[1272a]
[1]
and also
both have public mess-tables, and in old days the Spartans called them not
‘phiditia’ but ‘men's messes,’ as the
Cretans do, which is a proof that they came from Crete. And so also did the system of government; for the Ephors
have the same power as the magistrates called Cosmi in Crete, except that the Ephors are five in
number and the Cosmi ten; and the Elders at Sparta are equal in number to the Elders whom the Cretans call
the Council; and monarchy existed in former times, but then the Cretans
abolished it, and the Cosmi hold the leadership in war; and all are members of the Assembly, though it has
no powers except the function of confirming by vote the resolutions already
formed by the Elders and the Cosmi.Now the Cretan
arrangements for the public mess-tables are better than the Spartan; for at
Sparta each citizen pays a fixed
poll-tax, failing which he is prevented by law from taking part in the
government, as has been said before; but in Crete the system is more communal, for out of all the crops and
cattle produced from the public lands, and the tributes paid by the serfs, one
part is assigned for the worship of the gods and the maintenance of the public
services,
[20]
and the other for the
public mess-tables, so that all the citizens are maintained from the common
funds, women and children as well as men; and the lawgiver has devised many wise measures to secure
the benefit of moderation at table, and the segregation of the women in order
that they may not bear many children, for which purpose he instituted
association with the male sex, as to which there will be another occasion1 to
consider whether it was a bad thing or a good one. That the regulations for the
common mess-tables therefore are better in Crete than at Sparta is manifest; but the regulations for the Cosmi are even
worse than those regarding the Ephors. For the evil attaching to the office of
the Ephors belongs to the Cosmi also, as the post is filled by any chance
persons, while the benefit conferred on the government by this office at
Sparta is lacking in Crete. At Sparta, as the election is made from all the citizens, the
common people sharing in the highest office desire the maintenance of the
constitution, but in Crete they do not
elect the Cosmi from all the citizens but from certain clans, and the Elders
from those who have held the office of Cosmos, about which regulations the same comments might be made as
about what takes place at Sparta:
their freedom from being called to account and their tenure for life gives them
greater rank than their merit deserves, and their administration of their office
at their own discretion and not under the guidance of a written code is
dangerous. And the fact that the common people quietly tolerate their exclusion
is no proof that the arrangement is a sound one; for the Cosmi unlike the Ephors
make no sort of profit,
1 This promise is not fulfilled
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