[
1270b]
[1]
For the lawgiver desiring to make the Spartiates as numerous as
possible holds out inducements to the citizens to have as many children as
possible: for they have a law releasing the man who has been father of three
sons from military service, and exempting the father of four from all taxes. Yet
it is clear that if a number of sons are born and the land is correspondingly
divided there will inevitably come to be many poor men.
Moreover the
regulations for the Ephorate
1 are also bad. For this office has
absolute control over their most important affairs, but the Ephors are appointed
from the entire people, so that quite poor men often happen to get into the
office, who owing to their poverty used to be
2 easily bought. This was often manifested
in earlier times, and also lately in the affair
3 at
Andros; for certain Ephors were corrupted with money and so far
as lay in their power ruined the whole state. And because the office was too
powerful, and equal to a tyranny, the kings also were compelled to cultivate
popular favor, so that in this way too the constitution was jointly injured, for
out of an aristocracy came to be evolved a democracy. Thus this office does, it is true, hold together the
constitution—for the common people keep quiet because they have a
share in the highest office of state, so that whether this is due to the
lawgiver or
[20]
has come about by chance,
the Ephorate is advantageous for the conduct of affairs; for if a constitution
is to be preserved, all the sections of the state must wish it to exist and to
continue on the same lines; so the kings are in this frame of mind owing to
their own honorable rank, the nobility owing to the office of the Elders, which
is a prize of virtue, and the common people because of the Ephorate, which is
appointed from the whole population—but yet the Ephorate, though rightly open to all the
citizens, ought not to be elected as it is now, for the method is too
childish.
4 And further the Ephors have jurisdiction in lawsuits
of high importance, although they are any chance people, so that it would be
better if they did not decide cases on their own judgement but by written rules
and according to the laws. Also the mode of life of the Ephors is not in
conformity with the aim of the state, for it is itself too luxurious, whereas in
the case of the other citizens the prescribed life goes too far in the direction
of harshness, so that they are unable to endure it, and secretly desert the law
and enjoy the pleasures of the body. Also their regulations for the office of the Elders are not good; it is true
that if these were persons of a high class who had been adequately trained in
manly valor, one might perhaps say that the institution was advantageous to the
state, although their life-tenure of the judgeship in important trials is indeed
a questionable feature (for there is old age of mind as well as of
body);