9. The usual name of a public assembly in the Doric states was ἁλία. This is the name by which the Spartan assembly is called in Herodotus;(344) and it is used also in official documents for those of Byzantium,(345) of Gela, Agrigentum,(346) Corcyra,(347) and Heraclea;(348) ἁλιαῖα was the term employed by the Tarentines(349) and Epidamnians;(350) the place of assembly among the Sicilian Dorians was called ἁλιακτήρ.(351) In Crete it was known by the ancient Homeric expression of ἀγορά.(352) In Sparta the ancient name of an assembly of the people was ἀπέλλα, whence the word ἀπελλάζειν in the rhetra quoted above. In later times the names ἐκκλησία and οἱ ἔκκλητοι appear to have been chiefly in use, which do not, more than at Athens, signify a select body, or a committee of the citizens;(353) although in other Doric states select assemblies sometimes occur under similar names.(354) There was also an assembly of this last kind at Sparta, but it is expressly called the _small ecclesia_;(355) and, according to a passage in which it was mentioned, was chiefly occupied concerning the state of the constitution, and perhaps consisted only of Equals; for it can hardly be supposed that an assembly was convened of magistrates alone.(356) To the regular assembly, however, all citizens above the age of thirty were doubtless admitted, who had not been deprived of their rights by law.(357) The place of meeting was in Sparta, between the brook Cnacion(358) and the bridge Babyca, where afterwards was a place called Œnus, near to Pitana, and therefore situated to the west of the city;(359) but, whatever might have been the precise spot, it was in the open air.(360) The time for the regular assembly was each full moon;(361) yet, for business of emergency, extraordinary meetings were held, often succeeding one another at short intervals.(362)