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ἐφύλαξε. The ‘security’ was an oath to observe the laws till his return (Plut. Lyc. 29); this is probably borrowed from the story as to Solon (c. 29. 2). So, too, the statement that he travelled is considered by some to be an invention copied from the genuine travels of the Athenian.

The ἐνωμοτίη, i. e. ‘sworn brotherhood’, was the smallest tactical unit of the army, containing in 418 B.C. about thirty-two men (Thuc. v. 68. 3), at Leuctra ‘not more than thirty-six’ (Xen. Hell. vi. 4. 12); but the number no doubt varied.

τριηκάδας, ‘companies of thirty.’ For conjectures as to their nature of. Hermann, Staats-A. i. 197. n. 4; perhaps the word is a gloss to explain ἐνωμοτία (a case of ‘obscurum per obscurius’). The number ‘thirty’ occurs again in Sparta in the Senate, and perhaps in the number of the ὠβαί (Plut. Lyc. 6 ad init.; sed incerta lectio).

The συσσίτια were originally military organizations, the band of warriors united by the common meal.

ἐφόρους. Three views are taken as to H.'s statements about the Ephors and the Gerousia:

(1) That both statements are right; Ephors and Gerousia were part of the primitive constitution, and so associated with Lycurgus. Cf. Xen. Rep. Lac. c. 8 for Ephors, c. 10 for Gerousia; Isocrates, Panath. 165-6. Meyer (F. i. 246) accepts this view; holding that Lycurgus has no historical reality, he identifies his supposed institutions with the primitive constitution.

(2) That the first is right and the second wrong. Clearly the γέροντες are the old council of chiefs and pre-Lycurgean; but the Ephors may be definite officers, created by Lycurgus to superintend the ἀγωγή.

(3) That both statements are wrong. The Ephorate is assigned to a date later than Lycurgus, i. e. the reign of Theopompus: for (a) Aristotle (Pol. v. 11. 2, 1313 A) tells the story of his answer that he left the kingship ελάττων but πολυχρονιωτέρα (cf. Plat. Leg. 692; Plut. Lyc. 7, Cleom. 10). (b) The list of ephors begins 755-754 B.C., i. e. in the reign of Theopompus (but this date, if it be historical at all, might refer to an alteration in the power of an old office). Meyer (F. i. 250) argues that the post-Lycurgean date for the Ephorate is due to King Pausanias (cf. 65. 4 n.) and the constitutional struggles at Sparta early in the fourth century. Owing to the authority of Aristotle (u. s.), it displaced the earlier view and was generally adopted.

All we can say for certain is that (1) the Ephorate is found in the colonies of Thera, Cyrene, and the Tarentine Heraclea, and so may have been an early institution in Sparta, their reputed μητρόπολις (but cf. iv. 145 nn.); (2) that the office was closely connected with the ἀγωγή. For the whole subject of the Ephorate cf. Busolt, i. 555 seq.

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