Ephors. Detailed history

The Ephor was a magistrate of Sparta charged with protecting the people against the absolute power of the king. The Spartan constitution had a variety of offices, which provided a check on each other to prevent anyone from becoming too powerful. Many Greeks viewed Sparta as the perfect government since it employed elements of monarchy, oligarchy, and democracy without any one part having too much power.

The democracy was seen in its assembly, which voted on nearly all important elements of politics and society. The oligarchy was represented by the Council of Elders, or Gerousia, while the monarchy was witnessed in its two kings, each from a family supposedly descended from Heracles. In addition, the Spartan constitution had executive, legislative, and judicial branches interspersed in the three forms of government. Another part of the executive branch was the Ephor, who also acted as part of the judicial branch. The Ephors were chosen by and from the Spartiate, or male citizens with full rights.

The Ephor was an ancient office, with some historians asserting that it went back to the great Spartan lawgiver Lycurgus, who had established the form of government in the 750s. In its final form, possibly even early on, there were five Ephors, each elected for one year, and each Ephor could hold that office only once in their lifetime. The word ephor means “overseer” or “inspector,” and Ephors became overseers of the whole state.

Their power and authority allowed them to balance out the power of other magistrates, including the two kings and the Council of Elders, judicially call out every magistrate, and require them to give an account of their acts and morals. The chair of the Ephors was also the president of the Popular Assembly, with the authority and duty to call meetings of the Assembly for deliberations and voting.

The power of the Ephors extended to controlling nearly all aspects of Spartan life. They took over the state’s finances, especially after the Peloponnesian War, when Sparta began to receive gold and silver from the conquests by Lysander, its general. They could deliver judicial decrees or verdicts on the law courts, with jurisdiction over all of Sparta. Ephors controlled the religious life of Sparta by declaring the morals that needed to be upheld, and they oversaw the public games.

They had the power to declare war and peace, limit debate in the Assembly, deploy troops, and make alliances. Since their power was in many ways absolute, they could not be prosecuted during their term, but they were liable for prosecution after they left office for acts committed during their term. In addition, since their power was almost like that of an absolute monarch, they were limited on only one yearlong term in office so that they could not become what they were supposed to prevent—a tyrant or king.

Ephors were elected at the time of the winter solstice in late December, which was also the beginning of the Spartan year. There are some differences of opinion among the ancient authors as to when it was established. The earliest writers, Herodotus and Xenophon, indicated that Lycurgus created the office as part of the constitution that he established when the Spartans were fighting the Messenians and both kings were required to be absent.

The Ephors then acted in their place and also provided a counterweight to maintain a proper balance. Plutarch, writing in 130 CE, indicated that they were established about 150 years after Lycurgus by the Spartan king Theopompus so as to preserve the monarchy, saving it from itself since he feared that the Spartans would come to resent the hereditary power if it were absolute.

The office may in fact predate all of these, since the five Ephors seem to correlate with the five villages that made up the ancient city and the fact that one was elected in each village to oversee its structure. They may have been in charge of the markets or citizenship rolls in each village. They could give orders to the king except on the battlefield. In addition, they could bring charges against the king for his actions on the battlefield, even if victorious.

The Ephors also maintained the moral character of the state. At the beginning of their tenure, they could declare war on the helots (state serfs), so that if one was killed by a Spartan, the act would not be seen as homicide. In addition, they often declared that Spartans were to shave off their beards and mustaches in order to show their dominance in local matters. The office was also found in other cities, such as Thera and Cyrene with evidence of its existence there in 632.