Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/246

 240 THE CITY. BOOK III like him, a priest, and at the same time a political chief. Sometimes this annual magistrate bore the sacred title of king.' In other places the title of prytane^ which he retained, indicated his jDrincipal function. In other cities the title o'i arclion prevailed. At Thebes, for example, the first magistrate was called by this name; but what Plutai'ch says of this office shows that it differed little from the priesthood. This archon, dur- ing his term of office, was required to M'ear a crown,' as became a priest; religion forbade him to let his hair grow, or to carry any iron object upon his person — a regulation which made him resemble the Roman flamen. The city of Plataea also had an archon, and the religion of this city required that, during his whole term of office, he should be clothed in white* — that is to say, in the sacred color. The Athenian archons, when entering upon their duty, ascended the Acropolis, their heads crowned with myrtle, and offiared a sacrifice to the divinity of the city." It was also a custom for them, in the exercise of their duty, to wear a crown of leaves upon their heads.' Now, it is certain that the crown, which in the course of time became, and has remained, the symbol of power, was then only a religious emblem, an ex- terior sign, which accompanied prayer and sacrifice.' ' At Mcgara, at Samothracc. Livy, XLV. 5. Boeckh, Corp. Inscr., 1052. Didot). ' Plutarch, Nicias, 3; Phocion, 37. Cicero, i» Verr., IV. 50.
 * Pindar, Kern., XI. ' Plutarch, Rom. Quest., 40.
 * Plutarch, Anstides, 21.
 * Thucydidc's, VIII. 70. Apollodorus, Fragment, 21 (coll.
 * Demosthenes, in Meidiam, 33. .32schines, in Timarch., ID.