50 IIISTOKY OF GREECE. time of Xenophon, 1 in part, an ideal not fully realized in practice much less was it a reality in the days of Kleomenes and Agis moreover, it was an ideal which admitted of being colored accord- ing to the fancy or feelings of those reformers who professed, and probably believed, that they were aiming at its genuine restora- tion. What the reforming kings found most in their way, was the uncontrolled authority, and the conservative dispositions, of the ephors, which they naturally contrasted with the original fulness of the kingly power, when kings and senate stood alone. Among the various ways in which men's ideas of what the primi- tive constitution had been, were modified by the feelings of their own time (we shall presently see some other instances of this), is probably to be reckoned the assertion of Kleomenes respecting the first appointment of the ephors. Kleomenes affirmed that the ephors had originally been nothing more than subordinates and deputies of the kings, chosen by the latter to perform for a time their duties during the long absence of the Messenian war. Start- ing from this humble position, and profiting by the dissensions of the two kings, 2 they had in process of time, especially by the ambition of the ephor Asteropus, found means first to constitute themselves an independent board, then to usurp to themselves more and more of the kingly authority, until they at last reduced the kings to a state of intolerable humiliation and impotence. As a proof of the primitive relation between the kings and the ephors. he alluded to that which was the custom at Sparta in his own time. When the ephors sent for either of the kings, the latter had a right to refuse obedience to two successive summonses, but the third summons he was bound to obey. 3 It is obvious that the fact here adduced by Kleomenes (a curious point in Spartan manners) contributes little to prove the conclusion which he deduced from it, of the original nomination of the ephors as mere deputies by the kings. That they were first appointed at the time of the Messenian war is probable, and coincides with the tale that king Theopompus was a consenting 1 Xenophon, Kepublic. Laced, c. 14. "Plutarch, Agis, c. 12. TOVTO yap TO ap^sTov (the ephors) laxvtiv In (Jia^optif T&V (3aai3.uv, etc.
- Plutarch, Kleomenes, c. 10. arifiEiov tie Totrov, rd /tsxP 1 vvv, n+
rantpirofievuv rbv SaaL^ea ~iJv 'E^opwv, etc.
