ĔPHĔTAE

( ἐφέται ), the name of certain judges at Athens, who tried cases of homicide. They were fifty-one in number, selected from noble families, and more than fifty years of age. They formed a tribunal of great antiquity, and were in existence before the legislation of Solon, but, as the state became more and more democratical, their duties became unimportant and almost antiquated. The Ephetae once sat in one or other of the five courts, according to the nature of the causes they had to try. In historical times, however, they sat in four only, called respectively the court by the Palladium ( τὸ ἐπὶ Παλλαδίῳ ), by the Delphinium ( τὸ ἐπὶ Δελφινίῳ ), by the Prytaneium ( τὸ ἐπὶ Πρυτανείῳ ), and the court at Phreatto or Zea ( τὸ ἐν Φρεαττοῖ ). At the first of these courts they tried cases of unintentional, at the second, of intentional but justifiable homicide. At the Prytaneium, by a strange custom, somewhat analogous to the imposition of a deodand, they pa ed sentence upon the instrument of murder when the perpetrator of the act was not known. In the court at Phreatto, on the sea shore at the Peiraeeus, they tried such persons as were charged with wilful murder during a temporary exile for unintentional homicide. IMG:6459379820872971714_ill154.jpg: Ephippium, Saddle. (Coin of Labienus.)