Spartan Assembly

The Spartan Assembly, was the assembly of full citizens in the ancient Greek city-state of Sparta. Its principal role was to ratify the proposals brought to it by the gerousia and the ephors. Unlike its more famous counterpart the Assembly of ancient Athens, the Spartan Assembly had more limited powers. Its concurrence was required for legislation, and it helped determine state policy, particularly in foreign affairs. It voted by acclamation, and whether it debated is uncertain. The Assembly had regular meetings, which were probably convened and chaired by the ephors. Its official name is generally considered to have been 'the Ekklesia', rather than 'the Apella' as once commonly thought.

Description

The Spartan Assembly consisted of the entire adult male citizenry, the Spartiates. Its total number of members is estimated to have been at least 3,000 during the fifth century BC. It was one of the three institutions involved with decision-making at Sparta, its principal function being to ratify the proposals of the other two decision-making bodies, the gerousia, and the ephors. In contrast to its Athenian counterpart, very little is known for certain about the Spartan Assembly. It could not, unlike the Athenian assembly, introduce legislation; it could only vote on legislation brought before it by the gerousia or ephors. The Assembly was probably convened and chaired by the ephors and, in addition to its legislative powers, it also decided issues of war and peace, appointed military commanders, elected the gerontes, and could emancipate helots. Decisions of the Assembly were determined by shouting, rather than the counting of votes. Whether ordinary members of the Assembly had the right to speak is unclear.

History

Archaic period

The Spartan Assembly probably existed, as an official Spartan institution, at least by the seventh century BC, and at first presumably met only when summoned. The earliest source concerning the Assembly is the Great Rhetra. As quoted by the first-century historian Plutarch, and attributed to the legendary lawgiver Lycurgus, the Rhetra describes the Assembly's role in governing Sparta. According to the Rhetra, decision-making was divided among the archagetai, the gerousia, and the damos. The Assembly had regular meetings, at a fixed time and place, during which the two kings and the gerousia could put proposals for approval before the Assembly, and the kings and gerousia could veto any enactment passed by the Assembly.
A fragment of the mid-seventh-century BC Spartan poet Tyrtaeus—using the terms "men of the people" and "mass of the people" —seems also to refer to the Spartan Assembly during the Archaic period, saying that, after the kings and elders, then:
As reported by fifth-century BC historian Herodotus, the Assembly had enough power in the mid-sixth century BC such that the threat of action by it could force the Spartan king Anaxandridas II to give in to the demands of the ephors and gerousia and take a second wife.

Classical period

By at least the Classical period, the Assembly was involved in the election of public officials. These included the gerontes and "very probably" the ephors. The election of the gerontes, by the Assembly, is attested in the fourth century BC. A century earlier Herodotus had already connected the Assembly with elections, saying that for ten days after a Spartan king is buried, "there are no assemblies or elections". Plutarch, writing in the first century AD, places the election of the gerontes, by the Assembly, in the legendary past, attributing its establishment to Lycurgus. Plutarch describes the procedure for these elections as follows:
In the fifth century BC, the most notable actions of the Assembly involve war with Athens. In the 470s, a debate was held in the Assembly concerning the issue of whether Sparta should go to war with Athens for control of the sea. According to Diodorus Siculus, "the younger men and the majority of the others were eager" for war, but were eventually persuaded otherwise. Thucydides describes a debate in the Assembly, in 432 BC, in which "the opinions of the majority all led to the same conclusion; the Athenians were open aggressors", and ended with the Assembly voting, by division, to declare war on Athens. The Assembly is recorded as being involved in several other significant events, in the fifth and fourth centuries—most regarding the issues of war and peace.
Other than the Great Rhetra and the Tyrtaeus fragment, no general statements concerning the Spartan Assembly are found until the fourth century BC, in book two of Aristotle's Politics. Aristotle describes the Spartan Assembly as having "no powers except the function of confirming by vote the resolutions already formed by the Elders ". In a following passage Aristotle says that, unlike at Carthage, where "anybody who wishes may speak against the proposals introduced", at Sparta, the "people" must "merely... sit and listen to the decisions that have been taken by their rulers".

Historical record: 540–243 BC

The historical record of events—as reported by Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Diodorus Siculus, and Plutarch—in which the Assembly is explicitly mentioned as being involved include the following:

Date	Actions by the Assembly
540s	Ephors threaten to convene the Assembly in order to force king Anaxandridas II to accede to their demands concerning marriage.
480s	Consults regarding atonement for the murder of the Persian heralds sent by Darius; sends two Spartan volunteers to be executed by Darius's son Xerxes.
c. 475	Decides not to go to war with Athens, after initially being "eager" for war, but finally being persuaded otherwise.
432	Decides, by division, to declare war on Athens.
winter 418/417	Agrees to a peace treaty with Argos.
winter 415/414	Agrees to aid Syracuse in its war with Athens, after being addressed by envoys from Syracuse and Corinth, and also by Alcibiades on his own behalf.
405	Decides on the terms of a peace offer to Athens, after being convened by the ephors and addressed by envoys from Corinth and Thebes.
403	Dispatches a delegation to Athens to settle a dispute between two Athenian factions, after being addressed by both.
c. 402	Issues an ultimatum to Elis.
399? 397	Cinadon conspiracy dealt with "without even convening the Little Assembly".
c. 389	Agrees to aid the Calydon Achaeans against the Acarnanians.
383	Agrees to aid Acanthus and Apollonia, after being convened by the ephors and addressed by envoys.
382	Decides to bring Ismenias to trial after being addressed by Leontiades of Thebes.
spring 371	Decides to make peace with Athens.
summer 371	Decides that the Spartan king Cleombrotus should march against Thebes.
c. 243	Rejects the proposed reforms of king Agis IV involving debt cancellations and land redistribution, when—because of a divided gerousia—they were convened by the ephor Lysander.

Meetings

As Plutarch understood it, the Great Rhetra established regular meetings of the Assembly at a fixed time and place. However, exactly when and where these regular meetings took place is unknown. As to when meetings were held, Plutarch reports the Rhetra as saying that the Spartans shall apellazein, horas ex horas. Plutarch explains apellazein as meaning the same as ekklesiazein 'to conduct an assembly', and is thought to be a denominal verb derived from the noun apellai, with the Apellai being the name of an annual festival celebrated at Delphi. The phrase horas ex horas is a vague expression implying continual repetition of some specific time period, which could be used to mean 'every year', 'every month', 'every day', or, more vaguely still, 'from time to time'. Although the festival of the Apellai is only attested for Delphi, based upon the widespread presence of the related month name Apellaios in Doric calendars, it was apparently a common festival among the Dorians, and from the use of word apellazein, it has been concluded that the meetings of the Assembly, as specified in the Rhetra, were to be held at the same time as the Spartan festival of the Apellai was celebrated. However, while the Delphic Apellai was celebrated yearly, the meetings of the Spartan Assembly were probably held monthly. Plutarch connects the word apellazein with Apollo, and the Apellai is widely thought to have been a festival of Apollo. According to Herodotus the Spartan kings sacrificed to Apollo "at each new moon and each seventh day of the first part of the month,... from the public store". If either or both of these dates marked the Spartan Apellai, then perhaps the new moon or the seventh were dates of the regular meetings of the Assembly. Alternatively, a late scholiast to Thucydides, says the Assembly met at each full moon. The association of the Assembly with the festival of the Apellai has suggested to scholars that, because the Apellai was an annual festival at Delphi, there was an annual meeting of the Assembly at Sparta during which the highest annual public officials were elected. In addition to these regular meetings, a remark by Xenophon implies that the Assembly could also meet at other times when needed, since during the crisis of the Cinadon conspiracy, he says that the ephors did not even convene the "Little Assembly".
As quoted by Plutarch, the Rhetra specified that the meetings were to be held "between Babyca and Cnacion". Plutarch goes on to explain that: "The Babyca is now called Cheimarrus, and the Cnacion Oenus; but Aristotle says that Cnacion is a river, and Babyca a bridge. Between these they held their assemblies, having neither halls nor any other kind of building for the purpose." However these names are otherwise unknown, and where Babyca and Cnacion "actually were is a complete mystery". According to the second-century AD travel writer Pausanias, the Spartan Assembly met "even at the present day" in a structure called the Skias located on a road leading from Sparta's market-place, and built by Theodorus of Samos.
Meetings were probably convened and chaired by the ephors. As noted above, there are several references to the ephors convening the Assembly in the historical record. These include: the ephors' dispute with king Anaxandridas II ; the peace offer to Athens ; the Cinadon conspiracy ; the sending of aid to Acanthus and Apollonia ; and the rejection of the proposed reforms of king Agis IV. Thucydides' description of the Assembly's decision to declare war on Athens in 432 BC has the ephor Sthenelaidas "put the question to the assembly" as well as determine the method of voting.