Spartan Government System: The Ephorate

 Origins

• The Ephorate was a board of five ephors who were the chief magistrates and administrative officials in Sparta
• The word 'Ephor' means 'overseer'
• The origin of the office is unknown and controversy on the subject has continued among historians, who have put forward several theories

Historian Theories

• The ephors were originally priests and astrologers
• The ephors were created by the kings to carry on government while they were away at war
• The ephors were originally connected with the five villages and may have been chiefs who became advisers to the kings

Power in the 7th Century (BC)

• It was not until the 7th century that the ephorate won their great political power
• This slowly increased until they had taken over the main powers of the kings
• They had formidable powers as representatives of the people

Election Process

• Any Spartan over the age of thirty could stand for the office
• Elected by the assembly annually by acclamation - exchanging oaths with the king each month
• Took office at the full moon - after the autumnal equinox
• Upon appointment they would issue a proclamation to all citizens to shave their moustaches and obey the laws

Monthly Oaths

• The monthly oath was taken to uphold the office of the kings as long as they behaved in accordance with the laws
• They shared some of the powers with the kings and they were also empowered to depose them

Main Functions: Represented the Principle of Law

• The Ephorate had eight main functions:
• Checks on the kings (overseers)
• Dealing with foreign policy
• Dealing with army
• Control over magistrates
• Supervision over training
• Krypteia
• Dealings with the Gerousia (apparently 7 and 8)

No.1 - Checks on the kings

• As representatives of the people and a democratic element they were expected to:
• Keep a check on the kings - at home and abroad accompanying them on campaign
• Summon the kings before them for misdemeanours

No.2 Foreign Powers

• They dealt with foreign embassies
• According to Xenophon - before foreign representatives could enter Sparta they had to halt at the border and wait the permission of the ephors
• Once in Sparta, envoys made their proposals or demands to the ephors - who would then decide of they should go before the assembly

No.3 Dealing with the Army

• If war was declared, the ephors decided which age classes should go
• They issued orders mobilising the army
• They gave instructions to the generals and recalled them if they failed

No.4 Controlling Magistrates

• Their power over lesser magistrates was great
• At the end of a magistrate's year in office he gave an account of himself to the ephors - who decided if any punishment was in order

No.5 Supervised Training

• Had total control over training and discipline of the young
• Any misconduct was reported to the ephors and Spartan youths were given a regular physical examination
• The ephors also chose the three captains of the elite corps of the Spartan army

No.6 Krypteia

• The Krypteia (secret police organisation) was under orders from the ephors
• It has been portrayed as a tyrannical and vicious weapon - used to murder helots indiscriminately
• Plutarch and Aristotle both make mention of the role played by the Krypteia and the removal of the helot population
• This was a unique feature to Sparta, never adopted by other Greek States

Plutarch and the Krypteia

"The magistrates dispatched privately some of the ablest of the young men into the country from time to time armed only with their daggers... in the daytime they hid in out-of-the-way places and there law close, but in the night issued out into the highways, and killed all the helots they could light upon"

Aristotle and the Krypteia

"Upon entering office the ephors used to declare war on the helots - so that they could be massacred without offending the gods"

- In other words declaring them public enemies allowed them to be killed with impunity

Krypteia Membership

• More probably a body of eighteen to twenty year old youths - at the disposal of the ephors for special service
• Membership formed part of the training of the youths in that they:
• Served for two years
• Provided a useful method for removing undesirables - specifically helots

No 7&8 - Dealing with the Gerousia

• The ephors summoned and presided over sessions of the Gerousia and the Assembly and initiated legislation
• With the Gerousia - they acted as a court of criminal justice and carried out punishments
• They were criminal judges in cases involving perioikoi and they constituted the supreme civil court

Limitations of the Ephorate

• Answerable to the public body
• Despite the ephors' great powers - they were subject to certain restrictions
• They were elected for one year only
• When they became private citizens once again they could be called to account for their actions in an audit by their successor
• They could not be re-elected
• Thus, they were both democratic and oligarchic

Eponymous Nature

• One Ephor was always "eponymous" - his name was used at Sparta to signify the year. E.g: Thucydides treats the treaty of 421BC as follows:
• "This peace shall take beginning from the 24th of the month Artemisium, Pleistolas being ephor at Sparta, and the 5th of Elaphebolium, after the acount of Athens. Alcaeus being archon" 5.19

Activity

Xenophon, 4, 8, 11, 13, 15

Aristotle, "Ephors"

Plutarch, Lycurgus, 7

• Xenophon
• "Like tyrants or presidents (referees) at the games they punish an offender as soon as the offence is detected" - he uses the word tyrant but not in a negative sense. He is comparing them to referees at a game, ensuring the game is fair
• They call up the age groups for campaign
• They have the "right to inflict punishments at will", to "require immediate payment of fines" and "to depose magistrates during their term of office"
• They had to be present at any sacrifices to Zeus - they take no part unless the king invites them
• They were the only ones to sit when the kings were in attendance and took a monthly oath to the city of Sparta alongside the kings - that the ephors swear to allow the kings to rule, so long as the kings abide by the rules
• "Needless to say by watching each man's conduct they exercise a restraining hand on all"
• The Spartans realised that obedience is vital to the city, in the army and the home - when called upon by the ephors the Spartans would run
• During the education process any boys who fought amongst themselves would have to appear before the ephors
• Ephors would routinely inspect the boys to check their progress
• Attended meetings of the Gerousia
• They picked the hippegretai, who then chose 100 men themselves, and once approved they became the Hippeis - the king's bodyguard
• Aristotle
• "excessive, virtually that of a tyrant"
• "Even the Spartan Kings were forced to curry favour from them, and this has caused further damage to the constitution, for an aristocracy turned into a democracy"
• Democratic in the sense that any Spartan over the age of 30 can stand for the ephorate, and are voted in by the people
• Tyrannical - because they overstep the jurisdiction assigned to them
• Because they are selected from among the entire population they are "open to bribes"
• "Independently control most of the important business"
• The ephor being open to the people "kept them quiet" and "whether this is due to the lawgiver or good fortune is unclear, but suits the circumstances very well"
• Two ephors accompanied the kings on campaign - "the king's greatest enemy"
• "Supreme power of jurisdiction"
• Plutarch
• After Lycurgus' reforms, the Spartans realised that Oligarchy was the most dominant form of government in Sparta and imposed the ephorate as a curb on the undiluted oligarchy
• Plutarch implies that the ephorate is a democratic process
• Introduced 130 years after Lycurgus during the reign on Theopompus
• How and why do Xenophon and Aristotle differ in their opinions of the Ephorate
• Both say essentially the same thing about the Ephors. Both call them tyrants and both say the Ephors had incredible sway and influence over Spartan policy
• Xenophon
• Describes the Ephorate in a positive light ("they had a restraining hand over all" and they were like referees at the Olympics calling out any misgivings)
• Xenophon lived and wrote at the end of the Peloponnesian War in the late 5th century BC
• Many of Athens; intellectuals at this time were laconophiles
• On his campaigns as a mercenary commander, Xenophon endeared himself to the Spartan King Agesilaus and later moved to Olympia in the Peloponnese to serve as a Spartan ambassador
• There is strong evidence to suggest that his sons went through the agoge
• Aristotle
• Says their power was excessive. They were open to corruption and bribery and they gave the common people an undue influence over political matters
• Aristotle was not an Athenian, but he moved to Athens and studied under Plato in the 4th Century BC
• At this stage, Sparta had crumbled under internal disorders, as well as a succession of military defeats
• The rose-tinted view of Sparta had been shattered and Aristotle made a clear break from his intellectual predecessors by viewing Sparta through a critical lens