Note 252 — Chapter VIII

The Gerusia often mentioned in inscriptions of Asia Minor has nothing but the name in common with the political institution founded by Lysimachus in Ephesus (Strabo, xiv. 1, 21, p. 640; Wood, Ephesus, inscr. from the temple of Diana, n. 19); its character in Roman times is indicated partly by Vitruvius, ii. 8, 10; Croesi (domum) Sardiani civibus ad requiescendum aetatis otio seniorum collegio gerusiam dedicaverunt, partly by the inscription recently found in the Lycian town Sidyma (Benndorf, Lyk. Reise, i. 71), according to which council and people resolve, as the law requires, to institute a Gerusia, and to elect to it 50 Buleutae and 50 other citizens, who then appoint a gymnasiarch for the new Gerusia. This gymnasiarch, who meets us elsewhere, as well as the Hymnode of the Gerusia (Menadier, qua condic. Ephesii usi sint, p. 51), are, among the office–bearers of this body known to us, the only ones characteristic of its nature. Analogous, but of less estimation, are the collegia of the νέοι, which also have their own gymnasiarchs. To the two overseers of the places of gymnastic exercise for the grown–up citizens the gymnasiarchs of the Ephebi form the contrast (Menadier, p. 91). Common repasts and festivals (to which the Hymnodes has reference) were of course not wanting, particularly in the case of the Gerusia. It was not a provision for the poor, nor yet a collegium reserved for the municipal aristocracy; but characteristic for the mode of civil intercourse among the Greeks, with whom the gymnasium was nearly what the citizens’ assembly–rooms are in our small towns.