We have frequently[122] referred to the Ephetae in connection with the Exegetae or Interpreters, and we have described both these groups as a sacerdotal nobility. We must now attempt to explain this connection, and, incidentally, discuss the origin of the curiously constant number ‘fifty-one,’ which is usually associated with the Ephetae. According to Suidas,[123] the Exegetae or Interpreters were appointed or controlled by the oracle at Delphi and they were three in number. Pollux[124] defines the Exegetae as ‘those who gave information regarding omens and other sacred matters.’ But the Tribe-Kings, as Pollux states,[125] were also concerned with ‘sacred matters’: and so, therefore, probably, were the Ephetae. Now Demosthenes does not mention the number three in connexion with the Exegetae. Neither does Plato. Plutarch[126] states that the Eupatridae of Athens were the Exegetae of sacred law. This statement implies that the Exegetae were a widespread caste rather than a group of three individuals. Similarly Lysias[127] refers to the Eumolpidae of Eleusis as the Exegetae of unwritten customs. Taking it for granted that the Athenian Interpreters were three in number, Gilbert[128] and Schömann explain the number fifty-one, which is applied by Dracon to the Ephetae, as composed of forty-eight Ephetae (elected by the four Ionian tribes of Attica, twelve from each tribe) and of three Exegetae. According to this view, there was in Dracon’s time no distinction between the Exegetae as Interpreters and the Exegetae as homicide-judges. Müller,[129] however, thinks that the three Exegetae were not judges, but only purifiers; and he explains the number fifty-one as a Cleisthenic or post-Cleisthenic figure, made up of, say, five members from each of the ten Cleisthenic tribes, and one additional judge, who was presumably the King-Archon.[130] But, we may point out, the number fifty-one occurs in the actual (unrestored) Draconian inscription[131] of the year 409-8 B.C.: and it is improbable that any changes were made in the law in the time of Cleisthenes.