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(1) The Gerousia (γερουσία; a council of old men, γέροντες) was the Spartan senate. . It consisted of twenty-eight men of at least sixty years of age, called γέροντες (senatores), elected by the public assembly for life. The meetings of the Gerousia were presided over by the two kings, who had the right of voting. The number of the council therefore amounted to thirty. It was their duty to deliberate beforehand on all important affairs of State, and to prepare preliminary resolutions upon them, to be voted upon by the public assembly. They had also jurisdiction in the case of all offences which were punishable by death or loss of civil rights. They sat in judgment, if necessary, even on the kings, in later times associating the ephors with them in this function. Their authority, like that of the kings, suffered considerable restriction at the hands of the ephors.
The Gerousia prepared motions or rhetrai for the wider citizen assembly, the Apella, to vote on. The Gerousia could also veto motions passed by the Apella and was consulted by the ephors in matters of interpretation of the law.
They had a similar position in the Cretan constitution, according to which only the members of the highest magistracy, called the κόσμοι, or regulators, could enter the council, and that only after a blameless term of administration.
(2) Some ancient sources refer to a council called gerousia in Judea during the Second Commonwealth period (roughly 530 BC- 70 AD), presided over by the High Priest. Most scholars identify this body with the Sanhedrin.
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