Ephor
They had an extensive range of judicial, religious, legislative, and military powers, and could shape Sparta's home and foreign affairs.
[2] The ephors did not have to kneel before the Kings of Sparta, and were held in high esteem by the citizens because of the importance of their powers and because of the holy role that they earned throughout their functions.
The earliest account is found in the Histories of Herodotus, who traces its origins to the mythical Spartan lawgiver Lycurgus—a version followed by Xenophon, Plato, or Isocrates.
[4][5][6][7] A diverging version first appears in the Politics, written in the middle of the 4th century BCE by Aristotle, who tells that the ephorate was created by the Spartan king Theopompos.
[9][10] Modern scholars have identified the source of the second version in a lost work written by the Agiad king Pausanias after he had been forced to abdicate and go into exile in 394 BCE.
In this logos, Pausanias likely published Lycurgus' laws, including the Rhetra, which details the different element of the Spartan constitution (kings, gerousia, ekklesia), but does not mention the ephors.
It has therefore been suggested that Pausanias was hostile to the ephors, to whom he possibly attributed his banishment, and published the Rhetra to discredit their office.
[11] Although the contents of this logos and Pausanias' motivations remain disputed, most modern scholars think the ephors were created at the time of Theopompos, during the Messenian Wars.
[12][13] According to Plutarch, the ephorate was born out of the necessity for leaders while the kings of Sparta were absent for long periods during the Messenian Wars.
[16] Up to two ephors would accompany a king on extended military campaigns as a sign of control, and they held the authority to declare war during some periods in Spartan history.
For example, in 403 BCE, Pausanias convinced three of the ephors to send an army to Attica, a complete reversal of the policy of Lysander.
[24] The Spartan constitution is principally known through the work of Aristotle, who describes in detail the elections of the gerontes (the members of the Gerousia), but not the ephors.
As with the gerontes, this system of voice voting was considered "childish" by Aristotle, because influential men could easily manipulate the results by pressuring the jury.
[31] In 413/2, the ordinary ephor Endios is thus described by Thucydides as wielding a lot of influence within the college, even though the eponymous was Onomantios.
They held power within Sparta by also acting as the Presidents of the assembly and the justices of the supreme civil court as well as controlling army composition.
By the late sixth century BCE, the ephors had acquired this authority to oversee the assembly and could use this power against the kings of Sparta.
[44] Many kings were put on trial by the ephors, including Leotychidas, who was found to have accepted a bribe from the Thessalians during his military expedition to Thessaly.
[49] When men between the ages of twenty and thirty (known as hebontes) committed offenses they were brought before the paidonomos, a magistrate charged with supervising the education of the youth in the agoge.
Zack Snyder's 2007 film adaptation of the Battle of Thermoplyae, 300, depicts ephors as priestly class that exercise power by interpreting the words of the Oracle.
[76] Ephors have appeared in Steven Pressfield's 1998 Gates of Fire, an historical fiction novel that recounts the Battle of Thermopylae.
In Chapter 15, the ephors appear when a delegation of mothers and wives goes to the council, requesting they be allowed to join the battle.
Eurytos is killed by a helot revolt and the only surviving soldier returns to Sparta to inform the remaining four ephors.
