museum in
Athens Though the word
ephebos (from
epi "upon" +
hebe "youth", "early manhood") can simply refer to the adolescent age of young men of training age, its main use is for the members, exclusively from that age group, of an official institution (
ephebia) that saw to building them into citizens, but especially to training them as soldiers, sometimes already sent into the field; the
Greek city states (
poleis) mainly depended (like the
Roman Republic) on its
militia of citizens for defense. In the time of
Aristotle (384–322 BC),
Athens engraved the names of the enrolled ephebi on a
bronze pillar (formerly on wooden tablets) in front of the
council-chamber. After admission to the college, the ephebus took the
oath of allegiance (as recorded in histories by
Pollux and
Stobaeus—but not in Aristotle) in the temple of
Aglaurus and was sent to
Munichia or
Acte as a member of the
garrison. At the end of the first year of training the ephebi were reviewed; if their performance was satisfactory, the state provided each with a spear and a shield, which, together with the (cloak) and (broad-brimmed hat), made up their equipment. In their second year they were transferred to other garrisons in
Attica, patrolled the frontiers, and on occasion took an active part in war. During these two years they remained free from taxation, and were generally not allowed to appear in the law courts as plaintiffs or defendants. The ephebi took part in some of the most important Athenian festivals. Thus during the
Eleusinian Mysteries they were sent to fetch the sacred objects from
Eleusis and to escort the image of
Iacchus on the sacred way. They also performed police duty at the meetings of the
ecclesia. After the end of the 4th century BC, the institution underwent a radical change. Enrolment ceased to be obligatory, lasted only for a year, and the limit of age was dispensed with. Inscriptions attest a continually decreasing number of ephebi, and with the admission of foreigners the college lost its representative national character. This was mainly due to the weakening of the military spirit and to the progress of intellectual culture. The military element was no longer all-important, and the ephebia became a sort of university for well-to-do young men of good family, whose social position has been compared with that of the Athenian "knights" of earlier times. The institution lasted till the end of the 3rd century AD. In the Hellenistic and Roman periods, foreigners, including Romans, began to be admitted as ephebes. At this period the college of ephebi was a miniature city, which possessed an
archon,
strategos,
herald and other officials, after the model of the city of Athens. ==Sculpture==