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372 HISTORY OF GREECE. they possessed the presidency of a dikastery, — that is, whether they could themselves cause one of the panels of jurors to be summoned, and put an alleged delinquent on his trial before it, under theii' jjresidency, or whether they were restricted to enter- ing a formal protest, laying the alleged illegality before the public assembly. To appoint magistrates, however, invested with this special trust of watching and informing, was not an unimpor- tant step ; for it would probably enable Ephialtes to satisfy many objectors who feared to abolish the superintending power of the Areopagus without introducing any substitute. The nomophylakes were honored with a distinguished place at the public processions and festivals, and were even allowed, like the archons, to enter the senate of Areopagus after their year of office had expired : but they never acquired any considerable power, such as that senate had itself exercised. Their interference must have been greatly superseded by the introduction and increasing apphcation of the Graphe Paranomon, presently to be explained; nor are they even noticed in the description of that misguided assembly which condemned the six generals after the battle of Arginusse, by a gross violation of legal form not less than of substantial justice.' After the expulsion of the Thirty, the senate of Areopagus was again invested with a supervision over magistrates, though with- out anything like its ancient ascendency. Another important change w^hich we may with probability refer to Perikles, is the institution of the Nomothetae. These men were, in point of fact, dikasts, members of the six thousand citizens an- nually sworn in that capacity. But they were not, like the dikasts for trying causes, distributed into panels, or regiments, known by a particular letter, and acting together throughout the entire year : they were lotted off to sit together only on special occa- sion and as the necessity arose. According to the reform now introduced, the ekklesia, or public assembly, even with the sanction of the senate of Five Hundred, became incompetent either to pass Harpokration, Pollux, and Suidas, give substantially the same account of these magistrates, though none except Photius mentions the exact date of their appointment. There is no adequate ground for the doubt which M. Boeckh expresses about the accuracy of this statement : see Schomann, Antiq. Jur. Pub. Graec. sect. Ixvi ; and Cicero, Legg. iii, 20. ' Spp Xenophon. Hellenic, i, 7 : Andokides de Mysteriis, p. 40.