1. Cf. I ix, ‘The Ephors’, and I x.

2. From the perfection of the ‘ideal’ state, presumably, as distinct from that of the ‘best possible’ (i.e. the variety of aristocracy Aristotle calls a ‘polity’): cf. Il, ix init.

3. The Greek does not make it clear whether the unanimity and the ‘power of decision’ are about the referral itself, or about the actual matter under consideration; nor whether ‘unanimity’ (literally ‘if all agree’) means ‘both of the two kings and all the elders’ or (more probably) ‘kings and elders’ (thought of as two bodies, presumably with majority voting in the second).