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ANCIENT GREECE.chosen bylot. 1 Tho sanctuary of Doclona, where the responses of the oracle were made, as at Delphiand in othertemples, by priestesses, seems to have belonged to the familyof the Selli, of which Homer had heard ;*but we have noparticular accounts respecting the situation of that family.The^ regulations respecting priests, proposed by Plato inhis books on laws,*1 show most clearly, that the ideas of theGreeks required, that the oflices of priests should not longbe filledby the same "persons. Let the election of thepriests," says lie, "bo committed to the god, by referringthe appointment to lot ;those on whom the lot falls, mustsubmit to an examination. But each priesthood shall befilled for one year only, and no longer, by the same person ;he who fills it, may not be less than sixty years old. Thesame rule shall apply to the priestesses,"'We infer from all this, that, though the regulations respecting the priesthood were not the same in allparts ofGreece, that office was commonly filled for a limited timeonly, was regarded as a place of honour, to which, as to theother mysteries, appointments were made by lot,, with anexamination, and was subjected to the same rotation withthe rest.They to whom it was intrusted, were taken fromthe class of active citizens, to which they again returned ;and even whilst they were priests, they were by no meanswithdrawn from the regular business of civil life. 4 Thepriesthood did not gain even that degree of firmness whichit had at Rome ;where the priests, though they were notseparated from secular pursuits, formed separate colleges,like those of the Pontifices a,nd Augurs and the; membersof whom were chosen for life. Since the priesthood then,among the Hellenes in general, and in the several states,never formed a distinct order,it could not possess the spiritof a party, and it was quite impossible for any thing Hikepriestcraft to prevail. Religion and public acts of worshipwere so far considered holy and inviolable, that they were1See the important passage in Euripid. Ion, 414: I," nays Ion, speakingtothe foreigneron the service of the temple," I have charge only of the outerpart; the interior belongs to them who sit near the tripod, the first of theDclpmans whom the lot selected."* * II. xv, 235.Plato, de Leg.1. vi. Op. viii. p. 2Cfi. Bin.Not even from the duties of war. The Daduehus Oallias foughtat thebattle of Marathon in his costume as a priest Plutarch in Aristicl On iip. 491, ed. Eeiske. l