a ship, which always kept things in a just equilibrium; the
twenty-eight always adhering to the kings so far as to resist
democracy, and, on the other hand, supporting the people against
the establishment of absolute monarchy. As for the determinate
number of twenty-eight, Aristotle states that it so fell out
because two of the original associates, for want of courage, fell
off from the enterprise; but Sphaerus assures us that there were
but twenty-eight of the confederates at first; perhaps there is
some mystery in the number, which consists of seven multiplied by
four, and is the first of perfect numbers after six, being, as
that is, equal to all its parts. For my part, I believe Lycurgus
fixed upon the number of twenty-eight, that, the two kings being
reckoned amongst them, they might be thirty in all. So eagerly set
was he upon this establishment, that he took the trouble to obtain
an oracle about it from Delphi; and the Rhetra (or sacred
ordinance) runs thus: "After that you have built a temple to
Jupiter Hellanius, and to Minerva Hellania, and after that you
have phyle'd the people into phyles, and obe'd them into obes, you
shall establish a council of thirty elders, the leaders included,
and shall, from time to time, assemble the people betwixt Babyca
and Cnacion, there propound and put to the vote. The commons have
the final voice and decision." By phyles and obes are meant the
divisions of the people; by the leaders, the two kings; Aristotle
says Cnacion is a river, and Babyca a bridge. Betwixt this Babyca
and Cnacion, their assemblies were held, for they had no council-
house or building to meet in. Lycurgus was of opinion that
ornaments were so far from advantaging them in their councils,
that they were rather an hindrance, by diverting their attention
from the business before them to statues and pictures, and roofs
curiously fretted, the usual embellishments of such places amongst