In ancient Sparta, the council of elders who held significant political and judicial power alongside the two kings.
From Greek gerousia, from geron meaning 'old man'; this council was literally the rule of the elderly, reflecting the Spartan value placed on age and experience.
Sparta's gerusia was so powerful that it could actually overrule the two kings—making it one of history's strangest power-sharing systems where kings were checked by a gerontocracy (rule by the old).
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