The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race Volume II Part 3

In the first place, the jurisdiction of the ephors was extended(489) chiefly by their privilege of inst.i.tuting scrutinies (e????a?) 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 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 a.s.sembly, and could bring him to trial for life and death.(496) This larger court consisted of 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 ephors, when they judged for themselves, were only able to impose fines, and to compel an instantaneous payment.(505) Their power of punis.h.i.+ng 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 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 a.s.sessors 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 circ.u.mstance, 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 a.s.sembly, 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 pa.s.sed 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 amba.s.sadors, 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 amba.s.sadors, 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 particularly the first among them, swore to and subscribed in presence of other persons.(525) To them also was intrusted the right of dismissing amba.s.sadors.(526) In time of war they were empowered to send out troops (f?????? fa??e??(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 have acted, not upon their own authority, but as the agents of the public a.s.sembly;(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 a.s.sembly 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 a.s.sembly. 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 const.i.tution 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 of the ephors and other magistrates, by the secret nature of the Spartan const.i.tution,(544) it is yet evident that the powers of the ephors were essentially founded upon the supreme authority of the popular a.s.sembly, whose agents and plenipotentiaries they were. Every popular a.s.sembly is necessarily an unskilful body, and little able to act both with energy and moderation; least of all was the Spartan a.s.sembly 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 a.s.sembly: 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 Lacedaemon also contributed to give a greater importance to the ephoralty.

Chasms arose in the const.i.tution 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 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 Lacedaemonian 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 (???pt??) were sent out: it appears from this that they also exercised a superintendence over the discipline of the Helots and Perici.(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 amba.s.sadors were introduced, and hospitably entertained.(551) Next to the Eph.o.r.eum stood a temple of Fear, which the dictatorial power of 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 Thalamae, 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 a.s.sertion made in the beginning of the chapter, that the ephoralty was the moving element, the principle of change, in the Spartan const.i.tution, 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 const.i.tution 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 const.i.tution 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 t???,(558) which is so frequently used for the presidents of the a.s.sembly, 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 circ.u.mstances of the case, besides the kings, councillors, and ephors. The nomophylaces and bidiaei,(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 s?ss?t?? 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 inst.i.tuted a college of pat?????? 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 s??d???? at Sparta, a public advocate, and da?s???st??, 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 Artynae of Argos; the Demiurgi in several states of Peloponnesus.

1. The cosmi of Crete are compared by Aristotle, Ephorus and Cicero, with the ephors of Lacedaemon.(568) We are first led to suspect the correctness of this comparison by the fact, that the larger part of the extensive power of the ephoralty did not exist in the ancient const.i.tution of Sparta, and consequently there could not have been any thing corresponding with it in the sister const.i.tution of Crete. This conjecture is still further confirmed when we remember that the cosmi were chosen from particular families, rather according to their rank than their personal merits.(569) For to take away from the office of ephors their election from among the people would be to give up its most essential characteristic. If then we abandon this comparison, it will be necessary, on account of the great similarity between the two const.i.tutions, to find some other a.n.a.logous office, and it will then appear that the parallel magistrates to the cosmi in the Spartan government were the kings; whom indeed the cosmi appear to have succeeded, like the prytanes, artynae, &c., in other states, the expiring monarchical dignity having been replaced by an aristocratical magistrate.

This a.s.sertion is confirmed by whatever knowledge we have of the powers of the cosmi, which indeed chiefly regards their influence in foreign affairs. They were commanders in war, like the kings of Sparta.(570) They conducted the negotiations with foreign amba.s.sadors (although these last sometimes spoke before the public a.s.sembly); and they affixed their official name to the treaties, as well as to all decrees of the state.(571) They provided for the amba.s.sadors during their residence,(572) and prepared for them the necessary doc.u.ments.(573) They appear to have themselves gone as amba.s.sadors to neighbouring and friendly states.(574) For the internal government and administration of the state they shared the power of the senate, with which body they consulted on important affairs.(575) The decrees pa.s.sed in this council were then laid before the public a.s.sembly for its decision, according to the manner above stated.(576) On an occasion of the connexion of two Cretan cities by ?s?p???te?a, the cosmi of the one state, who were resident in the other city, went together into the house of meeting of the cosmi and of the senate (as it appears) and sat among them in the public a.s.sembly.(577)

The common routine of business they appear to have conducted with a large executive power;(578) they must, for example, have had a compulsive authority, in order to force a person who had kidnapped citizens of a foreign state, against the right of asylum, to restore them.(579) In judicial matters they performed, in the times at least subsequent to Alexander, certain duties which had a resemblance to the introduction of the lawsuits by the Athenian magistrates.(580) They themselves, however, were not only subject to certain punishments for omission of their duties, but they could also be impeached, apparently during the continuance of their office.(581) Upon the whole, without having equal dignity, they had more power and more extensive duties than the Spartan kings; yet both were limited by the large number of the college of cosmi, for it contained ten members. The college had power to degrade individuals, although the office was limited to a year, each individual being also permitted to tender his resignation within that period.(582) The first of them gave his name to the year; he was called protocosmus,(583) although he had probably no distinct privileges. The senate was chosen from persons who had filled the office of cosmus; it was not, however, so arranged that each cosmus, on the cessation of his office, became a senator (as at Athens, after the time of Solon, every archon, if no complaint was made against him, became a member of the Areopagus), but the senators were selected from among the former cosmi, after a fresh examination. For the number of the senators was, doubtless, limited, and was not sufficiently great to comprehend all the cosmi.

2. In the time of Aristotle the power of the cosmi had acquired a despotic character. The number of the families from which they were chosen had become less numerous; individual families had acquired an immediate influence upon the government, and their disputes had created parties, in which the whole nation took a share. The const.i.tution had been thus converted into a narrow oligarchy; the democratic element, the public a.s.sembly, being too feeble to put an end to these dissensions. To this was added, at a time when men had ceased to venerate ancient customs, a want of written laws. When powerful families feared for the issue of a lawsuit, they prevented the election of the cosmi, and an ???s?a, as it was called, arose,(584) in which the chief families and their dependents were opposed to one another as enemies. This state of things had at that time been introduced in several of the chief cities of Crete: at the time, however, when the alliance between the Priansii and Hierapytnii (which is still extant) was agreed to, the government appears to have been better regulated, and the powers of the aristocracy to have been considerably diminished. But before the time of Polybius a complete revolution had taken place, by which the power of the aristocracy was abolished, and the election of all magistrates founded on democratic principles;(585) a revolution which gradually overthrew all the ancient inst.i.tutions; so that the writer just mentioned cannot discover the least resemblance between the Spartan and Cretan governments, the original similarity of which cannot be doubted. It is worthy of remark that cosmi, as far as we know, were the chief magistrates in all the cities of Crete; and their const.i.tutions were in all essential points the same: a proof that these cities, although originally founded by different tribes, were in their political inst.i.tutions determined by the governing, that is, the Doric race.(586) In the time of Plato, Cnosus was still, as in the time of Minos, considered the chief seat of ancient Cretan inst.i.tutions; Ephorus, on the other hand, observes that they had been less preserved in this town than among the Lyctians, Gortynians, and other small cities.(587)

3. With the Cretan cosmi may be compared the magistrates named prytanes, who in Corinth, as well as in other states, succeeded in the place of the kings. The numerous house of the Bacchiadae were not content that certain individuals of their number should exercise the government as an hereditary right for life, but wished to obtain a larger share in it, and to give the enjoyment of the supreme power to a greater number. The only difference, however, which existed between a prytanis and a king was, that the former was elected, and only held his office for a year, by which he was compelled to administer it according to the will of his house, into the body of which he was soon to return. In this state, doubtless, there was also a gerusia, but perhaps only consisting of Bacchiadae. As the Bacchiadae only intermarried with persons of their own house, they formed an aristocratic caste, whose government, which lasted for ninety years, must have been exceedingly oppressive.(588) As Corcyra was founded from Corinth before the commencement of the tyranny of the Cypselidae, we find that in the latter state annual prytanes, chosen apparently from among the aristocracy, remained the supreme magistrates even in a democratic age.(589)

The power of the prytanis, as has been already mentioned, came next in order in that of king, and hence the ancient Charon of Lampsacus called the Spartan kings _prytanes_;(590) which was also the proper name of one of them. The early kings of Delphi were also, at least about 360 B.C., called prytanes;(591) in which state there was for a long time an aristocratic government, similar to that which prevailed in the Homeric age.(592) The number of the prytanes was in general only one or two.(593) At Rhodes there were two in a year, each of whom had the precedence for six months;(594) so that sometimes one, sometimes two prytanes are mentioned: they managed the public affairs with great power in the Prytaneum, in which building the archives of the city were preserved, and foreign amba.s.sadors received.(595) Yet their powers cannot have been excessive in the free const.i.tution, which Rhodes, at its most flouris.h.i.+ng period, enjoyed. For the senate, which was chosen on purely democratic principles, as we shall see below, shared the management of all public affairs with the prytanes; the people, however, exercised the supreme power in the general a.s.sembly, voted by cheirotonia,(596) and does not appear to have been even led in its deliberations by the magistrates alone.(597) Yet the government of Rhodes was never, up to the time of the Roman dominion, a complete democracy;(598) perhaps it approximated at the period of the greatest power of these islanders to the _politeia_ of Aristotle.(599) But the power of the prytanes, who were also the chief magistrates in Ionian, and especially aeolian(600) states, was not everywhere so wisely restrained; in Miletus their authority was nearly despotic.(601) In all places the prytanes inherited from the kings the celebration of public sacrifices, which they generally performed in particular buildings in the market-place, on the common hearth of the state. So the prytanis of Tenedos, to whom Pindar has composed an ode for the sacrifice upon entrance into his office (e?s?t?????). In Cos a divination from fire was probably connected with the sacrifices of the prytanis.(602) These sacrifices, the public banquets, together with the reception of foreign amba.s.sadors, belonged at Athens to the fifty prytanes, as was the case at Rhodes and Cos. But the political signification of the name had, under the democratic government of Athens, become entirely different from that which it bore in other more aristocratic const.i.tutions.

4. The striking dissimilarity in the duties of the prytanes in the Athenian and in the early const.i.tutions of Greece, and a conviction that the democracy of Athens, although relatively modern, had so completely brought into oblivion the former inst.i.tutions, that they can be only recognised in insulated traces and names which had lost their ancient meaning, encourage me to offer some conjectures on the original nature of the office held by the prytanes of Athens. There was at Athens a court of justice in the prytaneum (?p? p??ta?e??), which, in the times of which we have an historical account, only possessed the remnants of a formerly extensive criminal jurisdiction.(603) Now that this had once been the chief court in Athens is proved by the name _prytanea_, which were fees deposited by the parties before each lawsuit, according to the amount of value in question, and which served for the maintenance of the judges.(604) The name proves that these monies had at one time been the pay of the prytanes, in their judicial capacity, like the gifts in Homer and Hesiod. Furthermore we know that the ancient financial office of the colacretae at one time, as their name testifies, collected their share of the animals sacrificed (which exactly resembles the perquisites of the kings at Sparta), and that they always continued to manage the banquets in the Prytaneum, and at a later time collected the justice-fees, for example, these very prytanea.(605) From the connexion between these functions, which has not been entirely obliterated, it is manifest that the ancient judicial prytanes formed a company or _syssition_, dined in public, were fed at the public expense, and, with regard to their revenues, had stept into the rights of the kings, whose share in the sacrifices and justice-fees had formerly been collected by the colacretae.

Although there appears to be nothing inconsistent in this account, it is nevertheless singular that a whole court of justice bore the name of prytanes, whereas in other states the number of these magistrates was always very small; and hence we are led to conjecture that the prytanes, as in other places, were merely the leaders and presidents of this supreme court. It is, however, certain that in later times the phylobasileis presided in the Prytaneum, four eupatridae, who were at the head of the four ancient tribes; and doubtless performed other duties than the sacred functions which are ascribed to them;(606) like the phylarchs of Epid.a.m.nus, whose extensive duties were in later times transferred to a senate.(607) We must therefore suppose that these phylobasileis, who, in consequence of political changes, had at an early period fallen into oblivion, were once, under the name of prytanes, one of the highest offices of the state. Now these four prytanes, or phylobasileis, were a.s.sisted in their court by the ephetae, who, as I have already remarked,(608) were before the time of Solon identical with the court of the Areopagus, when they had the management of the criminal jurisdiction, and a superintendence over the manners of the citizens in an extended sense of the word. Both these were also duties of the Doric gerusia, to which the kings stood in nearly the same relation as the prytanes of Athens to the areopagites or ephetae. Their number was fifty-one, which probably includes the basileus: there could not, however, have been fifty previously to the new division of the tribes by Cleisthenes, before which change their number was forty-eight, according to the four tribes, either with or without the phylobasileis.

If this view of the subject is correct, there is a remarkable correspondence, both in their respective numbers and const.i.tutions, between the criminal court and the first administrative office in the ancient state of Athens. These latter were the naucrari. The naucrari, who were also anciently forty-eight in number, and fifty after the new division of the tribes, in early times managed the public revenue, and therefore fitted out armies and fleets.(609) Now Herodotus also mentions prytanes of the naucrari, who in early times directed the government of Athens.(610) Unless we suppose the existence of two kinds of prytanes (which does not appear suitable to the simplicity of ancient inst.i.tutions), the same persons must have presided over both colleges, and have had an equal share in the jurisdiction and government. The regularity of these inst.i.tutions would appear surprising, if we were not certain that the same order existed in all the ancient political establishments; at the same time we must leave the relative powers of many officers, such, for example, as those of the archons and prytanes, without any attempt at elucidation.

5. More obscure even than the condition of the cosmi and prytanes are the origin and powers of the ARTYNae at Argos.(611) They cannot have arisen at a late period, for example, after the abolition of the royalty, since the same office existed in their ancient colony, Epidaurus, whose const.i.tution resembled that of Argos only in the more ancient period. Since it did not originate from the downfall of the royalty, its origin may, perhaps, have been owing to a division of the regal authority, perhaps of the civil and military functions. In Epidaurus the artynae were presidents of a large council of one hundred and eighty members:(612) in Argos they are mentioned in connexion with a body of eighty persons, and a (democratic) senate, of whose respective powers we are entirely ignorant.(613)

The present is a convenient occasion for mentioning the DEMIURGI, as several grammarians state that they were in particular a Doric magistracy,(614) perhaps, however, only judging from the form da???????.

These magistrates were, it is true, not uncommon in Peloponnesus,(615) but they do not occur often in the Doric states. They existed among the Eleans and Mantineans,(616) the Hermioneans,(617) in the Achaean league,(618) at Argos also,(619) as well as in Thessaly;(620) officers named _epidemiurgi_ were sent by the Corinthians to manage the government of their colony Potidaea.(621) The statements and interpretations of the grammarians afford little instruction: among the Achaeans at least, their chief duty was to transact business with the people; which renders it probable, that at Argos they were identical with the _leaders of the people_;(622) of whom, as well as of some other public officers, whose functions admit of further explanation, we will speak in the following chapter.

Chapter IX.

-- 1. Const.i.tutions of Argos. -- 2. Epidaurus, aegina, Cos. -- 3.

Rhodes. -- 4. Corinth. -- 5. Corcyra. -- 6. Ambracia, Leucadia, Epid.a.m.nus, Apollonia. -- 7. Syracuse. -- 8. Gela, Agrigentum. -- 9.

Sicyon, Phlius. -- 10. Megara. -- 11. Byzantium, Chalcedon, Heraclea Pontica. -- 12. Cnidos, Melos, Thera. -- 13. Cyrene. -- 14. Tarentum.

-- 15. Heraclea Sciritis. -- 16. Croton. -- 17. And Delphi. -- 18.

Aristocratic character of the const.i.tution of Sparta.

1. It is my intention in the present chapter to collect and arrange the various accounts respecting the alterations in the const.i.tution of those Doric states, which deviated more from their original condition than Crete and Sparta: having been more affected by the general revolutions of the Greek governments, and drawn with greater violence into the strong current of political change.

And first, with regard to ARGOS, I will extract the following particulars from former parts of this work. There were in this state three cla.s.ses of persons; the inhabitants of the city, who were for the most part Dorians, distributed into four tribes; a cla.s.s of Perici, and also a cla.s.s of bondslaves, named gymnesii.(623) The kings, who were at first of the Heraclide family, and afterwards of another dynasty, reigned until the time of the Persian war;(624) there were also officers named artynae, and a senate possessing extensive powers. All these are traces which seem to prove a considerable resemblance between the const.i.tutions of Argos and Sparta, at least they show that there was no essential difference. But this similarity was put an end to by the destruction of a large portion of the citizens, in the battle with Cleomenes, and the consequent admission of many Perici to the rights of citizens.h.i.+p.(625) Soon after this period, we find Argos flouris.h.i.+ng in population, industry, and wealth;(626) and in the enjoyment of a democratic const.i.tution.(627) The latter, however, was ill adapted to acquire the ascendency in Peloponnesus, which Argos endeavoured to obtain after the peace of Nicias. Hence the people appointed a board of twelve men, with full powers to conclude treaties with any Greek state that was willing to join their party; but in case of Sparta or Athens proposing any such alliance, the question was to be first referred to the whole people.(628) The state also, in order to form the nucleus of an army, levied a body of well-armed men,(629) who were selected from the higher ranks.(630) It was natural that these should endanger the democracy; and after the battle of Mantinea (B.C. 418.) they overthrew it, in concert with the Lacedaemonians, after having put the demagogues to death.(631) Their dominion, however, only lasted for eight months, as an insurrection and battle within the city deprived them of their power, and reinstated the democracy.(632) Alcibiades the Athenian completed this change by the expulsion of many oligarchs, who were still remaining in the city;(633) afterwards he wished to overthrow the democracy by means of his friends,(634) in consequence of which they were all killed. Two parties, however, must have still continued to exist in this state. aeneas the Tactician relates, that the rich purposing to attack the people for the second time, and on a certain night having introduced many soldiers into the city, the leaders of the people hastily summoned an a.s.sembly, and ordered that every armed man should that night pa.s.s muster in his tribe,(635) by which means the rich were prevented from uniting themselves in a body. The _leaders of the people_ (d??? p??st?ta?(636)) are here manifestly democratic magistrates, who rose to power during the contests between the opposite factions, and differed chiefly from the demagogues of Athens, in that their authority was official, without which they would not have been able to convene an a.s.sembly of the people. For although the appellation of d??? p??st?t?? in the Doric states, as well as at Athens, sometimes denotes merely a person who by his character and eloquence had placed himself at the head of the people; we shall produce hereafter certain proofs, when we speak of Gela and Calymna, that it was also the t.i.tle of a public officer.(637)

When, during the peace of Artaxerxes, the Lacedaemonians had ceased to possess any extensive share in the direction of public affairs in Peloponnesus, a spirit of ungovernable licentiousness and ochlocracy arose in those cities which had hitherto been under an oligarchical rule; everywhere there were vexatious accusations, banishments, and confiscations of property, especially of the property of such persons as had filled public offices under the guidance of Sparta, though, even during that period, (B.C. 374.) Argos had been a place of refuge for banished democrats.(638) But after the battle of Leuctra, when the power of Lacedaemon was completely broken, and Peloponnesus had for a certain time lost its leader, the greatest anarchy began to prevail in Argos.

Demagogues stirred up the people so violently against all privileged or distinguished persons, that the latter thought themselves driven to plot the overthrow of the democracy.(639) The scheme was discovered, and the people raged with the greatest ferocity against the real or supposed conspirators. On this occasion, more than 1200 of the chief persons (many upon mere suspicion) were put to death;(640) and at length the demagogues, fearing to carry through the measures which themselves had originated, suffered the same fate. This state of things was called by the name of s??ta??s??, or _club-law_; it appears to have been a time when the strongest man was the most powerful. When the Athenians heard of these transactions, they purified their market-place, thinking that the whole of Greece was polluted by such atrocities:(641) it was probably at the same time that the Argives themselves offered an expiatory sacrifice to the mild Zeus (?e?? ?e???????), for the free blood which had been shed.(642) Notwithstanding these proceedings, the rich and distinguished continued to be persecuted at Argos with the greatest violence;(643) for which the ostracism, a custom introduced from Athens,(644) together with other democratic inst.i.tutions,(645) was the chief instrument. In times such as these, the chief and most n.o.ble features of the Doric character necessarily disappeared; the unfortunate termination of nearly all military undertakings(646) proves the decline of bravery. In so unsettled a state of public affairs, sycophancy and violence became prevalent:(647) notwithstanding which, their eagerness and attention to public speaking produced no orator, whose fame was sufficient to descend to posterity.(648)

2. In EPIDAURUS, on the other hand, the aristocracy continued in force, and accordingly this city was as much attached to the Spartans, as Argos was disinclined to them. Of the artynae in this state, and of the senate of 180, as well as of the cla.s.s of cultivators, and of the tribes, we have spoken in former parts of this work.(649)

As long as aeGINA remained an independent state, the government was held by the hereditary aristocracy, whose t.i.tular dignity was probably increased by the power derived from the possession of great wealth. The insurrection of a democratic party remained fruitless. aegina and Corinth are decisive proofs, that under an aristocratical government an active and enterprising spirit of commerce may arise and flourish.

The Epidaurian colony, Cos, without doubt, originally adopted the const.i.tution of its mother-state. Before the 75th (probably about the 73rd or 74th) Olympiad, we find a tyrant appointed by the king of Persia reigning in this island, Cadmus, the son of Scythes of Zancle;(650) after some time, however, he quitted Cos, having established a senate, and given back the state its freedom; yet the island appears to have immediately afterwards fallen under the dominion of Artemisia.(651) At a later period, the influence of Athens opened the way to democracy, but it was overthrown by violent demagogues, who compelled the chief persons in self-defence to combine against it.(652) The senate (???? or ?e???s?a) of the Coans, as well as their prytanes, have been mentioned above;(653) the nominal magistrates under the Roman dominion need not be here treated of.

3. In the Argive colony of RHODES, it may be supposed that an ancient Doric const.i.tution existed; for there were kings of the Heraclide family, and probably also a council with the same powers as the Spartan gerusia.

The royalty expired after the 30th Olympiad (660 B.C.); but the ancient family of the Eratidae at Ialysus, retained a considerable share in the government; probably exercising nearly the powers of a prytanis. Pindar shows that the frame of justice belonged to this once royal family,(654) when he says, "_Give, O father Zeus, to Diagoras favour both with citizens and with strangers, since he walks constantly in the way opposed to violence, knowing well what the just minds of n.o.ble ancestors have inspired in him. Destroy not the common progeny of Callianax. At the solemnities for the victory of the Eratidae, the whole city rejoices in banquets. Yet in a moment of time many winds meet from many quarters._"

Pindar thus early (464 B.C.) predicts the dangers that then awaited the ancient family, to which Rhodes owed so much, from the growing influence of Athens;(655) throughout the whole ode he cautions the citizens against precipitate innovation, and prays for the continuance of the ancient firmly-seated const.i.tution.(656) Both prophecies were fulfilled. The sons of Diagoras were condemned to death, and banished by the Athenians, as heads of the aristocracy; but the hero Dorieus returned to his country from Thurii, with Thurian s.h.i.+ps, and fought with them against the enemies of his family, as a faithful partisan of the Spartans. He was taken by the Athenians in the year 405 B.C., who, when about to condemn him, were moved by the appearance of the n.o.ble son of Diagoras (whose boldness of spirit corresponded with the size and beauty peculiar to his family), to release him from imprisonment and death.(657) The ancient fortune of the Rhodians, which was owing to their strict adherence to the Doric customs, and to their great commercial activity, was interrupted by the troubles of the Peloponnesian war, in which the alternation of the Athenian and Lacedaemonian influence by turns introduced democracy and aristocracy. At the time of the Sicilian expedition, Rhodes was under the power of Athens;(658) but the Spartans having in 412 B.C. obtained the superiority in this island,(659) and Dorieus having been recalled by them (413 B.C.) in order to suppress internal dissensions, the governing power again reverted to the n.o.bles: these latter having been compelled to unite against the people by the demagogues, who, while they distributed the public money among the people in the shape of salaries, had not repaid the sums due to the trierarchs, and at the same time vexed them by continual lawsuits.(660) Soon after this period (408 B.C.),(661) the large city of Rhodes was founded, by collecting to one spot the inhabitants of the three small cities of the island, Lindus, Ialysus, and Camirus. But in 396 B.C.

Rhodes was again recovered by Conon to Athens, and became democratical;(662) yet in five years (391 B.C.) the Spartan party was again victorious;(663) and the Social War finally put an end to the influence of the Athenians. From this time the interference of the Carian rulers, Mausolus and Artemisia, commenced, by which the oligarchy was greatly raised, and the democratical party driven out; to restore which, and to regard rather the cause of popular freedom in Greece, than the injuries received from the Rhodians, was the advice of Demosthenes to the Athenians.(664) At that time a Carian garrison was in the Acropolis of Rhodes. Out of these troubles and dissensions a const.i.tution arose, in which, as far as we are able to ascertain, democracy prevailed, although the small number and extensive powers of the prytanes prove that it was not unmixed with aristocratical elements. According to the description which Cicero puts in the mouth of the younger Scipio, at this time all the members of the senate belonged (in the same year) to the public a.s.sembly, and sat in alternate months (probably periods of six months, like the prytanes) in the senate and among the people; in both capacities they received pay (_conventicium_): the same persons also sometimes sat as judges among the people in the theatre, sometimes in the senate in criminal and other cases.(665) These statements cannot be easily reconciled with Strabo's view of the const.i.tution, and yet there can be no doubt that he, as well as Cicero, speaks of the time preceding Ca.s.sius'

conquest of Rhodes. "The Rhodians," he says, "though not under a democratic government, took great care of the people; in order to support the number of poor in the state, they provided them with corn, and the rich maintained the poor according to an ancient custom; there were also liturgies, by which the people were furnished with meat, &c."(666) Notwithstanding the democratic inst.i.tution of the senate, many offices, those perhaps in particular which were connected with the administration, such for example as the superintendence of the marine, were managed on oligarchical principles; the internal quiet of Rhodes at this period is also a proof against the existence of an unmixed democracy. Accordingly, the true Doric characteristics were here retained for a longer time than in most other Doric states; viz., courage, constancy, patriotism, with a haughty sternness of manners, and a certain temperance, which was indeed in some manner contrasted with their magnificence in meals, buildings, and all arts.(667)

4. CORINTH, delivered by Sparta from its tyrants, had again reverted to its former const.i.tution, which however was not so oligarchical as the hereditary aristocracy of the Bacchiadae. Some n.o.ble families, as the Oligaethidae,(668) had a priority, probably the gerusia was composed of them; and the public a.s.sembly was restricted in a manner similar to that of Sparta. But at the same time Pindar celebrates Corinth as "_the city in which Eunomia_ (or good government) _dwells, and her sisters, the firm supports of cities, Justice and Peace, the bestowers of riches, who know how to keep off Violence, the bold mother of Arrogance_." From these words it may also be conjectured, that the aristocratical party was compelled to resist the endeavours made by the people to extend their power: it remained, however, unshaken up to the date of the Peloponnesian war, and Corinth, with the exception of a short time, continued the faithful ally of Sparta, and foe of Athens.(669) At a later period, a democratic party, which relied upon Argos, rose in Corinth, by the a.s.sistance of Persian money: this at first obtained the supreme power, and afterwards attacked the Lacedaemonian party, consisting of the n.o.ble families, at the festival of the Euclea; and at last proceeded so far, as to wish to abolish the independence of Corinth, and to incorporate it completely with Argos (B.C.

395 and 394.)(670) The banished aristocrats, supported by some Lacedaemonians who were quartered at Sicyon, continued nevertheless to keep up a contest, and maintained themselves at Lechaeum;(671) after this they must have returned and restored the ancient const.i.tution: for we find Corinth again true to the Lacedaemonian alliance.(672) In the time of Dion (356 B.C.) Corinth was under a government nearly oligarchical, little business being transacted in the popular a.s.sembly:(673) and although this body sent Timoleon as general of the state to Sicily (B.C. 345.), there was then in existence a gerusia (a name completely aristocratic), which not only treated with foreign amba.s.sadors, but also, which is very remarkable, exercised a criminal jurisdiction.(674) The tyranny of Timophanes, who was slain by Timoleon, was, according to Aristotle, a short interruption of the oligarchy.(675)

5. From the moderate and well-balanced const.i.tution, which Corinth had upon the whole the good fortune to possess, its colony CORCYRA had at an early period departed. Founded under the guidance of Chersicrates, a Bacchiad, it was for a time governed by the Corinthian families, which had first taken possession of the colony. At the same time, however, a popular party was formed, which obtained a greater power by the violent disruption of Corcyra from its mother-country, and the hostile relation in which the two states were thus placed. In addition to these differences, the connexion between Corcyra and the Peloponnesian league had been relaxed, and was replaced by a closer intimacy with Athens; so that while the aristocratic party had lost its hold, the democratic influence had taken a deep root. The people also strengthened themselves by the union of a numerous cla.s.s of slaves.(676) By means of this combined force, the aristocratical party was overthrown, whose expulsion was attended with such scenes of blood and atrocity, as were hardly known in any other state of Greece.(677) But even before these occurrences the const.i.tution had been democratical.(678) The popular a.s.sembly had the supreme power; and although the senate had perhaps a greater authority than at Athens,(679) it was manifestly only a part of the _demus_:(680) leaders of the people appear to have been in this, as well as in other states, a regular office.(681) From this time the most unbounded freedom prevailed at Corcyra, of which the Greek proverb says coa.r.s.ely indeed, but expressively, ??e????a ??????a, ???? ?p?? ???e??.(682) The Corcyreans were active, industrious, and enterprising, good sailors, and active merchants; but they had entirely lost the stability and n.o.ble features of the Doric character. In absence of all modesty they even exceeded the Athenians, among whom the very dogs, as a certain philosopher said, were more impudent than in any other place: fabulous reports were circulated in Greece, respecting the excessive luxury of the successors of the Phaeacians.(683) Yet even in this state an antidemocratic party, inclined to the Lacedaemonians, was never entirely expelled; and it frequently rose against the people without success,(684) but in the time of Chares with a fortunate result,(685) The four or five(686) prytanes, who were at a later period the chief magistrates of Corcyra, seem not to have been entirely democratic magistrates, although the government was democratical; besides these officers, there occur in an important monument,(687) p??d????

?????, who appear as accusers in a lawsuit which has reference to the administration; also p???????(688) with a p??st?t??, who brings a lawsuit of the same description before the courts; besides which we learn, that from time to time revisions (d?????se??) of the laws took place, for which certain persons named d?????t??e? were appointed; and that a ta?a? and a d?????t?? were among the financial authorities.

6. Another colony of Corinth, AMBRACIA, had been ruled by a tyrant of the family of the Cypselidae, named Gorgus (Gorgias), who was succeeded by Periander, evidently a member of the same house:(689) this latter tyrant, having insulted one of the subjects of his illicit pleasures, was put to death by the relations of the latter.(690) The people had taken a share in the insurrection, and obtained the supreme power:(691) the first change having, however, been into a government founded on property, which insensibly pa.s.sed into a democracy, on account of the low rate of property which qualified a person for public offices.(692)

In the Corinthian colony of LEUCADIA, the large estates were originally inalienable, and in the possession of the n.o.bles: when the inalienability was abolished, a certain amount of property was no longer required for the holding of public offices, by which the government became democratic.(693)

EPId.a.m.nUS was founded by Corinthians and Corcyaeeans, and a Heraclide, Phalias, from the mother-country, was leader of the colony. It cannot be doubted that the founders took possession of the best lands, and a.s.sumed the powers of government, only admitting persons of the same race to a share. A single magistrate, similar to the cosmopolis at Opus, was at the head of the administration;(694) the phylarchs composed a species of council. But in the second period of the const.i.tution, the phylarchs were replaced by a senate (????), chosen on democratic principles: a remnant, however, of the early const.i.tution was preserved, in the regulation that all magistrates, who were chosen from the ancient citizens (the proper p???te?a), were compelled to be present in the public a.s.sembly, if a magistrate required it;(695) the highest archon also alone remained.(696) The Peloponnesian war was occasioned by a contest between the popular party at Epid.a.m.nus, and the n.o.bles, in which the Corinthians, from jealousy against Corcyra, unmindful of their true interests, supported the former: of the issue of this contest we are not informed. The number of resident and industrious foreigners was very great:(697) besides this cla.s.s of persons, none but public slaves were employed in mechanical labour, and never any citizen.(698)

Of all the Corinthian settlements, APOLLONIA kept the nearest to the original colonial const.i.tution,(699) upon which its fame for justice is probably founded.(700) The government remained almost exclusively in the hands of the n.o.ble families and descendants of the first colonists, to whom the large estates doubtless belonged.(701) Perhaps Apollonia was indebted for the stability of its government to the Xenelasia;(702) an inst.i.tution which was of the first importance for the preservation of ancient Greek customs, to a state closely bordering on barbarous nations.

7. That we may not disturb the order of the Corinthian colonies, we will immediately proceed to consider the state of SYRACUSE. In the Syracusan const.i.tution the following were the chief epochs. In the _first_, the government was in the hands of the gamori,(703) originally together with a king,(704) whose office was afterwards abolished. These we have already stated(705) to have been the original colonists, who took possession of the large estates cultivated by native bondslaves, and exercised the chief governing power. It is probable that the magistrates, and the members of the council,(706) who were leaders of the people in the a.s.sembly (???a), were chosen from this body; in the same manner as the geomori of Samos formed a council, which after the subversion of the royalty governed the state.(707) Against these authorities, the people, having gradually become more pressing in their demands, at length rebelled, and expelled them, by combining with their slaves the Cyllyrii (before B.C. 492.(708)); but the democracy which succeeded was so irregular and lawless, that it was of very short duration;(709) the people therefore voluntarily opened the gates to Gelon, when he came to restore the gamori, and gave themselves entirely into his power,(710) in 485 B.C. The rule of Gelon, and of his successor, was, although monarchical, yet not oppressive, and upon the whole beneficial to the state: as the former allowed an extraordinary a.s.sembly of the people to decide concerning his public administration,(711) it may be perhaps supposed that he wished to be considered an aesymnetes, to whom the city, overcome by difficulties, intrusted the unlimited disposal of its welfare. With the overthrow of this dynasty, the _second_ period begins, during which there was upon the whole a moderate const.i.tution, called by most writers democracy,(712) and by Aristotle distinguished from democracy as a _politeia_, in his peculiar sense of the word.(713) Immediately after the downfall of Thrasybulus an a.s.sembly was convened, in which it was debated concerning the const.i.tution. The public offices were only to be filled by the ancient citizens; while those who had been admitted by Gelon from other cities, together with the naturalized mercenaries,(714) were not to enjoy the complete rights of citizens.h.i.+p:(715) measures which occasioned a war within the walls of Syracuse. Lastly, in this, as well as in the other states of Sicily, peace was re-established by the restoration of the ancient citizens, a separation of the foreigners, who found a settlement at Messana, and a new allotment of the lands,(716) in which the estates of the n.o.bles were probably divided anew. At the same time, by the violence of these proceedings, the states of Sicily were reduced to a feeble condition, which occasioned numerous attempts to set up a tyranny. As a security against this danger, the people (in 454 B.C.) established the inst.i.tution called _petalism_, in imitation of the ostracism of Athens; but they had sufficient discernment soon to abolish this new form of tyranny, as all distinguished and well educated men(717) were deterred by it from taking a part in public affairs. Syracuse suffered at that time, as well as Athens, by the intrigues of demagogues and cabals of sycophants.(718) In this city, at an early period, a talent for the subtleties of oratory had begun to develope itself; which owed its origin to Corax, a man employed by Hieron as a secret spy and confidant, and celebrated among the people as a powerful orator and sagacious councillor.(719) The naturally refined, acute, and lively temperament of the Sicilian Greeks(720) had already turned towards cunning and deceit; and in particular the young, eager after all novelty, ran counter to the temperance and severity of the ancient customs and mode of life.(721) As to the const.i.tution at the time of the Sicilian war, we know that all public affairs of importance were decided in the popular a.s.sembly,(722) and the management of them was in great part confided to the leaders of the people (d??? p??st?ta?), who seem to have been regular public officers.(723) In what manner the people was led, is shown by the instance of Athenagoras, who represents the expedition of the Athenians, when already approaching the sh.o.r.es of Sicily, as a story invented by the oligarchs to terrify the people. To what extent a complete freedom of speaking before the people existed, is not altogether clear.(724) That persons of an aristocratic disposition still continued to possess political power, is evident from the speech of Athenagoras;(725) and it is probable from Aristotle, that they had an exclusive right to certain offices. The _third_ period begins with the victory over the Athenian armament. As this was decided by the fleet of the Syracusans, the men of inferior rank, who served as sailors, obtained a large increase of importance in their own sight, and were loud in their demands for admission to the highest offices; in the very same manner as at Athens, after the battle of Salamis. In 412 B.C., upon the proposal of Diocles the demagogue,(726) a commission was appointed for the arrangement of a new const.i.tution, in which the original contriver of the plan had himself the first place. The government was thus converted into a complete democracy, of which the first principle was, that the public offices should be filled not by election, but by lot.(727) There was formed at the same time a collection of written laws, which were very precise and explicit in the determination of punishments, and were doubtless intended, by their severity, to keep off those troubles, which the new const.i.tution could not fail to produce. This code, which was also adopted by other Sicilian states, was written in an ancient native dialect, which seventy years afterwards (in the time of Timoleon) required an interpreter.(728) Notwithstanding these precautions, we find the democracy an Olympiad and a half later fallen into such contempt,(729) that the people, utterly incapable of protecting the city in the dangers of the time, appointed a general with unlimited power: which measure, though always attended with bad success, they repeatedly had recourse to. Dionysius, a man powerful as well from his talents, as from the means which his situation as demagogue afforded him of keeping the people in continual dread of the n.o.bles,(730) soon became tyrant;(731) but he still allowed an appearance of freedom to remain in public a.s.semblies, which he summoned, conducted, and dismissed.(732) Dion restored the democracy for a short time, and only partially;(733) for it was his real intention to introduce a Doric aristocracy upon the model of those in Sparta and Crete.(734) Timoleon with more decision abolished the democracy, and restored the former const.i.tution,(735) as may be supposed, not without sycophants and demagogues, who were not slow to turn their arms against the founder of the new liberty.(736) A mixture of aristocracy is discernible in the office of amphipolus of the Olympian Zeus, which lasted three centuries from 343 B.C. and probably combined political influence with the highest dignity; the person who filled it gave his name to the year. Three candidates were chosen for this office from three families by vote, and one of the three was selected by lot.(737)

It may be observed, that Timoleon caused a revision of the laws to be made by Cephalus, a Corinthian, who, however, was only called an interpreter of the code of Diocles, although, as it appears, he entirely remodelled the civil law.(738) We must pa.s.s hastily over the later times, remarking in general, that a feeble democracy continued to exist, frequently contending with clubs of oligarchs,(739) and afterwards falling into the hand of tyrants who had risen from demagogues; such, for instance, as Agathocles, who undertook to bring about a redivision of the lands, and an abolition of all claims of debt.(740) Hiero II. did not suppress the council of the city, which Hieronymus never consulted; but as it again returned into existence immediately after the death of the latter prince, it appears that it could not have been a body chosen annually, but a board appointed for a considerable period.(741) The generals had at all times very large powers, especially in the popular a.s.sembly, in which, however, persons of the lowest condition had liberty to speak.(742) Another military office also, that of the hipparchs, exercised a superintendence over the internal affairs of the state, in order to guard against disturbances.(743)

8. After this account of the const.i.tution of Syracuse, we may proceed to notice those of GELA, and its colony AGRIGENTUM; as these cities, though deriving their origin from Rhodes, perhaps took Syracuse for their model in the formation of their government. In both states the n.o.ble and wealthy first held the ruling power; which was afterwards for a long time possessed by tyrants.(744) Agrigentum, after the overthrow of Thrasydaeus in 473 B.C., received a democratic const.i.tution:(745) we know, however, that at that time an a.s.sembly of a thousand, appointed for three years, governed the state. This a.s.sembly was suppressed by Empedocles the philosopher;(746) who obtained so large a share of popular favour that he was even offered the office of king.(747) The a.s.sembly of a thousand also occurs in Rhegium and Croton, in speaking of which city we will again mention this subject. Further than this all information fails us. Scipio established anew the senate of Agrigentum, and ordered that the number of the new colonists of Manlius should never exceed that of the ancient citizens.(748) The same senate, in an inscription of the Roman time,(749) is called s?????t??, s???d????, and ????, and appears to have consisted of 110 members; the day of meeting is stated: it appears that the senate then alternated every two months;(750) the decree of the senate is referred to the popular a.s.sembly (???a); over which a p????????

presided(751) (which was also the name of the supreme magistrate at Catana in the time of Cicero);(752) the Hyllean tribe has the precedency on the day of this a.s.sembly. A hierothytes gives his name to the year, corresponding to the amphipolus at Syracuse; in whose place a hierapolus(753) is mentioned in a similar decree of Gela,(754) together with whom a ?ate??a?s???, an annual magistrate (perhaps archon), is mentioned. In this state the senate (????) appears to have been changed every half year,(755) their decrees being also confirmed by the a.s.sembly (???a);(756) the a.s.sembly is led by a p??st?t??, the same magistrate whom we have already met with in nearly all the democratic states of the Dorians, in Argos, Corcyra, and Syracuse.(757)