Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

EISPHORA.

149

ELEUSINIA.

carry on a war. It is not quite certain when
this property-tax was introduced ; but it
seems to have come first into general use
about n. c. 428. It could never be raised
without a decree of the people, who also
assigned the amount required ; and the stra-
tegic or generals, superintended its collection,
and presided in the courts where disputes
connected with, or arising from, the levying
of the tax were settled. The usual expres-
sions for paying this property-tax are :
eLtrt/jepetv xPVtxaTa' €ta"c/)epeiv et? top 7rdAep.ov,
eis Tqv cuiTTjpLtxv tt;s 7rdAeaj?, eio*<|>opa9 eLO"(pe-
peiv, and those who paid it were called
oi eio-cpe'poi/res. The census of Solon was at
first the standard according to which the
eisphora was raised, until in b. c. 37 7 a new
census was instituted, in which the people,
for the purpose of fixing the rates of the pro-
perty-tax, were divided into a number of
symmoriae (cmp.fj.opi'at) or classes, similar to
those which were afterwards made for the
hierarchy. Each of the ten tribes or phylae,
appointed 120 of its wealthier citizens ; and
the whole number of persons included in the
symmoriae was thus 1200, who were con-
sidered as the representatives of the whole
republic. This body of 1200 was divided
into four classes, each consisting of 300. The
first class, or the richest, were the leaders of
the symmoriae (iyenrives o-up.p.opiwj'), and are
often called the three hundred. They pro-
bably conducted the proceedings of the sym-
moriae, and they, or, which is more likely,
the demarchs, had to value the taxable pro-
perty. Other officers were appointed to make
out the lists of the rates, and were called
<7riypa<£ie7;, 8iaypa<J>ei? or CKAoyeis. "When the
wants of the state were pressing, the 300
leaders advanced the money to the others,
who paid it back to the 300 at the regular
time. The first class probably consisted of
persons who possessed property from 12
talents upwards ; the second class, of persons
who possessed property from 6 talents and
upwards, but under 12 ; the third class, of
persons who possessed property from 2
talents upwards, but under 6 ; the fourth class,
of persons who possessed property from 25
minae upwards, but under 2 talents. The
rate of taxation was higher or lower accord-
ing to the wants of the republic at the time;
we have accounts of rates of a 12 th, a 50 th,
a 100th, and a 500th part of the taxable pro-
perty. If any one thought that his property
was taxed higher than that of another man
on whom juster claims could be made, he had
the right to call upon this person to take the
office in his stead, or to submit to a complete
exchange of property. [Antibosis.] No
,. Athenian, on the other hand, if belonging to

the tax-paying classes, could be exempt from
the eisphora, not even the descendants of
Harmodius and Aristogeiton.

ELECTRUM (ijAexTpos and TjAeKTpoi/), is
used by the ancient writers in two different
senses, either for amber or for a mixture of
metals composed of gold and silver. In Ho-
mer and Hesiod, it has, in all probability, the
former meaning. The earliest passage of any
Greek writer, in which the word is certainly
used for the metal, is in the Antigone of
Sophocles (1038). This' alludes to native
electrum ; but the compound was also made
artificially. Pliny states that when gold
contains a fifth part of silver, it is called
electrum ; that it is found in veins of gold ;
and that it is also made by art: if, he adds,
it contains more than a fifth of silver, it be-
comes too brittle to be malleable. But Isi-
dorus mentions electrum composed of three
parts gold, and one of silver. Electrum was
used for plate, and the other similar pur-
poses for which gold and silver were employed.
It was also used as a material for money.
Lampridius tells us, that Alexander Severus
struck coins of it ; and coins are in existence,
of this metal, struck by the kings of Bosporus,
by Syracuse, and by other Greek states.

ELEUSINIA (eAeuo-iVia), a festival and
mysteries, originally celebrated only at Eleusis
in Attica, in honour of Demeter and Perse-
phone. The Eleusinian mysteries, or the
mysteries, as they were sometimes called,
were the holiest and most venerable of all
that were celebrated in Greece. Various
traditions were current among the Greeks
respecting the author of these mysteries :
for, while some considered Eumolpus or
Musaeus to be their founder, others stated
that they had been introduced from Egypt
by Ereehtheus, who at a time of scarcity pro-
vided his country with corn from Egypt, and
imported from the same quarter the sacred
rites and mysteries of Eleusis. A third tra-
dition attributed the institution to Demeter
herself, who, when wandering about in search
of her daughter, Persephone, was believed to
have come to Attica, in the reign of Ereeh-
theus, to have supplied its inhabitants with
corn, and to have instituted the mysteries at
Eleusis. This last opinion seems to have
been the most common among the ancients,
and in subsequent times a stone was shown
near the well Callichoros at Eleusis, on which
the goddess, overwhelmed with grief and
fatigue, was believed to have rested on her
arrival in Attica. All the accounts and allu-
sions in ancient writers seem to warrant the
conclusion, that the legends concerning the
introduction of the Eleusinia are descriptions
of a period when the inhabitants of Attica