1. Having considered the subject classes in the several Doric states, we come to the free citizens properly so called, who, according to an old Grecian principle,292 which was actually put in practice in Sparta, were entirely exempted from all care for providing themselves with the necessaries of life. The exact distinction between these ranks, and the advantageous position of the latter class, increased the value of the rights of citizenship; hence Sparta showed peculiar reluctance to admitting foreigners to share in them.293 Before, then, we consider the body politic of free citizens in its active dealings, it will be proper first to direct our attention to its component members, to its division into smaller societies, such as tribes, phratriæ, houses, &c.
[pg 076]In every Doric state there were three tribes, Hylleis, Dymanes (or Dymanatæ), and Pamphyli. This threefold division belonged so peculiarly to the nation that even Homer called it “the thrice-divided” τριχάϊκες, which ancient epithet is correctly explained in a verse of Hesiod, as implying the division of the territory among the people.294 Hence in the ancient fable which this poet has expressed in an epic poem, three sons of the ancient Doric king Ægimius were mentioned, namely, Dyman, Pamphylus, and the adopted Hyllus; and the same is confirmed by the direct testimony of Herodotus, who states that the Doric nation was divided into these three tribes.295 Hence also Pindar comprehends the whole Doric nation under the name of the sons of Ægimius and Hyllus.296 Thus we should be warranted in putting forth the proposition stated above in these general terms, even if in the several Doric states there had been no particular mention of all these tribes. The fact, however, is, that there are sufficient accounts of them. Pindar297 bears testimony to their existence in Sparta; and from an expression of a grammarian, it may be conjectured that they were also divisions of the city.298 Herodotus states that these tribes existed at Sicyon and Argos.299 In Argos, the city was doubtless [pg 077] divided according to them; and Παμφυλιακὸν is mentioned as a district of the town.300 The Doric tribes were transmitted from Argos to Epidaurus and Ægina.301 Hylleis occur also in the Æginetan colony of Cydonia.302 The same name is found in an inscription of Corcyra:303 consequently they also existed in the mother-country, Corinth. It occurs likewise in another inscription of Agrigentum;304 they must therefore have also been in existence at Rhodes, as indeed is declared by Homer.305 The Pamphylians occur at Megara as late as at the time of Hadrian.306 These tribes existed also at Trœzen;307 but the Trœzenian colony Halicarnassus seems to have been almost exclusively founded by Dymanes.308 On the whole it appears that wherever there were Dorians there were also Hylleans, Pamphylians, and Dymanes.
2. Wherever the Dorians alone had the full rights of citizenship, no other tribes of the highest ranks could exist; but if other persons were admitted in any considerable number to a share in the government, there were necessarily either one or more tribes in addition to these three. Thus a fourth, named Hyrnathia,309 is [pg 078] known to us in the states of Argos and Epidaurus; in Ægina also an additional tribe of this kind must have existed, for in this island there were distinguished families not of Doric origin.310 In Sicyon the fourth tribe was called the Ægialean. In Corinth also it appears that there were altogether eight tribes.311 But in Sparta, the city of pure Doric customs, we cannot suppose the existence of any other than the three genuine Doric tribes. At first sight, indeed, it might appear that the great and distinguished house of the Ægidæ, of Cadmean descent, was without the pale of these tribes; but it must have been adopted into one of the three at its admission to the rights of citizenship.312 For the number of the Spartan obæ, the gerontes, the knights, the landed estates, viz., 30, 300, 9000, &c., manifestly allow of division by the number 3, while they have no reference to the number 4.
3. The tribes of Sparta were again divided into obæ, which are also called phratriæ.313 The term phratria (φρατριὰ) signified among the Greeks an union of houses, whether founded upon the ties of [pg 079] actual relationship, or formed for political purposes, and according to some fixed rule, for the convenience of public regulations. Thus the word oba comprehends houses (γένη, gentes), which were either really founded on descent from the same stock, or had united themselves in ancient times for civil and religious purposes, and afterwards continued to exist as political bodies under certain regulations.314 The Spartan obæ appear to have likewise been local divisions, since the name ὠβὰ, i.e., οἴα, signifies single hamlets or districts of a town; although in the case of Sparta it is not evident what relation they bore to the five divisions of the city, of which we have spoken above.315 It should be, moreover, observed, that this does not prevent us from supposing that, as in the parallel case of the phratriæ, the obæ contained the houses; since we may be allowed to infer with great probability, from the simple and coherent regularity of the Spartan institutions, that the tribes had taken possession of particular districts of the town, and that these were again divided into smaller partitions, according to the obæ; a conjecture which, perhaps, will be confirmed by the statement, that a place in Sparta was called Agiadæ:316 now this was the name of one of the royal families, which, as being an oba, appears to have given its name to one district of the town.
[pg 080]The obæ were thirty in number;317 that is, there were ten of the Hyllean, ten of the Dymanatan, ten of the Pamphylian tribe. Of the Hyllean, two must have belonged to the royal families of the Heraclidæ. For since the councillors, together with the kings, amounted to thirty, and as this number doubtless depended upon and proceeded from that of the obæ, it follows that the two royal families, although springing from one stock, must nevertheless have been separated into two different obæ, of which they were in a manner the representatives. And if we proceed to conclude in this manner, we shall be obliged, since there were Heraclidæ, exclusive of the kings, in the gerusia,318 to suppose that there were, besides these, other Heraclide obæ in Sparta; although I am not of opinion that all the Hyllean houses derived themselves from Hercules, and were considered as Heraclidæ.
4. With respect to the influence and importance of the obæ in a political view, it was equal to, or even greater than, that of the phratriæ in ancient Athens. For, in the first place, the assembly of the people, in obedience to a rhetra of Lycurgus, was held according to tribes and obæ; afterwards the high council was constituted, and probably the 300 knights were chosen, upon the same principle. At the same time, all public situations and offices were not filled in this manner, but only where distinguished dignity and honour were required: this mode of election, as will be shown below, had always an aristocratic tendency. Magistrates, on the contrary, of a more democratical character, particularly the ephors, were nominated without regard to the division of tribes, as [pg 081] their number alone shows: it is probable that this had some relation to the number of the divisions of the city, of which, as was shown above, there were five. A striking analogy, with regard to this numerary regulation, is afforded by Athens, while yet under an aristocratic government. The tribe of the nobles and knights was in this state divided into three phratriæ, which may be compared with the three tribes of the Doric Spartans. Now, when the nobility (like a chamber of peers) constituted a court of justice over the Alcmæonidæ, 300 eupatridæse, 100 out of each phratria, composed the court.319 And when Cleisthenes the Alcmæonid had been expelled by the aristocratic party, and the democratic senate (βουλὴ) overthrown, Isagoras established a high council of 300.320 Whereas the senate, to which Cleisthenes gave existence and stability, consisted of 500 citizens, and was chosen, without any regard to the ancient division into phratriæ, according to the new local tribes.
5. No Doric state, with the exception of Sparta, appears to have given the name of oba to a division of the people. But neither can the name phratria, so common in other places, be proved to have been used by any Doric people. On the other hand, phratriæ occur at Athens, in the Asiatic colonies,321 and in the Chalcidean colony of Neapolis, that is, chiefly in Ionic states; and Neapolis affords a solitary instance of their being distinguished by certain proper names, such [pg 082] as Eumelidæ, Eunostidæ, Cymæans, Aristæans, &c.322 Pindar however mentions patræ (πάτραι) in the Doric states of Corinth and Ægina; an expression which, according to the precise definition of Dicæarchus, is equivalent to houses or γένη, signifying persons descended from the same ancestor (πατήρ). It was indeed, although not at Athens, in use among the Ionians of Asia Minor and the islands, who appear however to have also employed the terms πάτρα or πατρία for the more extensive word phratria.323 In Ægina and Corinth it will be safest to consider the patræ as houses, since they are always denoted by patronymic names, going back to fabulous progenitors; and by Pindar himself they are also called “houses.” Since however, as being not only a natural, but also a political division, the patræ may sometimes have comprised several houses, and as there was probably in these states no intermediate division (like the phratria at Athens and the oba at Sparta) between them and the tribes, the ancient commentators have neglected their more restricted and original sense, and have compared and identified them with phratriæ.324
[pg 083]6. The name which the houses or γένεα bore at Sparta, and the number of them which was contained in an oba, may be perhaps ascertained from a passage of Herodotus,325 in which he mentions the Enomoties, Triacades, and Syssitia, as military institutions established by Lycurgus. Other inferences from this passage we shall not anticipate, remarking only that the Syssitia appear to have answered to the obæ, from which it is probable that the Triacades were contained in these latter divisions. Now in Attica, at an early period, a triacas was the thirtieth part of a phratria, and contained thirty men, the same number as a γένος.326 Following then the argument from analogy (by which we are so often surprised and guided in our inquiries into the early political institutions), triacas was in Sparta also the name of a house, which was so called, either as being the thirtieth part of an oba, or, as appears to me more probable, because it contained thirty houses. The relation of the triacas to the enomoty,—a small division of warriors, which originally contained twenty-four men,—is quite uncertain. The basis of the whole calculation, and in this case a sufficiently fixed standard, was found in Sparta in the families (οἶκοι) connected with the landed estates; indifferently whether these contained several citizens, [pg 084] or whether they had become extinct and been united with other families.327
7. We now proceed to mention another division of the citizens of Sparta, which concerns the difference of rank. In a certain sense indeed all Dorians were equal in rights and dignity; but there were yet manifold gradations, which, when once formed, were retained by the aristocratic feelings of the people. In the first place, there was the dignity of the Heraclide families, which had a precedence throughout the whole nation;328 and, connected with this, a certain pre-eminence of the Hyllean tribe; which is also expressed in Pindar. Then again, in the times of the Peloponnesian war, “men of the first rank” are often mentioned in Sparta, who, without being magistrates, had a considerable influence upon the government.329
Here also the difference between the Equals (ὅμοιοι) and Inferiors (ὑπομείονες) must be taken into consideration; which, if we judge only from the terms, would not appear to have been considerable, yet, though it is never mentioned in connexion with the constitution of Lycurgus, it had in later times a certain degree of influence upon the government. According to Demosthenes,330 the prize of virtue in Sparta was to become a master of the state, together with the Equals. [pg 085] Whoever neglected a civil duty, lost, according to Xenophon,331 his rank among the Equals. Cinadon wished to overthrow the government, because, although of a powerful and enterprising mind, he did not belong to the Equals.332 About the king's person in the field there were always three of the Equals, who provided for all his wants.333 It also appears that there were many peculiarities in the education of an Equal.334 Whoever, during his boyhood and youth, omitted to make the exertions and endure the fatigues of the Spartan discipline, lost his rank of an Equal.335 In like manner, exclusion from the public tables was followed by a sort of diminutio capitis, or civil degradation.336 This exclusion was either adjudged by the other members of the table, or it was the consequence of inability to defray the due share of the common expense. To them the Inferiors are most naturally opposed; and if the latter were distinct from the Spartans, by the Spartans, in a more limited sense of the word, Equals are sometimes probably understood.337 From these scanty accounts the unprejudiced reader can only infer that a distinction of rank is implied, [pg 086] which depended not upon any charge or office, but continued through life, without however excluding the possibility of passing from one rank into the other, any Equal being liable to be degraded for improper conduct, and an Inferior, under certain circumstances, being enabled to procure promotion by bravery and submission to the authorities; but if this degradation did not take place, the rank then remained in the family, and was transmitted to the children, as otherwise it could not have had any effect upon education.338
8. After these preliminary inquiries concerning the divisions and classes of the citizens, we have now to examine the manner in which the political power was distributed and held in Sparta and the other Doric states.
As the foundation of these inquiries, we may premise a rhetra of Lycurgus, which, given in the form of an oracle of the Pythian Apollo,339 contains the main features of the whole constitution of Sparta.340 [pg 087] “Build a temple to Zeus Hellanius and Athene Hellania; divide the tribes, and institute thirty obas; appoint a council, with its princes; convene the assembly between Babyca and Cnacion; propose this, and then depart; and let there be a right of decision and power to the people.” Here then there is an unlimited authority given to the people to approve or to reject what the kings proposed. This full power was, however, more nearly defined and limited by a subsequent clause, the addition of which was ascribed to kings Theopompus and Polydorus: “but if the people should follow a crooked opinion, the elders and the princes shall dissent.”341 Plutarch interprets these words thus; “That in case the people does not either approve or reject the measure in toto, but alters or vitiates it in any manner, the kings and councillors should dissolve the assembly, and declare the decree to be invalid.” According to this construction, indeed, the public assembly had so far the supreme power, that nothing could become a law without its consent. But it probably could not originate any legislative measure; inasmuch as such a power would have directly contravened the aristocratical spirit of the constitution, which feared nothing so much as the passionate and turbulent haste of the populace in decreeing and deciding. The sense of the rhetra of Lycurgus is also given in some verses from the Eunomia of Tyrtæus, which, on account of their antiquity and importance, we will quote in their original language:—
[pg 088]By the sixth line Tyrtæus means to say that the popular assembly could give a direct answer to a law proposed by the authorities, but not depart from or alter it.
9. The usual name of a public assembly in the Doric states was ἁλία. This is the name by which the Spartan assembly is called in Herodotus;344 and it is used also in official documents for those of Byzantium,345 of Gela, Agrigentum,346 Corcyra,347 and Heraclea;348 ἁλιαῖα was the term employed by the Tarentines349 and Epidamnians;350 the place of assembly among the Sicilian [pg 089] Dorians was called ἁλιακτήρ.351 In Crete it was known by the ancient Homeric expression of ἀγορά.352 In Sparta the ancient name of an assembly of the people was ἀπέλλα, whence the word ἀπελλάζειν in the rhetra quoted above. In later times the names ἐκκλησία and οἱ ἔκκλητοι appear to have been chiefly in use, which do not, more than at Athens, signify a select body, or a committee of the citizens;353 although in other Doric states select assemblies sometimes occur under similar names.354 There was also an assembly of this last kind at Sparta, but it is expressly called the small ecclesia;355 and, according to a passage in which it was mentioned, was chiefly occupied concerning the state of the constitution, and perhaps consisted only of Equals; for it can hardly be supposed that an assembly was convened of magistrates alone.356 To the regular assembly, however, all citizens [pg 090] above the age of thirty were doubtless admitted, who had not been deprived of their rights by law.357 The place of meeting was in Sparta, between the brook Cnacion358 and the bridge Babyca, where afterwards was a place called Œnus, near to Pitana, and therefore situated to the west of the city;359 but, whatever might have been the precise spot, it was in the open air.360 The time for the regular assembly was each full moon;361 yet, for business of emergency, extraordinary meetings were held, often succeeding one another at short intervals.362
Our chief object now is to ascertain what were the subjects which, according to the customs of Sparta, required the immediate decision of the people. In the first place, with regard to the external relations of the state, we know that the whole people alone could proclaim war, conclude a peace, enter into an armistice for any length of time, &c.;363 and that all negociations [pg 091] with foreign states, although conducted by the kings and ephors, could alone be ratified by the same authority. With regard to internal affairs, the highest offices, particularly the councillors, were filled by the votes of the people;364 a disputed succession to the throne was decided by the same tribunal;365 changes in the constitution were proposed and explained, and all new laws (as often as this rare event took place), after previous examination in the council, were confirmed in the assembly.366 Legally also it required the authority of the assembled people to liberate any considerable number of Helots, as being their collective owner.367 In short, the popular assembly possessed the supreme legislative authority; but it was so hampered and restrained by the spirit of the constitution, that it could only exert its authority within certain prescribed limits.
10. This circumstance was shown in an especial manner in the method of its proceedings. None but public magistrates, chiefly the ephors and kings, together with the sons of the latter,368 addressed the people without being called upon, and put the question to the vote;369 foreign ambassadors also being permitted to enter and speak concerning war and peace;370 but that citizens ever came forward upon their own impulse to speak on public affairs, is neither probable, nor do any examples of such a practice occur. A privilege of this kind could, according to Spartan [pg 092] principles, only be obtained by holding a public office.371 As therefore the magistrates alone, (τέλη, ἀρχαὶ) were the leaders and speakers of the assembly, so we often find that stated as a decree of the authorities (especially in foreign affairs),372 which had been discussed before the whole community, and approved by it.373 The occasional speeches were short, and spoken extempore; Lysander first delivered before the people a prepared speech, which he procured from Cleon of Halicarnassus.374 The method of voting by acclamation has indeed something rude and barbarous; but it has the advantage of expressing not only the number of approving and negative voices, but also the eagerness of the voters, accurately enough, according to the ancient simplicity of manners.
11. The public assembly of Crete was, if we may judge from some imperfect accounts, similar to the Lacedæmonian. It included all the citizens, strictly so called; and likewise had only power to answer the decree of the chief officers (cosmi or gerontes) in the negative or affirmative.375 In the [pg 093] other Doric states the influence of the assembly is too closely connected with the historical epoch to allow the collection of the scattered accounts in this place to form an uniform whole. There were everywhere popular assemblies, as long as they were not suppressed by tyrants; nor indeed did every tyrant suppress them; in every state also they represented the supreme power and sovereignty of the people; its will was the only law. That this will, however, should be properly directed, and that the supreme decision should not be intrusted to the blind impulse of an ignorant or excited populace, was the problem which the founders of the Doric governments undertook to solve.
1. This result was chiefly brought about by the aristocratical counterpoise to the popular assembly, the gerusia, which was never wanting in a genuine Doric state, the “council of elders,” as the name signifies.376 In this respect it is opposed to the senate [pg 094] (βουλὴ), which represented the people; although the latter name, as being the more general term, is sometimes used for the council, but never the converse. Thus in the Persian war a senate assembled at Argos, which had full powers to decide concerning peace and war;377 this was therefore of an aristocratic character, since the government of Argos had not then become democratical. The Homeric assembly, which was of a purely aristocratical form, is called βουλὴ γερόντων or γερουσία;378 it consisted of the older men of the ruling families, and decided both public business and judicial causes conjointly with the kings, properly so called,379 frequently, however, in connexion with an ἀγορά. In this assembly lay, but as yet undeveloped, the political elements of the Doric gerusia. At Sparta the name was taken in the strictest sense, as the national opinion laid the greatest importance upon age in the management of public affairs; the young men were appointed for war;380 [pg 095] and accordingly none but men of sixty or more years of age had admission to this council.381 The office of a councillor was, however, according to the expression both of Aristotle and Demosthenes,382 the prize of virtue, and attended with general honour;383 none but men of distinguished families, blameless lives, and eminent station, could occupy it.384 Being an office which was held for life,385 it never could happen that more than one individual was elected at a time, and the eyes of the whole state were directed towards the choice of this one person. Distinguished men, therefore, bordering upon old age, probably always from the oba to which the person whose place was vacated had belonged,386 offered themselves upon their own judgment387 before the tribunal of the public voice. Their advanced age enabled the electors to consider and examine a long public life, and ensured to the state the greatest prudence and experience in the elected. To provide against the weakness of age, which Aristotle considers as a defect attendant on this mode of election, was unnecessary for a time and a state whose inhabitants enjoyed the highest bodily health. The aristocratic tendency of the office required that the candidates should be nominated by [pg 096] vote, not by lot, but yet by the whole people;388 and that they themselves should meet with the good-will of every person; which was particularly required for this dignity.
2. When they had passed through this ordeal they were for ever relieved from all further scrutiny, and were trusted to their own conscience.389 They were subject to no responsibility, since it was thought that the near prospect of death would give them more moderation,390 than the fear of incurring at the cessation of their office the displeasure of the community; to whom in other states the power of calling the highest officers to account was intrusted. The spirit of this aristocratic institution was, that the councillors were morally perfect, and hence it gave them a complete exemption from all fear as to the consequences of their actions. To later politicians it appeared still more dangerous that the councillors of Sparta acted upon their own judgment, and not according to written laws; but only because they did not take into account the power of custom and of ancient habit (the ἄγραφα νόμιμα, πάτριοι νόμοι),391 which have an absolute sway, so long as the internal unity of a people is not separated and destroyed. Upon unwritten laws, which were fixed in the hearts of the citizens, and were there implanted by education, the whole public and legal transactions of the Spartans depended; and these were doubtless most correctly delivered through [pg 097] the mouths of the experienced old men, whom the community had voluntarily selected as its best citizens. Thousands of written laws always leave open a door for the entrance of arbitrary decision, if they have not by their mutual connexion a complete power of supplying what is deficient; this power is, however, alone possessed by the law, connate with the people, which, in the ancient simple times, when national habits are preserved in perfect purity, is better maintained by custom fixed under the inspection of the best men, than by any writing.
To me, therefore, the gerusia appears to be a splendid monument of early Grecian customs: and, by its noble openness, simple greatness, and pure confidence, shows that it was safe to build upon the moral excellence and paternal wisdom of those who had experienced a long life, and to whom in this instance the people intrusted its safety and welfare.
3. The functions of the gerusia were double, it having at the same time an administrative and a judicial authority. In the first capacity it debated with the kings upon all important affairs, preparing them for the decision of the public assembly, and passed a decree in its first stage by a majority of voices,392 the influence of which was doubtless far greater than at Athens: in the latter capacity it had the supreme decision in all criminal cases, and could punish with infamy and death.393 Since, however, in [pg 098] both these directions the power of the council gradually came in conflict with that of the ephors, we must first enter into an investigation concerning these officers, before it will be possible to speak of the extent of the functions of the council at different periods. Another circumstance also, which renders a separate inquiry into the nature of the ephoralty requisite, is the inspection which it exercised over the manners of the citizens,394 in which it manifests a great similarity with the ancient Athenian court of the Areopagus. As every old man had the right of severely censuring the habits of any youth, so every citizen was a youth in comparison with these aged fathers of the state. Hence the awe and veneration with which they were commonly regarded at Sparta. That, however, to an Athenian orator of the democratic times, the gerusia should appear possessed of despotic authority, is not surprising; for it is so far true, that this institution, if transplanted to Athens, would necessarily have caused a tyrannical dominion. In Sparta, however, so little was known of any despotic measure of the gerontes, that, on the contrary, the constitution was impaired when their antagonist office, the ephors, gained the ascendency in influence and power. The institution of the gerusia was in fact, in its main features, once established at Athens, when Lysander nominated the Thirty, who were to be a legislative body, and at the same time the supreme court of justice; with how little success [pg 099] is well known; so true is it, that every institution can only flourish in the soil in which it is first planted.395
4. In early times every Doric state must have had a gerusia; but Crete is the only place of whose council accounts have been preserved, and these represent it in precisely the same light as that of Sparta. It was, we are informed, armed with large political and legislative powers, and laid its decrees in a matured state before the general assembly, for its approval or rejection.396 It decided, without appeal to written laws, upon its own judgment, and was responsible to no one.397 The members were chosen from those persons who had before filled the supreme magistracy (the cosmi), not, however, until after a fresh examination of their fitness.398 The office lasted for life, as at Sparta.399 The princeps senatus was styled βουλῆς πρείγιστος.400
In Elis, also, whose government resembled that of Sparta, a gerusia was a very important part of the constitution. It consisted of ninety members, who were chosen for their lifetime from oligarchical families;401 but in other respects the election was the [pg 100] same as at Sparta, and therefore they were chosen by the whole people. Yet there was also a larger council of 600,402 which may have been an aristocratical committee selected from the popular assembly. Thus much at least is clear, that the power of the people was very limited; and that, as Aristotle says, there was one oligarchy within another.403
5. To the consideration of the gerusia may be joined the inquiry concerning the kingly office in Sparta and other Doric states, as being a cognate element of the constitution. The Doric royalty was a continuation of the heroic or Homeric; and neither in the one nor in the other are we to look for that despotic power, with which the Greeks were not acquainted until they had seen it in foreign countries. In those early times the king, together with his council, was supreme ruler and judge, but not without it; he was also chief commander in war, and as such possessed a large executive authority, as circumstances required. On the whole, however, his station with regard to the nobles was that of an equal; and his office, although for the most part hereditary, could yet be transferred to another family of the aristocracy. [pg 101] He ruled over the common people either in an arbitrary manner, as the suitors in Ithaca, or as a mild father, like Ulysses.404 His office on the whole bore an analogy to the power of Zeus; and it received a religious confirmation from the circumstance of his presiding at and performing the great public sacrifices with the assistance of soothsayers.
6. These are the principal features of the kingly office at Sparta, where, according to Aristotle, as well as among the Molossi in Epirus, it acquired firmness by the limitation of its power; it also derived an additional strength from the mythical notion that the conquest of the country had originated from the royal family.405 The main support of the dignity of the kings was doubtless the honour paid to the Heraclidæ, which extended throughout the whole of Greece, and was the theme of many fables; even the claim of the Spartans to the command of the allied Grecian armies was in part founded upon it. These princes, deriving their origin from the first of the heroes of Greece, were in many respects themselves considered as heroes,406 and enjoyed a certain religious respect. Hence also we may account for their funeral ceremonies, so splendid, when compared with the simplicity of Doric customs; for the general mourning of ten days,407 to which a fixed number of Spartans, [pg 102] Periœci and Helots came, together with their wives, from all parts of the country into the city, where they covered their heads with dust or ashes with great lamentation, and on each occasion praised the dead king as the best of all princes;408 as well as for the exposure of those kings who had fallen in battle, whose images were laid upon a state-couch:409 usages which approximate very closely to the worship of an hero (τιμαὶ ἡρωϊκαί). The royal dignity was also guarded by the sanction of the sacerdotal office: for the kings were priests of Zeus Uranius and Zeus Lacedæmon, and offered public sacrifices to Apollo on every new moon and seventh day (Νεομήνιος and Ἑβδομαγέτας);410 they also received the skins of all sacrificed animals as a part of their income. From [pg 103] this circumstance, added to the fact that in war they had a right to the back of every victim, and had liberty to sacrifice as much as they wished,411 it follows that they presided over the entire worship of the army, being both priests and princes, like the Agamemnon of Homer.412 Their power, however, most directly required that they should maintain a constant intercourse between the state and the Delphian oracle; hence they nominated the Pythians, and, together with these officers, read and preserved the oracles.413 As then it appears from these facts that the dignity of the kings was founded on a religious notion, so it was also limited by religion; although the account we have is rather of an ancient custom, which was retained when its meaning had been lost, than an institution of real influence. Once in every eight years (δι᾽ ἐτῶν ἐννέα) the ephors chose a calm and moonless night, and placed themselves in the most profound silence to observe the heavens: if there was any appearance of a shooting star, it was believed that the kings had in some manner offended the Deity, and they were suspended until an oracle from Delphi, or the priests at Olympia, absolved them from the guilt.414 If this custom (doubtless of great antiquity) is compared with the frequent occurrence of this period of nine years in early times, and especially with the tradition preserved in a verse of Homer, “of Minos, who reigned for periods of nine years, holding intercourse with [pg 104] Zeus,”415 it is easy to perceive that the dominion of the ancient Doric princes determined, as it were, at the period of every eight years, and required a fresh religious ratification. So intimate in early times was the connexion between civil government and religion.
It is clear, from what has been said, that the Dorians considered the kingly office as proceeding from the Deity, and not as originating from the people; which would, I believe, have seemed to them in no-wise more natural, than that the liberty of the people should be dependent on the king. But they were well aware that the elements of the constitution had not been formed by a people consisting, like the American colonists after their defection from the mother-country, of individuals possessed of equal rights: but they had existed at the beginning, and grown with the growth of the nation. For this reason the people were not empowered to nominate the king (from which disputes concerning the rightful succession to the throne should be carefully distinguished;)416 but the royal dignity passed in a regular succession to the eldest son, with this exception, that the sons born during the reign of the father had the precedence of their elder brothers: if the eldest son died, the throne passed to his next male descendant; and on failure of [pg 105] his line, to the younger brothers in succession; if there was no male issue of the king, the office went to his brother417 (who also, during the minority of the son of the late king, was his natural guardian),418 and his heirs; or, lastly, if the whole line was extinct, to the next of kin.419 The anxiety of the Spartans for the legitimacy of their kings, also serves to prove the high importance which was attached to the genuineness of their birth. Notwithstanding these large privileges, the people believed its liberty to be secured by the oath which was taken every month by the kings, that they would reign according to the laws; a custom also in force among the Molossi;420 in return for which, the state engaged through the ephors to preserve the dominion of the kings unshaken (ἀστυφέλικτος), if they adhered to their oath.421
7. The constitutional powers of the kings of Sparta were inconsiderable, as compared with their dignity and honours. In the first place, the two kings were members of the gerusia, and their presence was requisite to make a full council; but as such they only had single votes,422 which in their absence were held by the [pg 106] councillor who was most nearly related to them, and therefore a Heraclide.423 If they were present, they presided at the council, and accordingly, in the ancient rhetra above mentioned, they are styled princes (ἀρχαγέται) in reference to the council; it was also their especial office to speak and to propose measures in the public assembly. When the council sat as a court of justice, the kings of course presided in it; besides which, they had a distinct tribunal of their own,424 for in Sparta all magistrates had a jurisdiction in cases which belonged to the branch of the administration with which they were intrusted: the only remnant of which custom, spared by the democracy at Athens, was, that the public officers always introduced such suits into the courts. This coincidence of administrative and judicial authority also existed at Sparta in the person of their kings. They held a court in cases concerning the repair and security of the public roads, probably in their capacity of generals, and as superintendents of the intercourse with foreign nations. It is remarkable that they gave judgment in all cases of heiresses, and that all adoptions were made in their presence.425 Both these duties regarded the maintenance of families, the basis of the ancient Greek states, the care for which was therefore intrusted to the kings. Thus in Athens also, the same duty had been transferred from the ancient kings to the archon eponymus, who accordingly had the superintendence, [pg 107] and a species of guardianship over all heiresses and orphans.426
8. The greater part of the king's prerogative was his power in foreign affairs. The kings of Sparta were the commanders of the Peloponnesian confederacy. They also went out as ambassadors; although at times of mistrust companions were assigned, who were known to be disinclined and hostile to them.427 By the same power the kings also nominated citizens as proxeni, who entertained ambassadors and citizens of foreign states in their houses,428 and otherwise provided for them; it appears that the kings themselves were in fact the proxeni for foreign countries, and that those persons whom they nominated are only to be considered as their deputies.
As soon as the king had assumed the command of the army, and had crossed the boundaries, he became, according to ancient custom, general with unlimited power (στρατηγὸς αὐτοκράτωρ).429 He had authority to despatch and assemble armies, to collect money in foreign countries, and to lead and encamp the army according to his own judgment. Any person who dared to impede him, or to resist his authority, was outlawed.430 He had power of life and death, and could [pg 108] execute without trial (ἐν χειρὸς νόμῳ); although, from the well-known subordination of the Spartans, such cases were probably of rare occurrence. But it is manifest that the king, upon his return, was always responsible and liable to punishment, as well for an imprudent, as for a tyrannical use of his powers. His political was separated with sufficient accuracy from his military authority, and the king was not permitted to conclude treaties, or to decide the fate of cities, without communication with and permission from the state.431 His military power was, however, thought dangerous and excessive, and was from time to time curtailed. This limitation was not indeed effected by the arrangement which originated from the dissension between Demaratus and Cleomenes, viz., that only one king should be with the army at the same time432 (for this regulation rather increased the power of the one king who was sent out); but chiefly by the law, that the king should not go into the field without ten councillors (a rule which owed its origin to the over-hasty armistice of Agis),433 and by the compulsory attendance of the ephors.434
[pg 109]9. The investigation concerning the revenue of the kings is not in itself so important as it is rendered interesting by the parallel with the same office in the Homeric age. In Homer the kings are represented as having three sorts of revenues; first, the produce of their lands (τεμένη),435 which often contained tillage ground, pastures, and plantations; secondly, the fees for judicial decisions (δῶρα); and, thirdly, the public banquets, which were provided at the expense of the community.436 To these were added extraordinary gifts, shares of the booty, and other honorary presents. The case was nearly the same at Sparta, except that they received no fees for judicial decisions. But in the first place, the king in this country had his landed property, which was situated in the territory of several cities belonging to the Periœci,437 and the royal tribute (βασιλικὸς φόρος) was probably derived from the same source.438 This was the foundation of the private wealth of the kings, which frequently amounted to a considerable sum; otherwise, how could it have been proposed to fine king Agis a hundred thousand drachmas,439 that is, doubtless, Æginetan drachmas, and therefore about 5800l. of our money? Also the younger Agis, [pg 110] the son of Eudamidas, was possessed of six hundred talents in coin;440 and in a dialogue attributed to Plato, the king of Sparta is declared to be richer than any private individual at Athens.441 But besides these revenues, the king received a large sum from the public property; a double portion at the public banquets,442 an animal without blemish for sacrifice, a medimnus of wheat, and a Lacedæmonian quart of wine on the first and seventh days of each month;443 the share in the sacrifices above mentioned, &c. It was, moreover, customary for private individuals who gave entertainments, to invite the kings, as was the practice in the Homeric times;444 on these occasions a double portion was set before them, and when a public sacrifice took place, the kings had the same rights and preferences.445 In war, also, the king received a large portion of the plunder; thus the share of Pausanias, after the battle of Platæa, was ten women, horses, camels, and talents:446 in later times it appears that a third of the booty fell to the lot of the king.447 Lastly, it is proper to mention the official residence of the two kings of Sparta, built, according to tradition, by Aristodemus the ancestor of the two royal families.448 In addition [pg 111] to this dwelling, they had frequently private houses of their own,449 and a tent was always built for them without the city, at the public expense.450
In taking a review of all these statements, it appears to me that the political sagacity was almost past belief, with which the ancient constitution of Sparta protected the power, the dignity, and welfare of the office of king, yet without suffering it to grow into a despotism, or without placing the king in any one point either above or without the law. Without endangering the liberty of the state, a royal race was maintained, which, blending the pride of their own family with the national feelings, produced, for a long succession of years, princes of a noble and patriotic disposition. Thus it was in fact with the two Heraclide families, to which Theopompus, Leonidas, Archidamus II., Agesilaus, Cleomenes III., and Agis III. belonged; and the greater number of the later kings retained, up to the last period, a genuine Spartan disposition, which we find expressed in many nervous and pithy apophthegms.
10. It may be inferred that it was the case in all, as we know it to have been in many Dorian states, with the exception of later colonies, that they were governed by princes of the Heraclide family. In Argos, the descendants of Temenus reigned until after [pg 112] the time of Phidon, and the kingly office did not expire till after the Persian war;451 in Corinth, the successors of Aletes, and afterwards of Bacchis, reigned until about the 8th Olympiad. How long the Ctesippidæ [pg 113] reigned in Epidaurus and Cleonæ,452 we are not informed. In Megara we find the name, but the name only, of a king at a very late period.453 In Messenia the Æpytidæ ruled as kings until the subjugation of the country; and when Aristomenes was compelled to quit it, he took refuge with Damagetus, the king of Ialysus, in the island of Rhodes, of the Heraclide family of the Eratidæ.454 Also the Hippotadæ at Cnidos and Lipara,455 the Bacchiadæ at Syracuse and Corcyra,456 the Phalantidæ at Tarentum,457 probably had in early times ruled as sovereign princes, as well as the Heraclidæ at Cos, who derived their origin from Phidippus and Antiphus.458 In Crete we find but little mention of the Heraclidæ, the only exceptions being Althæmenes of Argos, and Phæstus of Sicyon.459 In this island the family of Teutamas had reigned from a remote period: with regard to the time during which kings existed in this country, it can only be conjectured from the circumstance that a king named Etearchus reigned at Oaxus not long before the building of Cyrene.460 Cyrene, as has been already shown, [pg 114] was under the dominion of a Minyean, its mother-city Thera, under that of an Ægide family.461 Delphi was also at an early period under the rule of kings.462 Of the aristocratic offices, which were substituted in the place of the royal authority, we shall presently speak, when treating of the power of the cosmi.