ept or reject the proposals submitted to it, and though
this regulation fell into neglect, it was practically restored by the
law of Theopompus and Polydorus which empowered the kings and elders to
set aside any "crooked" decision of the people (Plut. _Lycurg._ 6). In
later times, too, the actual debate was almost, if not wholly, confined
to the kings, elders, ephors and perhaps the other magistrates. The
apella voted on peace and war, treaties and foreign policy in general:
it decided which of the kings should conduct a campaign and settled
questions of disputed succession to the throne: it elected elders,
ephors and other magistrates, emancipated helots and perhaps voted on
legal proposals. There is a single reference (Xen. _Hell._ iii. 3. 8) to
a "small assembly" ([Greek: e mikra kaloumene ekklesia]) at Sparta, but
nothing is known as to its nature or competence. The term apella does
not occur in extant Spartan inscriptions, though two decrees of Gythium
belonging to the Roman period refer to the [Greek: megalai apellai] (Le
Bas-Foucart, _Voyage archeologique_, ii., Nos. 242a, 243).

See G. Gilbert, _Constitutional Antiquities of Sparta and Athens_
(Eng, trans., 1895), pp. 49 ff.; _Studien zur altspartanischen
Geschichte_ (Gottingen, 1872), pp. 131 ff.; G.F. Schomann,
_Antiquities of Greece: The State_ (Eng. trans., 1880), pp. 234 ff.;
_De ecdesiis Lacedaemoniorum_ (Griefswald, 1836) [= _Opusc. academ._
i. pp. 87 ff.]; C.O. Muller, _History and Antiquities of the Doric
Race_ (Eng. trans., 2nd ed. 1839), book iii. ch. 5, SS 8-10; G.
Busolt, _Die griechischen Staats- und Rechtsaltertumer_, 1887 (in Iwan
Muller's _Handbuch der klassischen Altertumsiuissenschaft_, iv. 1), S
90; _Griechische Geschichte_ (2nd ed.), i. p. 552 ff. (M. N. T.)

APELLES, probably the greatest painter of antiquity. He lived from the
time of Philip of Macedon till after the death of Alexander. He was of
Ionian origin, but after he had attained some celebrity he became a
student at the celebrated school of Sicyon, where he worked under
Pamphilus. He thus combined the Dorian thoroughness with the Ionic
grace. Attracted to the court of Philip, he painted him and the young
Alexander with such success that he became the recognized court painter
of Macedon, and his picture of Alexander holding a thunderbolt ranked
with the Alexander with the spear of the sculptor Lysippus. Other works
of Apelles had a great reputation in a