councillors, and about forty Spartans (ὅμοιοι), were in the market-place, all probably in a judicial capacity: besides whom, there were about four thousand men, chiefly occupied in buying and selling, as is seen from the fact that in one part of the market a large quantity of iron fabrics was heaped up. The ephors were therefore ἔφοροι (inspectors) over the market, and for this reason they met regularly in this place,(480) where was also situated their office. The number of the college of ephors (five),(481) which it had in common with some other magistrates of Sparta,(482) appears, as I conjectured above,(483) to imply a democratic election—a fact which is also stated by the ancients. We know from Aristotle, that persons from the people, without property or distinction, could fill this office:(484) in what manner, indeed, is not quite manifest. Properly indeed, no magistrate in Sparta was chosen by lot;(485) but it appears that election by choice and by lot were combined.(486) In this case we see displayed a principle of the ancient Greek states, which administered the criminal jurisdiction on aristocratic principles, while civil causes were decided by the whole community, or its representatives. At Athens, Solon gave the popular courts a jurisdiction only in civil suits; all criminal cases were decided by the timocratic Areopagus, and the aristocratic Ephetæ. In Heraclea on the Pontus, the chief officers were chosen from a small number of the citizens, the courts of justice from the rest of the people.(487) And in Sparta also the civil judges were the deputies of the assembly—the ἁλίαια,(488) which in Athens itself acted as a court of justice under the name of ἡλίαια. 4. From the view of this office now taken, the continued extension of the powers of the ephors may be more easily accounted for. It was the regular course of events in the Grecian states, that the civil courts enlarged their influence, while the power of the criminal courts was continually on the decline. As in Athens, the Helæeea rose, as compared with the Areopagus, so in Sparta the power of the ephors increased in comparison with that of the gerusia.