[17] _Odyssey_ II. 30 ἀγγελίην στρατοῦ ἐρχομένοιο (news of the host returning). [18] _Odyssey_ II. 32 ἦέ τι ζημιον ἄλλο πιφαύσκεται ἠδ' ἀγορεύει; (or has he any other public business to discuss?) [19] _Iliad_ XVIII. 497 νεῖκος (a dispute). [20] _Odyssey_ II. 1-259, _Iliad_ XVIII. 497-508. Whenever the king desired that an assembly should be held he gave the heralds orders to require the immediate attendance of the elders and the people[21]. The place of meeting was an open space in the city set apart for the purpose. In the midst was a circle of stone seats for the king and the elders[22], and one of the seats belonged specially to the king[23]: outside were the people, all of whom were compelled by the heralds to seat themselves on the ground[24] and to be silent[25]. When this had been done, the work of the assembly began; the speakers were the king and the elders, and the people either kept silence or perhaps indicated their approval by shouting or their dissent by murmurs. The councillors who sat with the king and had the right of speaking were for the most part (as the name γέροντες, if taken literally, denotes) men of age and experience: but younger men of good family, such as the wooers of Penelope[26], were also sometimes present among them and shared their privileges. [21] _Odyssey_ II. 6. The Ithacan assembly was summoned by the king's son in his father's absence: but the summons was irregular, as is shown in the next paragraph. [22] _Iliad_ XVIII. 503 οἱ δὲ γέροντες εἵατ' ἐπὶ ξεστοῖσι λίθοις ἱερῷ ἐνὶ κύκλῳ. The stone seats are mentioned only in the description of a judicial assembly: but all assemblies met, there is no doubt, in the same place. [23] _Odyssey_ II. 14 ἕζετο δ' ἐν ἕζετο δ' ἐν (Τηλέμαχος), ϝεῖξαν δὲ γέροντες (and Telemachus sat down in his father's seat, and the elders made way for him). [24] See Grote's note in his _History_, Part I. ch. XX. His instances (_Iliad_ II. 96 and _Iliad_ XVIII. 246) are both taken from time of war: but it is not in the least likely that this detail was peculiar to assemblies held at such times. [25] _Iliad_ II. 96 ἐννέας δά σφεας κήρυκες βοόωντες ἐρήτυον, εἴ ποτ' ἀϋτῆς σχοίατ' ἀκούσειαν δὲ διοτρεφέων βασιλήων (and nine heralds were calling them to order, to stop clamouring and hearken to the heaven-born kings). [26] At the Ithacan assembly the suitors Antinous, Eurymachus, and Leiocritus were among the speakers. _Odyssey_ II. 84-254.