unjust verdict for the whole.[116] So at least Hesiod affirms, in the bitterness of his heart; earnestly exhorting his brother not to waste a precious time, required for necessary labors, in the unprofitable occupation of witnessing and abetting litigants in the agora,—for which (he adds) no man has proper leisure, unless his subsistence for the year beforehand be safely treasured up in his garners.[117] He repeats, more than once, his complaints of the crooked and corrupt judgments of which the kings were habitually guilty; dwelling upon abuse of justice as the crying evil of his day, and predicting as well as invoking the vengeance of Zeus to repress it. And Homer ascribes the tremendous violence of the autumnal storms to the wrath of Zeus against those judges who disgrace the agora with their wicked verdicts.[118] [112] The σκῆπτρον, θέμιστες, or θέμις, and ἀγορὴ, go together, under the presiding superintendence of the gods. The goddess Themis both convokes and dismisses the agora (see Iliad, xi. 806; Odyss. ii. 67; Iliad, xx. 4). The θέμιστες, commandments and sanctions, belong properly to Zeus (Odyss. xvi. 403); from him they are given in charge to earthly kings along with the sceptre (Iliad, i. 238; ii. 206). The commentators on Homer recognized θέμις, rather too strictly, as ἀγορᾶς καὶ βουλῆς λέξιν (see Eustath. ad Odyss. xvi. 403). The presents and the λιπαραὶ θέμιστες (Iliad, ix. 156). [113] Hesiod, Theogon. 85; the single person judging seems to be mentioned (Odyss. xii. 439). It deserves to be noticed that, in Sparta, the senate decided accusations of homicide (Aristot. Polit. iii. 1, 7): in historical Athens, the senate of Areiopagus originally did the same, and retained, even when its powers were much abridged, the trial of accusations of intentional homicide and wounding. Respecting the judicial functions of the early Roman kings, Dionys. Hal. A. R. x. 1. Τὸ μὲν ἀρχαῖον οἱ βασιλεῖς ἐφ᾽ αὐτῶν ἔταττον τοῖς δεομένοις τὰς δίκας, καὶ τὸ δικαιωθὲν ὑπ᾽ ἐκείνων, τοῦτο νόμος ἦν (compare iv. 25; and Cicero, Republic. v. 2; Rubino, Untersuchungen, i. 2, p. 122). [114] Iliad, xviii. 504.— Οἱ δὲ γέροντες Εἵατ᾽ ἐπὶ ξεστοῖσι λίθοις, ἱερῷ ἐνὶ κύκλῳ. Several of the old northern Sagas represent the old men, assembled for the purpose of judging, as sitting on great stones in a circle, called the Urtheilsring, or Gerichtsring (Leitfaden der Nördischen Alterthümer, p. 31, Copenhag. 1837). [115] Homer, Iliad, xviii. 497-510. [116] Hesiod, Opp. Di. 37. [117] Hesiod, Opp. Di. 27-33. [118] Hesiod, Opp. Di. 250-263; Homer, Iliad, xvi. 387.