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In historical times it numbered twenty-eight members, to whom were added ex officio the two kings and, later, the five ephors.

Thucydides, at the opening of his second book, fixes his main date by the year of the priestess of Hera at Argos, by the Spartan ephor, and by the Athenian archon.

There is no evidence for the theory that originally the ephors were market inspectors; they seem rather to have had from the outset judicial or police functions.

In later times, too, the actual debate was almost, if not wholly, confined to the kings, elders, ephors and perhaps the other magistrates.

In Sparta, however, so little was known of any despotic measure of the gerontes, that, on the contrary, the constitution was impaired when their antagonist office, the ephors, gained the ascendency in influence and power.