The next point to consider is the nomination of the choregi, who provided the choruses. In the case of the dithyrambic contests, which were tribal in character, the choregi were appointed by the separate tribes, the appointment taking place one month after the last festival.[208] But as the drama had no connexion with the tribal system, the dramatic choregi were taken indiscriminately from the general mass of citizens. They were nominated by the archon in charge of each festival immediately after his accession to office in July.[209] This, at any rate, was the original system. But about the middle of the fourth century a change was made in the case of the comic choregi. Their appointment was transferred from the archon to the tribes.[210] Ten choregi were required every year, and each tribe had to supply one. By this innovation the election of the comic choregi was assimilated to that of the dithyrambic. But the change was a mere piece of administrative detail, and had no further significance. The comic contests remained, as before, independent of the tribal arrangement, and the name of the tribe never appears in the records of the contests.[211] The choregia was one of the public burdens which had to be undertaken in turn by the richer citizens. Any man of sufficient wealth might be called upon after he had reached the age of twenty, though no one under the age of forty could be choregus to a boys’ chorus.[212] The order was fixed by law. But a citizen of unusual generosity and ambition might volunteer for the office out of his proper turn. The defendant in one of the speeches of Lysias tries to favourably impress the jury by explaining to them that he has supplied eight choruses in nine years, in addition to such burdens as the war-tax and the trierarchy.[213] Sometimes, however, there was a difficulty in finding, even among those who were liable, a sufficient number of rich men to fill the office. This was especially the case towards the end of the Peloponnesian War, when there had been long and heavy drains upon the resources of the state.[214] Accordingly in 406 it was found necessary to lighten the burden. A law was passed that, each dramatic chorus at the City Dionysia should be provided by two choregi instead of one, thus diminishing the cost to individuals by half. This law was only intended as a temporary expedient. It was not applied to the Lenaea[215]; and even at the City Dionysia it was repealed in the course of the next fifty years.[216]