sponsibilities of active life. It was a National system with a many-sided training; the teachers were members of the Civil Service; the registers were public documents, and, as such, belonged to the Archives of the State. The earlier inscriptions of the series date from the period of Macedonian ascendency, but in much earlier times there had been forms of public drill prescribed for the Ephebi. It had been an ancient usage that the youths who had just entered on their nineteenth year should appear, in the presence of their kinsfolk and their neighbours, to have their names put on the Civic Roll, to be armed in public with a shield and spear, and to be then escorted to a temple where the solemn oath was taken of loyal service to their country and their gods. I swear,' so ran the words, not to bring disgrace upon these arms, nor to desert my comrade in the fight. I will do battle for the common weal, for the religion of my fathers. I will obey those who bear rule, and the laws which are in force, and all that the sovereign people shall decree.' The young champions so pledged were bound awhile to special forms of military duty; they were drafted into companies of National guards, and patrolled the country districts, or were posted in outlying forts in defensive service on the frontier, till their two years of probation had expired.

Early

usages with

regard to

the Ephebi.

tant countries, not only from the isles of Greece, and from the coasts of the Ægean, but, as Hellenic culture made its way through the far East, students even of Semitic race were glad to enrol their names upon the College registers, where we may still see them with the marks of their several nationalities affixed.

3. The young men were no longer, like soldiers upon actual service, beginning already the real work of life, and on that account, perhaps, the term was shortened from two years to one; but the old associations lasted on for ages, even in realistic Athens, which in early politics at least had made so clean a sweep. The outward forms were still preserved, the soldier's drill was still enforced, and, though many another feature had been added, the whole institution bore upon its face the look rather of a Military College than of a training school for a scholar or a states

man.

to

The College year began somewhat later than the Matriculation, ng of the civil year, and it was usual for all the atriculate together; that is, to enter thei names upon the registers, which were terwards upon the marble tablets, of which mits have survived. That done, they d to take part, with their officers and eligious ceremonial held in the Guild

and reli

gious ceremony at the opening of Term ;

Important changes in the Macedonian period.

Many
Athenians

never were
included.

Aliens were admitted.

Such were the forms which lasted on through the old days of independence, when every citizen must be a soldier, and the first clain which Athens made was that her children should defend her. But in the later days of Macedonian rule, when she enjoyed only a faint show of freedom, she no longer demanded as a right the personal service of her sons, and soon changed, in the case of the Ephebi, the essential character of her educational routine.

1. The name did not henceforth include the whole rising manhood of the State. All who feared the loss of time or want of means, all who thought the drill too irksome, could stand aside when they reached the fitting age, and not enrol themselves in what was now a corps of Volunteers. The poorer classes, as we may suppose, dropped out, and betook themselves at once to active life; only the well-todo aspired to such a finish to a liberal training.

2. It served no longer as a test of purity of birth or civic rights. We find from a decree, which, if genuine, dates even from the days of Pericles, that the young men of Cos were allowed by special favour to share the discipline of the Athenian Ephebi. Soon afterwards others were admitted on all sides. The aliens who had gained a competence as merchants or as bankers, found their sons welcomed in the ranks of the oldest families of Athens; strangers flocked thither from dis

tant countries, not only from the isles of Greece, and from the coasts of the Ægean, but, as Hellenic culture made its way through the far East, students even of Semitic race were glad to enrol their names upon the College registers, where we may still see them with the marks of their several nationalities affixed.

3. The young men were no longer, like soldiers upon actual service, beginning already the real work of life, and on that account, perhaps, the term was shortened from two years to one; but the old associations lasted on for ages, even in realistic Athens, which in early politics at least had made so clean a sweep. The outward forms were still preserved, the soldier's drill was still enforced, and, though many another feature had been added, the whole institution bore upon its face the look rather of a Military College than of a training school for a scholar or a states

man.

The term ened.

was short

tion,

The College year began somewhat later than the Matriculaopening of the civil year, and it was usual for all the students to matriculate together; that is, to enter formally their names upon the registers, which were copied afterwards upon the marble tablets, of which large fragments have survived. That done, they were expected to take part, with their officers and tutors, in a religious ceremonial held in the Guild

and reli

gious ceremony at the opening of Term;