and, on the other
hand, supporting the people, when the kings attempted to make themselves
absolute. This, according to Aristotle, was the number of senators fixed
upon, because two of the thirty associates of Lycurgus deserted the
business through fear. But Sphaerus tells us there were only twenty-eight
at first entrusted with the design. Something, perhaps, there is in its
being a perfect number, formed of seven multiplied by four, and withal
the first number, after six, that is equal to all its parts. But I
rather think, just so many senators were created, that, together with
the two kings, the whole body might consist of thirty members.

He had this institution so much at heart, that he obtained from Delphi
an oracle in its behalf, called _rhetra_, or the decree. This was
couched in very ancient and uncommon terms, which interpreted, ran thus:
"When you have built a temple to the Syllanian Jupiter, and the
Syllanian Minerva, divided the people into tribes and classes, and
established a senate of thirty persons, including the two kings, you
shall occasionally summon the people to an assembly between Babyce and
Cnacion, and they shall have the determining voice." Babyce and Cnacion
are now called Oenus. But Aristotle thinks, by Cnacion is meant the
river, and by Babyce the bridge. Between these they held their
assemblies, having neither halls, nor any kind of building for that
purpose. These things he thought of no advantage to their councils, but
rather a disservice; as they distracted the attention, and turned it
upon trifles, on observing the statues and pictures, the splendid roofs,
and every other theatrical ornament. The people thus assembled had no
right to propose any subject of debate, and were only authorized to
ratify or reject what might be proposed to them by the senate and the
kings. But because, in process of time, the people, by additions or
retrenchments, changed the terms, and perverted the sense of the
decrees, the kings Polydorus and Theopompus inserted in the _rhetra_
this clause: "If the people attempt to corrupt any law, the senate and
chiefs shall retire:" that is, they shall dissolve the assembly, and
annul the alterations. And they found means to persuade the Spartans
that this too was ordered by Apollo; as we learn from these verses of
Tyrtaeus:

Ye sons of Sparta, who at Phoebus' shrine
Your humble vows prefer, attentive hear
The god's decision. O'er your beauteous lands