EUPATRĬDAE (εὐπατρίδαι), descended from noble ancestors, is the name by which in early times the nobility of Attica was designated. In the division of the inhabitants of Attica into three classes, which is ascribed to Theseus, the Eupatridae were the first class, and thus formed a compact order of nobles, united by their interests, rights, and privileges. They were in the exclusive possession of all the civil and religious offices in the state, ordered the affairs of religion, and interpreted the laws human and divine. The king was thus only the first among his equals, and only distinguished from them by the duration of his office. By the legislation of Solon, the political power and influence of the Eupatridae as an order was broken, and property instead of birth was made the standard of political rights. But as Solon, like all ancient legislators, abstained from abolishing any of the religious institutions, those families of the Eupatridae, in which certain priestly offices and functions were hereditary, retained these distinctions down to a very late period of Grecian history.
EURĪPUS. [[Amphitheatrum].]
EUTHȲNĒ (εὐθύνη). All public officers at Athens were accountable for their conduct and the manner in which they acquitted themselves of their official duties. The judges in the popular court seem to have been the only authorities who were not responsible, for they were themselves the representatives of the people, and would therefore, in theory, have been responsible to themselves. This account, which officers had to give after the time of their office was over, was called εὐθύνη, and the officers subject to it, ὑπεύθυνοι, and after they had gone through the euthyne, they became ἀνεύθυνοι. Every public officer had to render his account within thirty days after the expiration of his office, and at the time when he submitted to the euthyne any citizen had the right to come forward and impeach him. The officers before whom the accounts were given were at Athens ten in number, called εὔθυνοι or λογισταί, in other places ἐξετασταί or συνήγοροι.
ĒVŎCĀTI. [[Exercitus].]
EXAUCTŌRĬTAS. [[Exercitus].]
EXAUGŬRĀTĬO, the act of changing a sacred thing into a profane one, or of taking away from it the sacred character which it had received by inauguratio, consecratio, or dedicatio. Such an act was performed by the augurs, and never without consulting the pleasure of the gods, by augurium.
EXCŬBĬAE. [[Castra].]
EXCŬBĬTŌRES, which properly means watchmen or sentinels of any kind, was the name more particularly given to the soldiers of the cohort who guarded the palace of the Roman emperor.
EXEDRA (ἐξέδρα), which properly signifies a seat out of doors, came to be used for a chamber furnished with seats, and opening into a portico, where people met to enjoy conversation; such as the rooms attached to a gymnasium, which were used for the lectures and disputations of the rhetoricians and philosophers. In old Greek the word λέσχη appears to have had a similar meaning; but the ordinary use of the word is for a larger and more public place of resort than the ἐξέδρα. [[Lesche].] Among the Romans the word had a wider meaning, answering to both the Greek terms, ἐξέδρα and λέσχη.
EXĒGĒTAE (ἐξηγηταί, interpreters) is the name of the Eumolpidae, by which they were designated as the interpreters of the laws relating to religion and of the sacred rites. [[Eumolpidae].] The name ἐξηγητής was also applied to those persons who served as guides (ciceroni) to the visitors in the most remarkable towns and places of Greece.