a complete exchange of property. [[Antidosis].] No Athenian, on the other hand, if belonging to the tax-paying classes, could be exempt from the eisphora, not even the descendants of Harmodius and Aristogeiton.

ĒLECTRUM (ἤλεκτρος and ἤλεκτρον), is used by the ancient writers in two different senses, either for amber or for a mixture of metals composed of gold and silver. In Homer and Hesiod, it has, in all probability, the former meaning. The earliest passage of any Greek writer, in which the word is certainly used for the metal, is in the Antigone of Sophocles (1038). This alludes to native electrum; but the compound was also made artificially. Pliny states that when gold contains a fifth part of silver, it is called electrum; that it is found in veins of gold; and that it is also made by art: if, he adds, it contains more than a fifth of silver, it becomes too brittle to be malleable. But Isidorus mentions electrum composed of three parts gold, and one of silver. Electrum was used for plate, and the other similar purposes for which gold and silver were employed. It was also used as a material for money. Lampridius tells us, that Alexander Severus struck coins of it; and coins are in existence, of this metal, struck by the kings of Bosporus, by Syracuse, and by other Greek states.

ĔLEUSĪNĬA (ἐλευσίνια), a festival and mysteries, originally celebrated only at Eleusis in Attica, in honour of Demeter and Persephone. The Eleusinian mysteries, or the mysteries, as they were sometimes called, were the holiest and most venerable of all that were celebrated in Greece. Various traditions were current among the Greeks respecting the author of these mysteries: for, while some considered Eumolpus or Musaeus to be their founder, others stated that they had been introduced from Egypt by Erechtheus, who at a time of scarcity provided his country with corn from Egypt, and imported from the same quarter the sacred rites and mysteries of Eleusis. A third tradition attributed the institution to Demeter herself, who, when wandering about in search of her daughter, Persephone, was believed to have come to Attica, in the reign of Erechtheus, to have supplied its inhabitants with corn, and to have instituted the mysteries at Eleusis. This last opinion seems to have been the most common among the ancients, and in subsequent times a stone was shown near the well Callichoros at Eleusis, on which the goddess, overwhelmed with grief and fatigue, was believed to have rested on her arrival in Attica. All the accounts and allusions in ancient writers seem to warrant the conclusion, that the legends concerning the introduction of the Eleusinia are descriptions of a period when the inhabitants of Attica were becoming acquainted with the benefits of agriculture, and of a regularly constituted form of society.—In the reign of Erechtheus a war is said to have broken out between the Athenians and Eleusinians; and when the latter were defeated, they acknowledged the supremacy of Athens in everything except the mysteries, which they wished to conduct and regulate for themselves. Thus the superintendence remained with the descendants of Eumolpus [[Eumolpidae]], the daughters of the Eleusinian king Celeus, and a third class of priests, the Ceryces, who seem likewise to have been connected with the family of Eumolpus, though they themselves traced their origin to Hermes and Aglauros.—At the time when the local governments of the several townships of Attica were concentrated at Athens, the capital became also the centre of religion, and several deities who had hitherto only enjoyed a local worship, were now raised to the rank of national gods. This seems also to have been the case with the Eleusinian goddess, for in the reign of Theseus we find mention of a temple at Athens, called Eleusinion, probably the new and national sanctuary of Demeter. Her priests and priestesses now became naturally attached to the national temple of the capital, though her original place of worship at Eleusis, with which so many sacred associations were connected, still retained its importance and its special share in the celebration of the national solemnities.—We must distinguish between the greater Eleusinia, which were celebrated at Athens and Eleusis, and the lesser, which were held at Agrae on the Ilissus. The lesser Eleusinia were only a preparation (προκάθαρσις or προάγνευσις) for the real mysteries. They were held every year in the month of Anthesterion, and, according to some accounts, in honour of Persephone alone. Those who were initiated in them bore the name of Mystae (μύσται), and had to wait at least another year before they could be admitted to the great mysteries. The principal rites of this first stage of initiation consisted in the sacrifice of a sow, which the mystae seem to have first washed in the Cantharus, and in the purification by a priest, who bore the name of Hydranos (Ὑδρανός). The mystae had also to take an oath of secrecy, which was administered to them by the Mystagogus (μυσταγωγός, also called ἱεροφάντης or προφήτης), and they received some kind of preparatory instruction, which enabled them afterwards to understand the mysteries which were revealed to them in the great Eleusinia.—The great mysteries were celebrated every year in the month of Boedromion, during nine days, from the 15th to the 23rd, both at Athens and Eleusis. The initiated were called ἐπόπται or ἔφυροι. On the first day, those who had been initiated in the lesser Eleusinia, assembled at Athens. On the second day the mystae went in solemn procession to the sea-coast, where they underwent a purification. Of the third day scarcely anything is known with certainty; we are only told that it was a day of fasting, and that in the evening a frugal meal was taken, which consisted of cakes made of sesame and honey. On the fourth day the καλάθος κάθοδος seems to have taken place. This was a procession with a basket containing pomegranates and poppy-seeds; it was carried on a waggon drawn by oxen, and women followed with small mystic cases in their hands. On the fifth day, which appears to have been called the torch day (ἡ τῶν λαμπάδων ἡμέρα), the mystae, led by the δᾳδοῦχος, went in the evening with torches to the temple of Demeter at Eleusis, where they seem to have remained during the following night. This rite was probably a symbolical representation of Demeter wandering about in search of Persephone. The sixth day, called Iacchos, was the most solemn of all. The statue of Iacchos, son of Demeter, adorned with a garland of myrtle and bearing a torch in his hand, was carried along the sacred road amidst joyous shouts and songs, from the Cerameicus to Eleusis. This solemn procession was accompanied by great numbers of followers and spectators. During the night from the sixth to the seventh day the mystae remained at Eleusis, and were initiated into the last mysteries (ἐποπτεία). Those who were neither ἐπόπται nor μύσται were sent away by a herald. The mystae now repeated the oath of secrecy which had been administered to them at the lesser Eleusinia, underwent a new purification, and then they were led by the mystagogus in the darkness of night into the lighted interior of the sanctuary (φωταγωγία), and were allowed to see (αὐτοψία) what none except the epoptae ever beheld. The awful and horrible manner in which the initiation is described by later, especially Christian writers, seems partly to proceed from their ignorance of its real character, partly from their horror of and aversion to these pagan rites. The more ancient writers always abstained from entering upon any description of the subject. Each individual, after his initiation, is said to have been dismissed by the words κόγξ, ὄμπαξ, in order to make room for other mystae. On the seventh day the initiated returned to Athens amid various kinds of raillery and jests, especially at the bridge over the Cephisus, where they sat down to rest, and poured forth their ridicule on those who passed by. Hence the words γεφυρίζειν and γεφυρισμός. These σκώμματα seem, like the procession with torches to Eleusis, to have been dramatical and symbolical representations of the jests by which, according to the ancient legend, Iambe or Baubo had dispelled the grief of the goddess and made her smile. We may here observe, that probably the whole history of Demeter and Persephone was in some way or other symbolically represented at the Eleusinia. The eighth day, called Epidauria (Ἐπιδαύρια), was a kind of additional day for those who by some accident had come too late, or had been prevented from being initiated on the sixth day. It was said to have been added to the original number of days, when Asclepius, coming over from Epidaurus to be initiated, arrived too late, and the Athenians, not to disappoint the god, added an eighth day. The ninth and last day bore the name of πλημοχοαί, from a peculiar kind of vessel called πλημοχοή, which is described as a small kind of κότυλος. Two of these vessels were on this day filled with water or wine, and the contents of the one thrown to the east, and those of the other to the west, while those who performed this rite uttered some mystical words.—The Eleusinian mysteries long survived the independence of Greece. Attempts to suppress them were made by the emperor Valentinian, but he met with strong opposition, and they seem to have continued down to the time of the elder Theodosius. Respecting the secret doctrines which were revealed in them to the initiated, nothing certain is known. The general belief of the ancients was, that they opened to man a comforting prospect of a future state. But this feature does not seem to have been originally connected with these mysteries, and was probably added to them at the period which followed the opening of a regular intercourse between Greece and Egypt, when some of the speculative doctrines of the latter country, and of the East, may have been introduced into the mysteries, and hallowed by the names of the venerable bards of the mythical age. This supposition would also account, in some measure, for the legend of their introduction from Egypt. In modern times many attempts have been made to discover the nature of the mysteries revealed to the initiated, but the results have been as various and as fanciful as might be expected. The most sober and probable view is that, according to which, “they were the remains of a worship which preceded the rise of the Hellenic mythology and its attendant rites, grounded on a view of nature, less fanciful, more earnest, and better fitted to awaken both philosophical thought and religious feeling.”