Spartan Oligarchy
The “few” (oligoi ) who made
policy in the oligarchy ruling Sparta were a group of twenty-eight men over sixty years
old, joined by the two kings. This group of thirty, called the “council of
elders” (
gerousia
1), formulated proposals that were submitted
to an assembly of all free adult males. This assembly had only limited power to amend
the proposals put before it; mostly it was expected to approve the council's plans.
Rejections were rare because the council retained the right to withdraw a proposal when
the reaction to it by the crowd in the assembly presaged a negative vote. “If
the people speak crookedly,” according to Spartan tradition, “the
elders and the leaders of the people shall be withdrawers [of the proposal].”
The council could then bring the proposal back on another occasion after there had been
time to marshal support for its passage.
A board of five annually elected “overseers” (
ephors
2) counterbalanced the influence of the kings and the gerousia. Chosen from the adult male citizens at large, the
ephors convened the gerousia and the
assembly, and they exercised considerable judicial powers of judgment and punishment.
They could even bring charges against a king and imprison him until his trial. The
creation of the board of ephors diluted the political power of the
oligarchic gerousia and the kings because the job of
the ephors was to ensure the supremacy of law. The Athenian
Xenophon
later reported3: “All men rise from their seats in the presence of the king, except
for the ephors. The ephors on behalf of the polis
and the king on his own behalf swear an oath to each other every month: the king swears
that he will exercise his office according to the established laws of the
polis , and the polis swears that it will preserve his
kingship undisturbed if he abides by his oath.”
