The Gerousia (Γερουσία; also called the Spartan Senate)Cartledge 2002, p. 44, from the Latin senatus ('council of elders') and senex ('old man'). was the council of elders in the ancient Greek city-state of Sparta. It was a prestigious body, holding important judicial, legislative, and supervisory powers. During the Archaic and Classical periods, the Gerousia consisted of the two Spartan kings, plus twenty-eight adult male citizens (Spartiates) called gerontes (γέροντες, singular: γέρων, gerōn). The gerontes were required to be at least sixty-years old, were elected by acclamation, and held office for life. Following the Classical period, its membership, minimum age, and tenure were all reduced.For general references, see: Hodkinson 2015, s.v. gerousia; Welwei 2006, s.v. Gerousia.
Power and importance At Sparta, political power was divided between three deliberative bodies, the Gerousia, the Ephorate, and the Assembly.Esu 2024, pp. 125, 127. Although the relative power and importance of the Gerousia with respect to these other two bodies are a matter of scholarly debate,Esu 2024, p. 127: There is "no consensus amongst scholars about the actual workings and the balance of power among deliberative bodies of ancient Sparta". the Gerousia was, apparently, the most prestigious.Esu 2024, p. 131. Since membership in the Gerousia was for life, being a geron was particularly prestigious within a Spartan society that accorded great respect to old age,Cartledge 1987, p. 123 ("Sparta was a society imbued with a pronounced, almost exaggerated respect for and deference to old age."); Cartledge and Spawforth 1989, p. 52 (describing the life-long membership in the Gerousia as "a major source of its enormous prestige"). and within the Gerousia, the votes of the "ordinary" geron carried as much weight as that of each of the kings.Esu 2024, p. 131; Lupi 2014; Nafissi 2007, p. 331; Andrewes 1966, p. 2; Thucydides, 1.20.3 Plato, Laws 3.692a. While mentioning that the Spartan kings could each cast votes in the Gerousia by proxy, Herodotus, 6.57.5, can be read as saying that they have two votes each, which perhaps accounts for Thucydides' remark that there is the "unfounded notion" that the Spartan kings each have two votes, when in fact they only have one. According to Cartledge 1987, p. 109, Herodotus' text is "ambiguous and possibly corrupt" and the "likeliest interpretation" of the text is that each king had one vote.
A newly elected geron received considerable institutionalized honors. According to Plutarch, a new geron crowned himself with a victory wreath, and visited each of the city's temples and shrines, leading a large procession of young men and women singing his praise. After which he was feted at a series of private banquets. At the following common mess, he received two portions of food, one of which he set aside, whereupon at the end of the meal, his female relatives would gather at the mess hall doorway, and he would give his second portion to the one he most esteemed, who would then be lauded and escorted home by the others.Esu 2024, p. 134; Plutarch, Lycurgus 26.3–4. This mimicked the same double portion of food, which, according to Herodotus, 6.57.3, was given daily to the Spartan king, and which, as explained by Xenophon, Constitution of the Lacedaemonians 15.4, the kings received "not that they might eat enough for two, but that they might have the wherewithal to honour anyone whom they chose".
The Gerousia performed important judicial, legislative, and supervisory functions.Davies 2018, p. 491; Hodkinson 2015, s.v. gerousia.
Judicial The Gerousia was the highest court of law in Sparta, serving as the court in charge of capital cases.Esu 2024, p. 134; Davies 2018, p. 491; Cartledge 2002, p. 45; Cartledge 1987, p. 123; Ste. Croix 1972, p. 132; Ehrenberg 1968, p. 45; Andrewes 1966, p. 16; Bonner and Smith 1942, p. 113. Both Xenophon and Aristotle report on the kinds of cases the Gerousia had jurisdiction over. According to Xenophon, the Gerousia was in charge of offenses subject to the death penalty (τοὺς γέροντας κυρίους τοῦ περὶ τῆς ψυχῆς ἀγῶνος).Phillips 2022, p. 80; Xenophon, Constitution of the Lacedaemonians 10.2. According to Aristotle, the Gerousia presided over cases of homicide (while the Ephorate took cases of breach of contract, and other magistrates handled other kinds of cases), and in another passage (presumably referring to the Gerousia) he writes that a "few persons have the power to sentence to death and exile, and a number of other such matters".Phillips 2022, p. 80; Ste. Croix 1972, p. 350; Aristotle, Politics 3.1275b.8–11 (Rackham's translation: "at Sparta suits for breach of contract are tried by different ephors [ἐφόρων] in different cases, while cases of homicide are tried by the ephors [γέροντες]", has mistakenly repeated "ephors" when "gerontes" was meant), 4.1294b.33–34. As Plutarch describes it, the gerontes were "lord[s] ... of life and death, honour and dishonour, and all the greatest issues of life."Plutarch, Lycurgus 26.1.
Even the Spartan kings could be subject to the criminal jurisdiction of the Gerousia (sometimes at least in conjunction with the five ephors).Esu 2024, p. 134; Cartledge 2002, p. 45; Cartledge 1987, pp. 17, 109, 123; David 1985, p. 131; Ste. Croix 1972, pp. 125, 350–353. According to the second-century AD travel writer Pausanias, the court (δικαστήριον) responsible for the trial of a Spartan king consisted of the twenty-eight gerontes, the ephors, and the other king; in the trial of king Pausanias, in 403 BC, fourteen gerontes and king Agis II voted guilty, and rest of the gerontes and ephors voted for acquittal.Cartledge 1987, pp. 123, 351; Ste. Croix 1972 pp. 350–351; Pausanias, 3.5.2. Although this is the only trial of a king for which the Gerousia is explicitly mentioned as having been involved,Ste. Croix 1972, p. 351. Pausanias' description of the makeup of such a tribunal is generally accepted as having been the established practice.David 1985, p. 131; so, for example, Esu 2024, p. 134: "The gerousia was also involved in trials of the kings, but in this case, the lawcourt was composed of the twenty-eight gerontes, the other king, and the ephors". The Gerousia's judicial authority could entail political power as well, as the threat of prosecution could exert considerable influence over the conduct of Spartan foreign policy.Cartledge 1987, pp. 17, 123, 351; Ste. Croix 1972, pp. 125, 131–138; Jones 1967, p. 19. See, for example, Xenophon, Hellenica 6.4.5, where king Cleombrotus's conduct of the war against Thebes in 371 BC, was the subject of such considerations.
Legislative The Gerousia helped shape state policy through its powers of probouleusis and nomophulakia.Esu 2024, pp. 125, 127; Cartledge 1987, p. 123. Probouleusis (preliminary deliberation) was a common feature of most Ancient Greek decision-making procedures, whereby a select council or group of officials drafted motions and submitted them to a popular assembly for ratification. According to Plutarch, the source of the Gerousia's power was its probouleutic privilege of submitting measures (probouleumata) to be presented to the Assembly.Esu 2024, pp. 4–6; Davies 2018, p. 491; Hodkinson 2015, s.v. gerousia; Andrewes 1966, pp. 1–2; Plutarch, Agis 11.1. The procedure (at least at the time of the reign of Agis IV) seems to have been that, in order for a bill to become law, it had first to be introduced by an ephor into the Gerousia for discussion and approval before it was then submitted to a vote in the Assembly.Chrimes 1949, p. 7; Plutarch, Agis 8.1, 11.1.
The Gerousia also held the power of nomophulakia (guardianship of the law) designed to protect Spartan nomos (practice, custom, and law),LSJ, s.v. νόμος. a power meant to insure both the legality of the enactments passed by the Assembly, as well as their conformity with traditional Spartan norms.Esu 2024, pp. 125, 127; Cartledge 1987, p. 123. An explicit example of this power of nomophulakia is perhaps found in the Great Rhetra, according to the usual interpretation of which, the Gerousia not only could submit proposals to the Assembly, but could also veto any action of the Assembly.See for example: Esu 2024, pp. 39, 128, 137; Davies 2018, p. 491; Kennell 2010, p. 49; Welwei 2006, s.v. Gerousia; Andrewes 1966, p. 15; Butler 1962, pp. 392, 395. Ruzé 1997, while noting that this interpretation of the Rhetra has near universal acceptance ("la quasi-totalité des commentateurs de la Rhètra admettent"), nevertheless argues against it: "VIII. La procédure délibérative. L’assemblée", paras. 16–44, "Conclusion", para. 1. There is, however, no unequivocal evidence that this veto power was ever employed.Andrewes 1966, p. 15: "There is no sign that this last safeguard was ever employed, and for all we know the Rider may have been a dead letter from the start"; Butler 1962, p. 393: "We have, of course, no record of the veto in use". However, Esu 2024, p. 134; Jones 1967, pp. 18–19 interpret the Gerousia's rejection of king Agis IV's proposed reforms (c. 243 BC), as having been a veto.
Membership The Archaic and Classical Gerousia consisted of thirty members, twenty-eight elected members (called gerontes) and the two kings, who were members by right of birth, entering the chamber upon their accession provided they were of age. Unlike the kings, the gerontes had to be at least sixty years old—the age when Spartan citizens were no longer required to serve in the army. The gerontes were elected by acclamation and held office for life.Esu 2024, pp. 131–133; Kennell 2010, p. 109; Cartledge 1987, pp. 121, 122. For the composition, see: Herodotus, 6.57.5; Plato, Laws, 3.691e–692a; Plutarch, Lycurgus 5.7–6.1; Pausanias, 3.5.2. For the minimum age of sixty, see: Plutarch, Lycurgus 26.1. For election by acclamation see: Plutarch, Lycurgus, 26.2–3; cf. Thucydides, 1.87.2. For life tenure, see: Aristotle, Politics 2.1270b 39, 2.1272a.36; Plutarch, Lycurgus 26, Agesilaus 4.2.
The electoral procedure is known thanks to the biographer Plutarch, who wrote c. 100 AD, but whose source was probably the lost Aristotelian Constitution of the Lakedaimonians (Lakedaimoniōn Politeia).Nafissi 2018, p. 98; Cartledge 1987, p. 122; Plutarch, Lycurgus, 26 There were no ballots: the Spartan Assembly elected the gerontes by acclamation, their usual voting method.Kennell 2010, p. 109; Cartledge 1987, p. 122; Thucydides, 1.87.1–3. The candidates passed one by one before the Assembly, who then shouted according to their preference. The loudness of the shouts was assessed by a jury confined into a windowless building, who then declared the winner to be the candidate receiving what they judged to be the loudest shouts.Esu 2024, p. 133; Cartledge 1987, p. 122. Aristotle called the election procedure for the Gerousia "childish" (παιδαριώδης), probably referring to the method of voting by shouting (boa) described by Plutarch.Esu 2024, p. 133; Cartledge 1987, p. 122; Aristotle, Politics 2.1271a. Aristotle, Politics 2.1270b, uses the same word "παιδαριώδης", to describe the election procedure used for the ephors. Aristotle further described the selection of the Gerousia as being dunasteutike ('dynastic'),Aristotle, Politics 5.1306a.18–19. the feminine adjectival form of dunasteia, which, for Aristotle, meant a small and lawless oligarchy.Davies 2018, p. 491; Rahe 1980, p. 387 n. 8; Rhodes 1985, pp. 447–448; Jones 1966, p. 174. For Aristotle's use of the word, see: Politics 2.1272b.1–11, 4.1292b.~8–10; 4.1293a.30–34, 4.1298a.32–33, 5.1302b.18, 5.1306a 24–25; 5.1307b.18–19; 5.1308a.18; 5.1308b.8; 6.1320b.16–1321a.4. Cartledge 1987, p. 122, has also suggested that Aristotle's dunasteutike here "should connote manipulation", and that the procedure described by Plutarch, was "undoubtedly ... the sort of easily manipulable voting method that would have earned Aristotle's curt dismissal of it as 'childish'.