Amid the documents of which the ephors possessed themselves after the death of Pausanias was a correspondence with Themistocles, then residing in the rival and inimical state of Argos.
The next morning the ephors calmly replied to the angry threats of the Athenians, by protesting that their troops were already on the march, and by this time in Oresteum, a town in Arcadia, about eighteen miles distant from Sparta.
The Ephors persuaded him to take another wife; he did so, and by the second wife.
At length, however, such decided and unequivocal intelligence of the progress of the walls arrived at Sparta, that the ephors could no longer feel or affect incredulity.
It is easy to perceive that it was in the nature of things that the institution of the ephors should thus encroach until it became the prevalent power.
But his haughty disdain of their rigid laws, and his continued affectation of the barbarian pomp, kept the government vigilant; and though released from prison, the stern ephors were his sentinels.
To the people:--the ephors were the people's representatives!
Acquainted with his designs, the vigilant ephors despatched to him a herald with the famous scytale.
The ephors heard, and immediately acted with the secrecy and the vigilance that belongs to oligarchies.
It is clear that the later authority of the ephors was never designed by Lycurgus or the earlier legislators.
So great was this exigency, that the ephors came from Sparta to consult on operations.
A change of ephors at Sparta favored hostile measures, and an alliance was made between the Bœotians and Lacedæmonians.
Agis accordingly procured a decision of the ephorsto send out instructions for his death.
Two of the five ephors accompanied the king in war, and were a check on his authority.
Moreover, all rise from their seats to give place to the king, save only that the ephors rise not from their thrones of office.
Monthly they exchange oaths, theephors in behalf of the state, the king himself in his own behalf.
Their ephors select three men out of the whole body of the citizens in the prime of life.
In the first instance, the ephors announce by proclamation the limit of age to which the service applies (1) for cavalry and heavy infantry; and in the next place, for the various handicraftsmen.
The ephors were often manifestly mediators between the generals and the assembly.
But the ephors were not compelled to wait for the natural expiration of an office, they could suspend or deprive the officer by their judicial powers.
For to take away from the office of ephors their election from among the people would be to give up its most essential characteristic.
For this reason we will first consider the judicial authority of the ephors, a power which we know to have belonged also to the ephors of Cyrene.
The ephors at certain periods saw dreams in the temple of Pasiphaa at Thalamae, and their visions were politically interpreted: we know that a dream of this kind stimulated the Spartans to return to their ancient equality.
The cosmi of Crete are compared by Aristotle, Ephorus and Cicero, with theephors of Lacedaemon.
The ephors had such absolute control over the lives and property of the Spartans that we may describe their rule as socialistic and select Sparta as an example of ancient state socialism.
A present of a talent to each of the Ephors made him “descendant of Hercules” and king of Sparta.
But perceiving that the chief obstacles in the way of the accomplishment of his design were Lycurgus, and those Ephors who had invested him with the crown, he directed his first efforts against them.
The Ephors had discovered that the charge on which he had been banished was false; and had accordingly sent for him back, and recalled him from exile.
He took them by long marches to a great distance from home, and then left them at night with a few trusty friends, with whom he fell upon the Ephors at supper, and killed four of them, the only blood he shed in this matter.
So there was a public assembly, and one of the Ephors proposed the reform, showing how ease and pleasure had brought their city low, and how hardihood and courage might yet bring back her true greatness.
In the morning he called the people together, and showed them how the Ephors had taken too much power, and how ill they had used it, especially in the murder of Agis; and the people agreed henceforth to let him rule without them.
The Thebans had joined the allies against Sparta, and the Ephors sent orders to Agesilaus to punish them on his way southwards.
Some of the Ephors were warned, hid themselves there, and heard his treason from his own lips.
The blood of Agis, slaughtered by these tyrants, was avenged by his successor; the crime and the punishment of the Ephors alike hastened the destruction of the republic, and after Cleomenes Sparta ceased to be of any account.
A man of bad morals having made a good proposal in the Spartan Council, the Ephors neglected it, and caused the same proposal to be made by a virtuous citizen.
Ephors were a board of five[102] magistrates elected annually.
They did not even care what men were set over them as rulers: their method of electing Ephors was childish, and the elections are generally if not always passed over in silence by the historians.
The ambassadors sent by the Athenians in their extreme distress during the occupation of Athens by Mardonius were received by the Ephors and were kept waiting ten days for an answer.
On the other hand the Ephors when in office frequently accepted bribes: and he says that on one occasion they did all that in them lay towards the ruin of the state.
The name Ephors or Overseers implies that they exercised some kind of supervision over the government or some part of it.
The office of the Ephors shared in the general deterioration of the Spartan commonwealth, and Aristotle (writing about 330 B.
Ephors rose to supreme power at Sparta: they sat in judgement on king Cleomenes I.
Ephors were appointed or elected: in the time of Aristotle (about 330 B.
The ephors gave their word, And what I win I'll wear!
The ephors and senators take seats which the Helots have prepared for them] First Ephor.
The ephors choose That Dianessa bear this honor off.
In fact he had nothing to say, nothing further, that is, than the fact that Lysander professed himself unable to treat; the Ephors must be approached, if anything was to be done.
The senior of the Ephors stood up, and said: 'Friends and allies, the Athenians seek for peace.
Sellasia was a town on the border where the previous embassy had been bidden to wait till the Ephors could be communicated with.
We went with all speed to Sellasia[56] and there waited, having sent on a message to the Ephors that we had come with full power to treat.
The ephors sent back this answer: 'Begone instantly; if the Athenians really desire peace, let them send you again with other proposals, such as having reflected more wisely they may be disposed to make.
They reached a place on the borders of Laconia and sent on their message to the ephors at Sparta, not being allowed to proceed any further themselves.
And Asteropus, the first that raised the ephors to that height of power, lived a great many years after their institution.
The Ephors upon this dispatched their orders to Cleombrotus, who was at that time in Phocis, to march directly into Boeotia, and at the same time sent to their allies for aid.
So Timocrates following his instructions, the most considerable cities conspiring together, and Peloponnesus being in disorder, the ephors remanded Agesilaus from Asia.
This being so, theEphors summoned him before them and said: "If thou dost not for thyself take thought in time, yet we cannot suffer this to happen, that the race of Eurysthenes should become extinct.
When the envoys spoke these words, the Ephors said and confirmed it with an oath, that they supposed by this time the men were at Orestheion on their way against the strangers: for they used to call the Barbarians "strangers.
Having thus spoken, for that time her gave her in charge to those Ephors who were present, and afterwards he sent her away to Egina, whither she herself desired to go.
Our state is a democracy and also an aristocracy; the power of the Ephors is tyrannical, and we have an ancient monarchy.
They were under the charge of special officers called bideoi, but had to undergo a rigid examination before the ephors every ten days (see p.
Fixed antiquities must be reported by the discoverer to the Ephor General or one of the ephors of antiquities or other official.
All antiquities found are the property of the Government and are controlled by an Archaeological Commission, consisting of the Ephor General of Antiquities and the ephors of the archaeological collections in Athens.
And in good sooth the conduct of the men of Phlius did seem to savour of insolence; so much so that the ephors called out the ban against them.
The ephors and the assembly concluded that there was no alternative but to assist the Achaeans in their campaign against the Acarnanians.
The ephors heard the mournful tidings not without grief and pain, as needs they must, I take it; but for all that they did not dismiss the chorus, but allowed the contest to run out its natural course.
Having got the consent of the ephors he forthwith offered sacrifice.
There he found the ephors and the mass of the community highly incensed against Phoebidas, "who had failed to execute the orders assigned to him by the state.
With the advent of spring (24) the ephors again called out the ban against Thebes, and requested Agesilaus to lead the expedition, as on the former campaign.
His friends the ephors granted him in return for these promises three ships of war and funds to support a thousand mercenaries, and so they despatched him on his mission.
In consequence of all these annoyances the ephors and the Assembly determined "to bring the men of Elis to their senses.
Eudamidas lost no time in setting out, having obtained leave from the ephors for his brother Phoebidas to follow later with the remainder of the troops assigned to him.
The ephors and the members of assembly at Sparta (19) gave audience to these several parties, and sent out fifteen commissioners to Athens empowered, in conjunction with Pausanias, to discover the best settlement possible.
Leonidas had time to flee to the Temple of Athene; and when the ephors called him to appear before them, he refused to do so, because he feared for his life.
Thus advised, the ephors surprised the little party the next night, and thrust Agis into prison.
The ephors refused at first to accept or distribute this gold, saying that the love of wealth was the root of all evil; but they finally decided to use it for the improvement of their city.
They basely took the bribes offered by the ephors for information about the king, and told them that he left the temple every night, and for what purpose.
As soon as the Spartan ephors heard that the Athenians had revolted, they sent a message to Agesilaus to tell him to come home.
As such a refusal was a crime, the ephors said he should not reign any longer, and named Cleombrotus king in his stead.
As the ephors feared he might even yet escape to Persia, and carry out his wicked plans, they ordered that the doors and windows of the temple should all be walled up.
The ephors listened carefully, and then departed, taking no action for the moment, but, having at last attained to certainty, were preparing to arrest him in the city.
Accordingly the man went by appointment to Taenarus as a suppliant, and there built himself a hut divided into two by a partition; within which he concealed some of the ephors and let them hear the whole matter plainly.
On being shown the letter, the ephors now felt more certain.
Next winter, however, the ephors under whom the treaty had been made were no longer in office, and some of their successors were directly opposed to it.
The Lacedaemonians, however, decidedly favoured the Chians and Tissaphernes, who were seconded by Alcibiades, the family friend of Endius, one of the ephors for that year.
At first thrown into prison by the ephors (whose powers enable them to do this to the King), soon compromised the matter and came out again, and offered himself for trial to any who wished to institute an inquiry concerning him.
Last came forward Sthenelaidas, one of the ephors for that year, and spoke to the Lacedaemonians as follows: "The long speech of the Athenians I do not pretend to understand.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "ephors" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
