Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

470 EPOBELIA. EPULONES.
mortgages, and upon no account be lent out upon EPO'MIS (07rcowls). [TUNICA.]
the more lucrative but hazardous security of bot- IEPONI A (ircwvia). [TELos.]
tomrry. (Suidas, s. v,.'EyyeLov.) EPO'NYMUS (Ea7rcvujos), having or giving a
To insure the performance of these duties the name, was the surname of the first of the nine
law permitted any free citizen to institute a public archons at Athens, because his name, like that of
action, as, for instance, an apagoge or eisangelia the consuls at Rome, was used in public records to
against a guardian who maltreated his ward mark the year [ARcHoN]. The expression 7rciO(aicac~osos op4psavso), or a'ypaipf Ertirporfis for vuiot,riv j;ItcLiv, whose number is stated by
neglect or injury of his person or property; and the Suidas, the Etymotogicum Magn., and other grampunishment, upon conviction, depended entirely marians, to have been forty, likewise applies to the
upon the greater or less severity of the dicasts. chief-archon of Athens. Every Athenian had to
(Meier, Att. Proc. p. 294.) If the guardian pre- serve in the army from his 19th to his 60th year,
ferred that the estate should be farmed, the regular i.e. during the arehonship of forty archons. Now
method of accomplishing this was by making an as an army generally consisted of men from the
application to the.archon, who thereupon let the:age of 18 to that of 60, the forty archons under
inheritance to the highest bidder, and took care whom they had been enlisted, were called 7rucovvthat the farmer shoulcl hypothecate a sufficient JUot,rov WXLICIV., in order to distinguish them from
piece of ground or other real property to:guarantee the'EircwvlAot,ry UpvAvy. (Compare Demosth. alp.
the fulfilment of the contract (IILroeLrq/a/). In Ilaspocr. at.. s..'Emrvvpo, and Bekker, Anecdota,
some cases the guardian might be compelled to p. 245.) At Sparta the first of the five ephors
adopt this course or be punished, if the lease were gave his name to the year, and was therefore called
irregularly.or fraudulently made, by a phasis, &popos E'&rcvVos. (Paus. ii. 11: ~ 2.)
which, upon this occasion, might be instituted by It was a very pre ailent tendency among the:
any free citizen. The guardianship expired when iancients in general:to:refer the origin of their inthe ward had attained his eighteenth year, and if -stitutions to some;ancient or fabullous hero (&pXy?the estate had been leased out, the farmer paid in 7yE7Ts, Dellosth. c. llracart. p. 1072), from whom,
the market-place the capital he had;received to in most cases, the institution was also believed to
trade with, and the interest' that had accrued have derived its name, so that the hero became its
(Dem. c. Ap7lob. i. 832. 1); if, however, the in- aPXqY-i1ETr-Is rc6vvuos. In -later times new instituheritance had been managed by the:guardian, it. tions were often named after ancient heroes, on
was from him that the heir received his property account of some fabulous or legendary connection
and the account of his disbursements during the which was thought to exist between them and the
minority. In case the accounts were unsatisfactory, new institutions, and the heroes thus became, as it
the heir might institute an:action E7rtvo7rirs against were, their patrons or tutelary deities. A striking
his late guardian; this, however, wvas a mere pri- instance of this custom are the names of the ten
vate lawsuit, in which the. damages and epobelia Attic tribes instituted by Cleisthenes, all of which
only could be lost by the defendant, to the latter were named after soume national hero. (Demosth.
of which the iPlaintiff was equally liable upon fiail- Epitaplh. p. 1397, &c.; Paus. i. 5.) These ten
ing to Oubtain the votes of a fifth of the dieasts. heroes who were at Athens, generalily called the
This action was barred by the lapse of five years ercivvuot, or e7rcovv/Ao TrV cpuAivX, were honoured
from the termination of the guardianship; and, if with statues, which stood'in the Coeramicus, near
the defendant in it died: before that time, an action the Tholos. (Paus. i. 5. ~ 1; Suidas and Etymol.,BXa~rs would lie agaiint his representatives to re- Magn. s. v.'E7rcvuvlvo.) If an Athenian citizen
cover what was claimet lfrom his estate. (Meier, wished to make proposals for a new law, he exAtt. Proc. p. 444, &c.) [J. S. M.] hibited them for public inspection in front of these
EPOBE'LIA (47rwoCesh a), as its etymology im- statues of the 47riovuoic whence the expressions
plies, at the rate of,one:obolus for a drachma, or eIiOesvaL irpdo Oev Trwv s7rCouvwv, or 7rpbs TobS E7rCone in six, was payable oat the assessment (Tir*/ALa) YVlOrvs. (Aeschin. c. Ctesiph. p. 59, ed Steph.; Wolf,
of several private.causes, and sometimes in a case Proleg. ad Demzosth. Leptin. p. 133.) [L. S.]
of phasis, by the litigant that failed to obtain the EPOPTAE (EMrdi'ral). [EaEvsiNiA.]
votes of one.fifth of the dicasts. (Dem... Aphob. EPULO'NES, who were originally three in
p. 834. 25, c. Efuerg. et Mlsnesib. p. 11.58. 20.) It number (Triumnviri Epulones), vere first created:
is inot, however, quite certain that such was in- in a. c. 196, to attend to the Epulum Jovis'
variably the case when the defeated suitor was the (Valer. Max. ii. 1. ~ 2; Liva. xxxi. 4; Gell. xii.
defendant in the cause (Meier, Att. Proc. p. 730); 8), and the banquets given in honour of the other
thoughl in two great classes, namely, cross suits gods; which duty had originally belonged to the
(wrmypa'a)., and those in wvhich a preliminary Pontifices. (Liv. xxxiii. 42; Cic. De Orat. iii.
question as to the admissibility of the original 19, De Earuslzss. Respons. 10.; Festus, s. v. Epocause of action was raised (7rapa-ypapal), it maybe lonos.) Their number was afterwards increased
confidently asserted. As the object of the regula- to seven (Gell. i. 12; Lucan, i. 602), and they
tion was to inflict a penalty upon litigiousness, were called Septemviri Epulones or Septeinviri
and reimburse the person that was causelessly at- Epfilonum;,under which names they are frequently
tacked for his trouble and anxiety, the fine ivas mentioned in inscriptions. (Orelli, Inscrip. No.
paid to the successful suitor in private causes, and 590, 773, 2259, 2260, 2365.) Julius Caesar
those cases of phasis in which a private citizen was added th~ree more (Dion Cass. xliii. 51), but after
the party immediately aggrieved. In public ac- his time the number appears to have been again
cusations, in general, a fine of a thousand drachmae, limited to seven.
payable to the public treasury, or a complete or The Epulones formed a collegium, and were one
partial,disfranchisement, supplied the place of the of the four great religious corporations at Itome;
epobelia as a punishment for frivolous proseen- the other three were those of the Pontifices, Al,tions. [J. S. M.] gures, and Quindeceimviri. (Dion Cass. liii. 1,