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CONSTITUTIONS OF THE GRECIAN STATES. 115mentioned under the same name ;Ithat of Massilia 2undera different one, but its members held their places for life ;and in how manyother citiesmay there have been a counof which history makes no mention, just as itcil of elders,is silent respecting the internal regulations in those justenumerated. 3 Even in cities which usually had no suchsenate, an extraordinary one was sometimes appointed inextraordinary cases, where good advice was needed. This4took placein Athens after the great overthrow in Sicily.Besides an assembly of citizens, or town meeting, and asenate, a Grecian city had its magistrates. Even the ancientpoliticians were perplexed to express with accuracy the5idea of magistrates. For not all to whom public businesswas committed by the citizens, could be called magistrates ;for otherwise the ambassadors and priests would have belonged to that class. In modern constitutions, it is not seldom difficult to decide, who ought to be reckoned in thenumber of magistrates,as will be apparent from calling tomind the inferior officers. But no important misunderstanding can arise, if we are careful to affix to the word thedouble idea of possessing a partof the executive power ;and of gaining, in consequence of the importance of thebusiness intrusted to them, a higher degree of consideration than belonged to the common citizen.In the republican constitutions of the Greeks a secondidea was attached to that of a magistracy ; it was necessaryto call every magistrate to account respecting the affairs ofhis office. 6 He who went beyondthis rule, ceased to be amagistrate and became a tyrant.The magistrate was there-1Plutarch. Op. ii. p. 177.. .2 Strabo, iii p. 124.9 There was perhaps no one Grecian city, in which such a council did notexist, for the nature of things made it almost indispensable. They were mostcommonly called {BovXij and -yepoturia,and these words may often have beenconfounded. For although the ffavXq in Athens was a body chosen from thecitizens but for a year, and the yepowia of Sparta was a permanent council,we cannot safely infer, that the terms, when used, always implied such a difference. In Crete, e. g. the council of elders was called povXy, according toAristot. Polit. ii. 10, though in its organization it resembled the y^powria ofSparta.4Thucyd. viii. i.5 See, on this subject, Aristot. Polit. iv. 15. The practical politicians, noless than the theorists, were perplexed in the word. definingAn importantpassage may be found in jEschin. in Ctesiphont. iiL p. 397> etc., EeisL6They were of necessity virtv9m>oi. Aristot. Polit. ii. 12.i 2