The ephoralty, however, considered as an office opposed to the kings and to the council, is not for this reason an institution less peculiar to the Spartans; and in no Doric, nor even in any Grecian state, is there any thing which exactly corresponds with it. It is evident, therefore, that it must have gradually obtained this peculiar character by causes which operated upon the Lacedæmonian state alone. Hence it appears, that the supposed expression of Theopompus referred rather to the powers of the ephors in later times, than to their original condition. At least Cleomenes the Third was ignorant of this account of them; since, after the abolition of these magistrates, he proposed, in a speech to the people, that the ephors should again be what they were originally (when they were elected in the first Messenian war), viz., the deputies and assistants of the king. In this proposal indeed a very partial view is displayed; for every magistrate must necessarily choose his own deputy; whereas the democratic election of the ephors was, as we shall presently see, an essential part of their office. From the accounts just adduced, we do not however wish to infer any thing further, than how variable were the opinions, and how little historical the statements, concerning the original object of the ephoralty. 2. In the constitution of Lycurgus, as it has been hitherto developed, the ephoralty of later times would not only have been a superfluous, but a destructive addition. For in this the king, the council, and the people constituted the chief authorities; and to suppose that any part would require either check or assistance, would have been inconsistent with the plans of the legislator. A counter-authority, such as the ephoralty, in which the mistrust of the people was expressed in a tyrannical manner, was far removed from the innocence and simplicity of the original constitution, and could not have been introduced, until the connexion and firmness arising from the first laws had been loosened and enfeebled. The Roman office of tribune had, doubtless, a certain similarity in its first origin with the ephoralty;(470) yet the former was more imperatively required, as by it an entire people, the _plebs Romana_, obtained a necessary and fair representation; whereas in Sparta the gerusia, although chosen from the most distinguished citizens, belonged nevertheless to the whole Spartan people, and the democratic influence of the popular assembly served as the basis of the whole constitution.(471)