Gerousia

Membership

The Archaic and Classical Gerousia consisted of thirty members, twenty-eight elected members (called gerontes) and the two kings, who were members by right of birth, entering the chamber upon their accession provided they were of age. Unlike the kings, the gerontes had to be at least sixty years old—the age when Spartan citizens were no longer required to serve in the army. The gerontes were elected by acclamation and held office for life.

The electoral procedure is known thanks to the biographer Plutarch, who wrote c. 100 AD, but whose source was probably the lost Aristotelian Constitution of the Lakedaimonians (Lakedaimoniōn Politeia). There were no ballots: the Spartan Assembly elected the gerontes by acclamation, their usual voting method. The candidates passed one by one before the Assembly, who then shouted according to their preference. The loudness of the shouts was assessed by a jury confined into a windowless building, who then declared the winner to be the candidate receiving what they judged to be the loudest shouts. Aristotle called the election procedure for the Gerousia "childish" (παιδαριώδης), probably referring to the method of voting by shouting (boa) described by Plutarch. Aristotle further described the selection of the Gerousia as being dunasteutike ('dynastic'), the feminine adjectival form of dunasteia, which, for Aristotle, meant a small and lawless oligarchy.

According to Aristotle, the Gerousia was the element of Sparta's mixed constitution which represented the kaloi kāgathoi (the 'fine and noble'). The gerontes were likely drawn from a limited aristocracy composed of only a few families. While there is no explicit proof of any legal restriction on eligibility, it is generally assumed that these families enjoyed a de facto monopoly. G. E. M. de Ste. Croix compared the situation in Sparta with that of the Roman Republic, where a few gentes monopolised senior magistracies, notably thanks to their patronage network—a practice likely prevalent in Spartan politics.

Although, as noted above, each of the members of the Gerousia had an equal vote, the two kings, who were members ex officio, could acquire power exceeding that of the ordinary geron. The kings usually entered the chamber well before the age of sixty and thus served much longer terms than the other gerontes, enabling them to exert considerable influence over the rest of the Gerousia, and thus over Spartan policy. The kings' enormous wealth could also be used to exert influence. According to Plutarch, Agesilaus II sent an ox and a cloak to each newly elected geron. The kings also enjoyed the prerogative of voting by proxy. According to Herodotus, whenever one of the kings could not attend a meeting of the Gerousia, for example when on campaign outside Laconia, his closest relative on the Gerousia could vote on his behalf. This would seem to assume that a king would always have a relative on the Gerousia, a further indication of the Gerousia's aristocratic nature.

Following his abolishment of the Ephorate, in 227 BC, king Cleomenes III also, among other reforms, (probably) made the election to the Gerousia annual, reducing the term of office of a geron to one year. No longer elected for life, a major source of the gerontes' prestige was removed. At some point, during or before the reign of Augustus (27 BC – AD 14), the number of members had been reduced to twenty-three. In addition, the minimum age requirement had probably also been significantly reduced.

History

Sparta lacked the "epigraphic habit" of Classical Athens, and the historical mentions of the Gerousia, or the gerontes, are sparse. The earliest such mention is the Great Rhetra (c. 700 BC?), a document quoted by the first-century historian and biographer Plutarch, who probably based his text and commentary on the lost Aristotelian Constitution of the Lakedaimonians dated to the second half of the fourth century BC.

Scholars assume that the Gerousia probably descended from a group of advisors to the kings, such as the noble councilors portrayed in Homeric epic. When exactly the Gerousia became formally institutionalized is unknown; however, its mention in the Rhetra and the specification of thirty members indicate that the Gerousia was already fully institutionalized by at least the early Archaic period. The ancient Spartans considered the Gerousia to have been created by the legendary Spartan lawgiver Lycurgus.

Archaic period

Plutarch presents the Great Rhetra as an oracle brought back from Delphi by Lycurgus, which he then used in the establishment of Sparta's form of government. According to Plutarch, of the "many innovations" made by Lycurgus, "the first and most important" was the Gerousia, which according to Plato, tempered the "feverish" [phlegmainō] government of kings, with the moderating influence of old age [gēras]. As quoted by Plutarch, the Rhetra fixed the composition of Gerousia at thirty members including the two "archagetai" (kings). It also specified that the Gerousia shall: "bring in" (eispherein) and "set aside" (aphisthasthai) proposals, and that, "if the people asks for something crooked", the members of the Gerousia "are to be setters aside" (apostateras hēmen).

The fifth-century BC historian Herodotus mentions only one action taken by the Gerousia, which occurred sometime in the mid-sixth century BC. The Gerousia, together with the ephors, involved in a dispute with king Anaxandridas II's regarding his lack of a royal heir, threaten to take the dispute before the Assembly, which was enough to persuade the king to accede to their request to take a second wife.

Classical period

There is little evidence, in the historical record, of the involvement of the Gerousia in political decision-making during the classical period. In Thucydides' (c. 460 – c. 400 BC), History of the Peloponnesian War, which covers the war between Sparta and Athens from 431 to 411 BC), the Gerousia is neither mentioned nor alluded to. This includes his account of the Spartan decision go to war with Athens in 432 BC, which seems to leave no room for any action by the Gerousia.

The historian Diodorus Siculus (fl. 1st century BC) reports that at meetings of both the Gerousia and the Assembly (c. 478–474 BC), the question of whether to make war on Athens for control of the sea was considered. All seemed eager to do so, until the geron Hetoemaridas, "who was a direct descendant of Heracles and enjoyed favour among the citizens by reason of his character", persuaded the Gerousia and the Assembly against such a war. As mentioned above, the Gerousia was part of the tribunal which tried and acquitted king Pausanias upon his return from Athens, in 403 BC. In a 19-15 decision, fourteen gerontes, along with the other king Agis II, voted to convict, while the remaining fourteen gerontes along with the five ephors voted for acquittal. Xenophon (c. 430– 355/354 BC), in his Hellenica (a history of Greece covering the period 411–362 BC), mentions the gerontes in action only once. According to Xenophon, without consulting the Assembly, the ephors, and some gerontes, took emergency action to thwart the Conspiracy of Cinadon (c. 400 BC).

Hellenistic and Roman periods

Pausanias reports that the Gerousia decided in favor of Areus I as the successor of king Cleomenes II in 309/308 BC. The next mention of the Gerousia concerns king Agis IV's proposed reforms of 243 BC. According to Plutarch, because of a divided Gerousia, the ephor Lysander convened the Assembly, which apparently favored the king's reforms consisting of debt cancellations and land redistribution. However, after being lobbied by the "men of wealth", the Gerousia, in what Plutarch describes as exercising their probouletic power, rejected the proposed reforms by one vote. Although Plutarch's use of the expression "to probouleuein" is generally understood to mean that the Gerousia's rejection occurred during the predeliberation phase, and that the proposals were, therefore, never formally submitted to the Assembly for final approval, some scholars interpret this rejection, as having, in fact, been an exercise of the Gerousia's veto power, occurring after the proposals had been approved by the Assembly. Not long after, in 241 BC, the exiled king Leonidas II, returned to Sparta, installed his own group of ephors, and imprisoned Agis. According to Plutarch, after Leonidas' ephors summoned those gerontes, "who were of the same mind as themselves, as though the king were to have a trial", Agis was condemned to death and summarily executed.

According to Pausanias, in 227 BC, the Gerousia's power was significantly diminished as a result of the reforms of king Cleomenes III. Pausanias refers to Cleomenes, as [having] "destroyed" (katalūsās) the Gerousia's "power" (kratos), and establishing, "in its stead" (ant᾽ autōn), a new magistrate, the patronomos. Some scholars have apparently read Pausanias as meaning that, rather than simply weakening it, Cleomenes, in fact, "abolished" the Gerousia all together, and replaced it with a new council called the Patronomoi ("Council of Fathers" or "Council of Elders"). However, the Gerousia is again mentioned as having been involved in the exile of twenty-four leading Spartans that took place in 149 BC. According to Pausanias, a motion to exile the Spartans was introduced by the geron Agasisthenes and passed by the Gerousia.

Following the reforms of Cleomenes in 227 BC, although numerous inscriptions, from the reign of Augustus (27 BC – AD 14) onward, attest to the continued existence of the Gerousia during Sparta's Roman period, the Gerousia, and gerontes virtually disappear from the historical record. Changes to the Gerousia's composition and organization, during this period, resulted in a significant reduction of its authority and prestige. At some point, during or before the reign of Augustus (27 BC – AD 14), a geron's term of office was reduced, from life, to one year (although gerontes could be reelected), and the number of gerontes was reduced from twenty-eight to twenty-three. Cleomenes probably made the office annual as part of his reforms, and may also have reduced the number of members. However, neither of these changes is attested until the early Roman principate. There are many, often fragmentary, inscribed catalogues listing the names of the gerontes for a given year, of which five are complete and list twenty-three names. In addition, the minimum age requirement was probably also reduced during this period from sixty to perhaps forty. Its influence and powers of probouleusis and nomophulakia seem also to have been, if not wholly usurped, then at least diluted, by the emergence of other boards of magistrates.

Historical record

A record of explicit mentions of the Gerousia or gerontes in connection with specific historical contexts:

Possible gerontes of pre-Roman Sparta

Very few names of gerontes have been preserved before the Roman conquest.

• Hetoemaridas, an Heraclid and influential geron who convinced the Spartans not to go to war against Athens in c. 475.
• Lichas son of Arcesilaus was perhaps a geron at the end of the 5th century BC. He was an Olympic victor (in the 4-horse chariot race) and played a significant role in shaping Spartan diplomacy with Persia in the final phase of the Peloponnesian War.
• Etymokles, a friend of king Agesilaus II; while a geron, he was also a member of an embassy to Athens when Sphodrias attempted to capture Piraeus in 378.
• Prothöos, perhaps a geron in 371, he argued for the recall of king Cleombrotus, who was leading an army against Thebes. His call was dismissed, and Sparta was defeated at the subsequent battle of Leuctra.
• Aineidas, a geron from the middle of the 4th century, known only from an inscription.
• Agasisthenes, a geron c.150, who made a motion in the Gerousia to send into exile 24 citizens to avoid war with the Achaean League.