11/13 The editor has substituted correct extracts from Matthews's text. Matthews spells the name of the prophet's widow as Aayeshah. In Sparta, the Ephoroi, once every nine years, watched the sky during a whole cloudless, moonless night, in profound silence; and, if they saw a shooting star, it was understood to indicate that the kings of Sparta had disobeyed the gods, and their authority was, in consequence, suspended till they had been purified by an oracle from Delphi or Olympia. [W. H.S.] This statement rests on the authority of Plutarch, _Agis_, 11. |