[625] Aristot. Ἀθ. Πολ. [Ath. Pol.] 42. 3.
[629] Aristot. Ἀθ. Πολ. [Ath. Pol.] 42. 4.
[631] Lucias, x. 1, and Aristophanes anent Kleonumos, _passim_.
[632] Properly speaking, it was only during his second year that the ephebos was a peripolos or patrol. Aischines, however, claims to have served two years as a peripolos. The term may have been used loosely, or else in times of crisis the epheboi may have been hurried off to the frontier as soon as they were enrolled.
[636] The force may also have included citizens, for the younger Alkibiades once served in it (Lus. xv. 6). But that was a special occasion, when the ordinary cavalry had refused to receive him.
[642] _C.I.A._ I. 143. Cp. _C.I.A._ I. 79 for citizen-archers.
[643] It is noticeable that in Aristotle’s time the epheboi were taught by a “Teacher of Archery.” He may be a survival.
[644] In Boiotia and the Megarid the epheboi served as cavalry, hoplites, or peltasts (_C.I.G._ Boiot. and Meg. 2715, 2717-21, 1747-48, etc.).
[649] In 431 B.C. Athens had 13,000 hoplites of between twenty and forty years of age. On this average there would be perhaps about 1000 epheboi per year, or 2000 altogether――the same number as here. The 16,000 of the reserve in 431 includes veterans and metics as well as epheboi.
[650] The changes seem to have happened shortly before 305, for in an inscription of that year the numbers have dropped greatly and brothers serve together.
THE EPHEBIC INSCRIPTIONS OF THE FOURTH CENTURY
“The epheboi of the Hippothontid tribe, who were enrolled when Ktesikles was Archon (334-333 B.C.), having been crowned by the Boule and Demos, offered this offering.”
Then follows a mutilated vote of thanks from the people of Eleusis to the epheboi for the discipline which they had preserved while garrisoning the town, and to their Sophronistes, who is to receive a crown, and to have a front seat at local festivals.
Decrees in honour of the epheboi of the Kekropid tribe.
“Kallikrates of Aixoné proposed. Whereas the epheboi of the Kekropid tribe, who were enrolled when Ktesikles was Archon (334-333 B.C.), are orderly and do everything that the laws enjoin upon them, and are obedient to the Sophronistes appointed by the people, we pass a vote of thanks to them and crown them with a golden crown of 500 drachmas for their excellent discipline and behaviour. We also pass a vote of thanks to the Sophronistes, Adeistos, son of Antimachos, and award him a golden crown of the aforesaid weight, for that he hath well and diligently directed the epheboi of the Kekropid tribe. This vote to be recorded on a stone pillar and set up in the shrine of Kekrops.”