Spartan Assembly
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The Spartan Assembly, was the assembly of full citizens in the ancient Greek city-state of Sparta. Unlike its more famous counterpart the Ekklesia of ancient Athens, the Spartan Assembly had limited powers. It did not debate, and ordinary citizens could only vote, by shouting, for or against proposals.[1] It's official name is generally thought to have been 'the Ekkelsia', rather than 'the Apella' as once commonly thought.[2]
Name
[edit]The official name for the popular assembly at Sparta—either 'the Ekklesia' or 'the Apella'—is disputed.[3] Modern scholarly consensus had favored the name 'Apella'; as recently as 1972, Ste Croix could declare that the "Spartan Assembly is still commonly referred to as 'the Apella'".[4] However following Wade-Gery 1958, Andrewes 1970, and Ste. Croix 1972, scholarly consensus shifted in favor of 'Ekklesia'.[5] More recently, Welwei 1997, 2000, and 2004 has revived the dispute, advocating in favor of 'Apella'.[6]
Structure
[edit]The meetings had in all probability taken place originally in the Agora but were later transferred to the neighbouring building, known as the Skias.[7][8] According to Plutarch, a Great Rhetra[9] was given by Pythia to Lycurgus. The old aristocratic council was substituted by the gerousia (thirty elders, including the two kings). Meetings of the Assembly should take place from time to time, and citizens should have the power to debate and take decisions.[10][11] That right of the citizens was very soon limited. Kings Theopompus and Polydorus, probably during the 7th century BC, added to the "rhetra" that the kings and the elders (gerousia) could set aside any "crooked" decision of the people.[12][11]
The presiding officers were at first the kings but in historical times the ephors, and the voting was conducted by assessing the loudness of shouting in the crowd. If the president was doubtful as to the majority of voices, a division was taken, and the votes were counted.[8] The Assembly simply accepted or rejected the proposals submitted to it. In later times, too, the actual debate was almost, if not wholly, confined to the kings, elders, ephors and perhaps the other magistrates. The apella voted on peace and war, treaties and foreign policy in general. It decided the king who should conduct a campaign and settled questions of disputed succession to the throne. It elected elders, ephors and other magistrates, emancipated helots and perhaps voted on legal proposals.[8]
There is a single reference to a "small assembly" (ἡ μικρὰ καλουμένη ἐκκλησία) at Sparta, but nothing is known as to its nature or competence.[13]
The Assembly was responsible for electing men to the gerousia for life. Candidates were selected from the aristocrats and presented before the apella. The candidate who received the loudest applause became a member of the gerousia.
The Assembly also elected the five ephors annually. Ephors presided over meetings of the gerousia and the apella. They could not run for re-election.
The ephorate presented motions before the Assembly. The Assembly then voted on the motions. However, unlike the ecclesia in Athens, the Assembly did not debate; it merely approved or disapproved of measures. Moreover, the gerousia always had the power to veto the decision of the Assembly.
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ Gomme, Cadoux, and Rhodes (2015), s.v. ekklēsia; Cartledge 2015, s.v. Apellai (1); Rhodes (2006), s.v. Ekklesia; Welwei 2006, s.v. Apella, Apellai.
- ^ Cartledge 2015, s.v. Apellai (1).
- ^ Schulz 2009, p. 335 n. 9: "Ob die Volksversammlung in Sparta Apella oder Ekklesia hieß, ist umstritten".
- ^ Ste Croix 1972, p. 346. See for example Ehrenberg 1968, pp. 31–33, 46, 383 n. 14.
- ^ See for example: Cartledge 2015, s.v. Apellai (1): "At Sparta, the festival was monthly, on the seventh, and it was on this day that the stated meetings of the Spartan assembly were held. From this coincidence has arisen the erroneous modern notion that the assembly was called the apella. Actually, its name was the ekklēsia, as is corroborated by the existence of a ‘little ekklesia’ (mikra ekklēsia: Xen. Hell. 3. 3. 8)"; Kennell 2010, p. 111: "The fourth main pillar of the Classical Spartan constitution was the popular Assembly, called the Ekklesia, not the Apella as once thought."
- ^ Luther 2006, p. 74; Nafissi 2010, p. 95.
- ^ Pausanias, 3.12.10.
- ^ a b c One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Tod, Marcus Niebuhr (1911). "Apella". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 160.
- ^ Ogden 1994.
- ^ Plutarch, Lycurgus 6.1.
- ^ a b C. Mosse, p. 168-171
- ^ Plutarch, Lycurgus 6.4–7.1.
- ^ Xenophon, Hellenica 3.3.8.
Bibliography
[edit]- Andrewes, A. (1970), p. 134 in A Historical Commentary on Thucydides. Vol. 4: Books V25-VII A. W. Gomme, A. Andrewes, and K. J. Dover (eds.), Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1970. ISBN 9780198141785.
- Cartledge, Paul, s.v. Apellai (2), published online 22 December 2015, in the Oxford Classical Dictionary, edited by Tim Whitmarsh, digital ed, New York, Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-938113-5.
- Ehrenberg, Victor (1968), From Solon to Socrates: Greek History and Civilization During the Sixth and Fifth Centuries B.C., London, Methuen, 1968. Internet Archive.
- Kennell, Nigel M. (2010), Spartans: A New History, Wiley Blackwell, 2010. ISBN 978-1-4051-2999-2.
- Luther, Andreas, (2006), "Der Name der Volksversammlung in Sparta", in Das frühe Sparta, Andrew Luther, Mischa Meier, and Lukas Thommen (eds.), Franz Steiner Verlag, Munich, 2006, pp. 73-88.
- Nafissi, Massimo (2010), "The Great Rhetra (Plut. Lyc. 6): A Retrospective and Intentional Construct?", in Intentional History: Spinning Time in Ancient Greece, Lin Foxhall, Hans-Joachim Gehrke, and Nino Luraghi (eds.), Franz Steiner Verlag, 2010.
- Ogden, Daniel, "Crooked Speech: The Genesis of the Spartan Rhetra," Journal of Hellenic Studies Vol. 114 (1994) pp. 85–102. JSTOR 632735.
- Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Plutarch, Lycurgus, in Plutarch: Lives, Volume I: Theseus and Romulus, Lycurgus and Numa, Solon and Publicola, translated by Bernadotte Perrin, Loeb Classical Library No. 46, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1914. ISBN 978-0-674-99052-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Schulz, Fabian (2009), "Lykurgs Reform ohne Demokratie ? Zwei Konjekturen der Rhetra", in Ktèma : civilisations de l'Orient, de la Grèce et de Rome antiques, N°34, 2009. pp. 333-349.
- Ste. Croix, G. E. M. de (1972), The Origins of the Peloponnesian War, Duckworth, London, 2001 (1972). ISBN 0-7156-1728-1.
- Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War. London, J. M. Dent; New York, E. P. Dutton. 1910. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Tod, Marcus Niebuhr (1911). . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 160.
- Wade-Gery (1958), Essays in Greek History Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1958. Internet Archive
- Welwei, Karl-Wilhelm (1997), "Apella oder Ekklesia? Zur Bezeichnung der spartanischen Volksversammlung", in Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 140 (1997), H. 3/4, 242-249. JSTOR 41234282.
- Welwei, Karl-Wilhelm (2000), Polis und Arché: kleine Schriften zu Gesellschafts- und Herrschaftsstrukturen in der griechischen Welt, Franz Steiner Verlag, 2000. ISBN 9783515077590, ISBN 3-515-07759-6.
- Welwei, Karl-Wilhelm (2004), Sparta. Aufstieg und Niedergang einer antiken Großmacht, Stuttgart 2004.
- Welwei, Karl-Wilhelm (2006), s.v. Apella, Apellai, in Brill's New Pauly Online, Antiquity volumes edited by: Hubert Cancik and, Helmuth Schneider, English Edition by: Christine F. Salazar, Classical Tradition volumes edited by: Manfred Landfester, English Edition by: Francis G. Gentry, published online: 2006.
- Xenophon, Hellenica, Volume I: Books 1-4, translated by Carleton L. Brownson, Loeb Classical Library No. 88, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1918. ISBN 978-0-674-99098-2. Online version at Harvard University Press.
