vain womanish passion of jealousy, for, while carefully avoiding any
disorder or licentiousness, he nevertheless permitted men to associate
worthy persons with them in the task of begetting children, and taught
them to ridicule those who insisted on the exclusive possession of their
wives, and who were ready to fight and kill people to maintain their
right. It was permitted to an elderly husband, with a young wife, to
associate with himself any well-born youth whom he might fancy, and to
adopt the offspring as his own.
And again, it was allowable for a respectable man, if he felt any
admiration for a virtuous mother of children, married to some one else,
to induce her husband to permit him to have access to her, that he might
as it were sow seed in a fertile field, and obtain a fine son from a
healthy stock. Lykurgus did not view children as belonging to their
parents, but above all to the state; and therefore he wished his
citizens to be born of the best possible parents; besides the
inconsistency and folly which he noticed in the customs of the rest of
mankind, who are willing to pay money, or use their influence with the
owners of well-bred stock, to obtain a good breed of horses or dogs,
while they lock up their women in seclusion and permit them to have
children by none but themselves, even though they be mad, decrepit, or
diseased; just as if the good or bad qualities of children did not
depend entirely upon their parents, and did not affect their parents
more than any one else.
But although men lent their wives in order to produce healthy and useful
citizens, yet this was so far from the licence which was said to prevail
in later times with respect to women, that adultery was regarded amongst
them as an impossible crime. A story is told of one Geradas, a very old
Spartan, who, when asked by a stranger what was done to adulterers among
them, answered, "Stranger, there are no adulterers with us." "And if
there were one?" asked the stranger. "Then," said Geradas, "he would
have to pay as compensation a bull big enough to stand on Mount Täygetus
and drink from the river Eurotas." The stranger, astonished, asked
"Where can you find so big a bull?" "Where can you find an adulterer in
Sparta?" answered Geradas. This is what is said about their marriage
ceremonies.
XV. A father had not the right of bringing up his offspring, but had to
carry it to a certain place called Lesché, where the elders of the tribe
sat in judgment upon the child. If they thought it well-built and
strong, they ordered the father to bring it up, and assigned one of the
nine thousand plots of land to it; but if it was mean-looking or
misshapen, they sent it away to the place called the Exposure, a glen
upon the side of Mount Täygetus; for they considered that if a child did
not start in possession of health and strength, it was better both for
itself and for the state that he should not live at all. Wherefore the
women used to wash their newborn infants with wine, not with water, to
make trial of their constitution. It was thought that epileptic or
diseased children shrank from the wine and fell into convulsions, while
healthy ones were hardened and strengthened by it. A certain supervision
was exercised over the nurses, making them bring up the children without
swaddling clothes, so as to make their movements free and unconfined,
and also to make them easily satisfied, not nice as to food, not afraid
in the dark, not frightened at being alone, not peevish and fretful. For
this reason, many foreigners used to obtain Lacedaemonian nurses for
their children, and it is said that Amykla, the nurse of Alkibiades, was
a Lacedaemonian. But Plato tells us that Perikles put him under the care
of one Zopyrus, who was no better than the other slaves; whereas
Lykurgus would not intrust the Spartan boys to any bought or hired
servants, nor was each man allowed to bring up and educate his son as he
chose, but as soon as they were seven years of age he himself received
them from their parents, and enrolled them in companies. Here they lived
and messed in common, and were associated for play and for work.
However, a superintendent of the boys was appointed, one of the best
born and bravest men of the state, and they themselves in their troops
chose as leader him who was wisest, and fiercest in fight. They looked
to him for orders, obeyed his commands, and endured his punishments, so
that even in childhood they learned to obey. The elder men watched them
at their play, and by instituting fights and trials of strength,
carefully learned which was the bravest and most enduring. They learned
their letters, because they are necessary, but all the rest of their
education was meant to teach them to obey with cheerfulness, to endure
labours, and to win battles. As they grew older their training became
more severe; they were closely shorn, and taught to walk unshod and to
play naked. They wore no tunic after their twelfth year, but received
one garment for all the year round. They were necessarily dirty, as they
had no warm baths and ointments, except on certain days, as a luxury.
They slept all together in troops and companies, on beds of rushes which
they themselves had picked on the banks of the Eurotas with their hands,
for they were not allowed to use a knife. In winter they mixed the herb
called lycophon with the rushes, as it is thought to possess some
warmth.
XVI. At this age the elder men took even greater interest in them,
frequenting the gymnasia where they were, and listening to their
repartees with each other, and that not in a languid careless manner,
but just as if each thought himself the father, instructor, and captain
of them all.
Thus no time was left unemployed, and no place was left without some one
to give good advice and punish wrong-doing; although a regular
superintendent of the boys was appointed from the leading men of the
city, and they had their own chiefs, who were the wisest and bravest of
the Eirenes. This is a name given to those who have begun their second
year after ceasing to be children, and the eldest of the children are
called Melleirenes. This Eiren, who is twenty years old, commands his
company in their battles, and in the house uses them as his servants to
prepare dinner. He orders the bigger boys to carry logs of wood, and the
little ones to gather pot herbs. They also bring him what they steal,
which they do, some from the gardens, and some from the men's
dining-tables, where they rush in very cleverly and cautiously; for if
one be taken, he is severely scourged for stealing carelessly and
clumsily. They also steal what victuals they can, learning to take them
from those who are asleep or off their guard. Whoever is caught is
punished by stripes and starvation. Their meals are purposely made
scanty, in order that they may exercise their ingenuity and daring in
obtaining additions to them. This is the main object of their short
commons, but an incidental advantage is the growth of their bodies, for
they shoot up in height when not weighed down and made wide and broad by
excess of nutriment. This also is thought to produce beauty of figure;
for lean and slender frames develop vigour in the limbs, whereas those
which are bloated and over-fed cannot attain this, from their weight.
This we see in the case of women who take purgatives during pregnancy,
whose children are thin, but well-shaped and slender, because from their
slight build they receive more distinctly the impress of their mother's
form. However, it may be that the cause of this phenomenon is yet to be
discovered.
XVII. The boys steal with such earnestness that there is a story of one
who had taken a fox's cub and hidden it under his cloak, and, though his
entrails were being torn out by the claws and teeth of the beast,
persevered in concealing it until he died. This may be believed from
what the young men in Lacedaemon do now, for at the present day I have
seen many of them perish under the scourge at the altar of Diana
Orthias.
After dinner the Eiren would recline, and bid one of the boys sing, and
ask another some questions which demand a thoughtful answer, such as
"Who is the best among men?" or "How is such a thing done?" By this
teaching they began even in infancy to be able to judge what is right,
and to be interested in politics; for not to be able to answer the
questions, "Who is a good citizen?" or "Who is a man of bad repute?" was
thought to be the sign of a stupid and unaspiring mind. The boy's answer
was required to be well reasoned, and put into a small compass; he who
answered wrongly was punished by having his thumb bitten by the Eiren.
Often when elders and magistrates were present the Eiren would punish
the boys; if only he showed that it was done deservedly and with method,
he never was checked while punishing, but when the boys were gone, he
was called to account if he had done so either too cruelly or too
remissly.
The lovers of the boys also shared their honour or disgrace; it is said
that once when a boy in a fight let fall an unmanly word, his lover was
fined by the magistrates. Thus was love understood among them; for even
fair and honourable matrons loved young maidens, but none expected their
feelings to be returned. Rather did those who loved the same person make
it a reason for friendship with each other, and vie with one another in
trying to improve in every way the object of their love.
XVIII. The boys were taught to use a sarcastic yet graceful style of
speaking, and to compress much thought into few words; for Lykurgus made
the iron money have little value for its great size, but on the other
hand he made their speech short and compact, but full of meaning,
teaching the young, by long periods of silent listening, to speak
sententiously and to the point. For those who allow themselves much
licence in speech seldom say anything memorable. When some Athenian
jeered at the small Laconian swords, and said that jugglers on the stage
could easily swallow them, King Agis answered, "And yet with these
little daggers we can generally reach our enemies." I think that the
Laconian speech, though it seems so short, yet shows a great grasp of
the subject and has great power over the listeners. Lykurgus himself
seems to have been short and sententious, to judge from what has been
preserved of his sayings; as, for instance, that remark to one who
proposed to establish a democracy in the state, "First establish a
democracy in your own household." And when he was asked why he ordained
the sacrifices to be so small and cheap, he answered, "It is in order
that we may never be forced to omit them." So too in gymnastic
exercises, he discouraged all those which are not performed with the
hand closed.
The same class of answers are said to have been made by him to his
fellow-countrymen in his letters. When they asked how they should keep
off their enemies, he answered, "By remaining poor, and not each trying
to be a greater man than the other." Again, about walls, he said, "that
cannot be called an open town which has courage, instead of brick walls
to defend it." As to the authenticity of these letters, it is hard to
give an opinion.
XIX.--The following anecdotes show their dislike of long speeches. When
some one was discoursing about matters useful in themselves at an
unfitting time, King Leonidas said, "Stranger, you speak of what is
wanted when it is not wanted." Charilaus the cousin of Lykurgus, when
asked why they had so few laws answered, that men of few words required
few laws. And Archidamidas, when some blamed Hekataeus the Sophist for
having said nothing during dinner, answered, "He who knows how to speak
knows when to speak also." The following are some of those sarcastic
sayings which I before said are not ungrateful. Demaratus, when some
worthless fellow pestered him with unreasonable queries, and several
times inquired, "Who is the best man in Sparta?" answered, "He who is
least like you." When some were praising the magnificence and justice
with which the Eleans conducted the Olympian games, Agis said, "What is
there so very remarkable in the people of Elis acting justly on one day
in every five years?"
A stranger was vaunting his admiration of them, and was saying that in
his own city he was called a lover of Sparta. Theopompus observed, "It
would be more to your credit to be called a lover of your own city."
Pleistoanax the son of Pausanias, when an Athenian orator reproached the
Lacedaemonians for ignorance, observed, "What you say is quite true, for
we are the only Greeks who have not learned some mischief from you."
When a stranger asked Archidamidas how many Spartans there were, he
answered, "Enough to keep off bad men."
One may also discover their peculiarities in their jokes; for they are
taught never to talk at random, nor to utter a syllable that does not
contain some thought. As, when one of them was invited to hear a man
imitate the nightingale, he answered, "I have heard the original;" and
the man who read this epigram--
"These men, to quench a tyrant's pride,
Before Selinus fought and died."
"These men," said he, "deserved to die; for, instead of quenching it,
they should have let it burn itself out." When a young man was promised
a present of cocks that would fight till they died, he said, "I had
rather have some that will fight and kill their foes." This was the
style of their talk; so that some have well said that philosophy is more
truly Laconian than gymnastic exercises.
XX.--Their education in poetry and music was no less carefully watched
over than their cleverness and purity of speech, but their songs were
such as rouse men's blood and stir them to deeds of prowess, written in
plain unaffected language, upon noble and edifying subjects. For the
most part they consisted of panegyrics upon those who had been happy
enough to die for their country, reproaches of cowards for living a
miserable life, and encouragement to bravery suitable to those of all
ages. A good instance of this is that on festivals when there are three
choruses, that of the old men first sang--
"We once were lusty youths and tall."
Then that of the young men sang--
"We still are stout; come, try a fall,"
and the third, that of the children, rejoined--
"But we'll be stronger than you all."
Indeed, if one pays any attention to such Laconian poetry as is still
extant, and to the march music which was played on the flutes when they
were going to meet their enemies, it becomes clear that Terpander and
Pindar were right in connecting poetry with bravery. The former speaks
thus of the Lacedaemonians:
"Where the youths are bold with the spear,
And the voice of the muse is clear,
And justice to all is dear."
And Pindar says of them--
"Where the old are wise in council,
And the young are brave in fight;
Where song and dance are honoured
On many a festal night."
For they represent them as being most warlike and at the same time most
poetical.
"The sword with song full well combines,"
as the Laconian poet says. Even in their battles the king first
sacrificed to the Muses, to remind them, it would appear, of their
education and their former contests, that they may be bold in danger,
and do deeds worthy of record in the fight.
XXI.--In time of war, too, they relaxed their strict rules and allowed
their young men to dress their hair and ornament their shields and
costumes, taking a pride in them such as one does in high-mettled
horses. For this reason, although they all let their hair grow long
after the age of puberty, yet it was especially in time of danger that
they took pains to have it smooth and evenly parted, remembering a
saying of Lykurgus about the hair, that it made a well-looking man look
handsomer, and an ugly man look more ferocious.
During a campaign they made the young men perform less severe gymnastic
exercises, and allowed them to live a freer life in other respects, so
that, for them alone of all mankind, war was felt as a relief from
preparation for war. When their array was formed and the enemy were in
sight, the king used to sacrifice a kid, and bid them all put on
garlands, and the pipers to play the hymn to Kastor; then he himself
began to sing the paean for the charge, so that it was a magnificent and
terrible spectacle to see the men marching in time to the flutes, making
no gap in their lines, with no thought of fear, but quietly and steadily
moving to the sound of the music against the enemy. Such men were not
likely to be either panic-stricken or over-confident, but had a cool and
cheerful confidence, believing that the gods were with them.
With the king used to march into battle a Spartan who had won a crown
in the public games of Greece. It is said that one of them was offered a
mighty bribe at Olympia, but refused to take it, and with great trouble
threw his adversary in the wrestling-match. Some one then asked him,
"Laconian, what have you gained by your victory?" The man, smiling with
delight, answered, "I shall fight in front of the king in the wars."
After they had routed their enemy and gained the victory, they were wont
to pursue so far as to render their success secure, and then to draw
off, as they did not think it manly or befitting a Greek to cut down and
butcher those who could fight no longer.
This was not merely magnanimous, but very useful to them, for their
enemies, knowing that they slew those who resisted, but spared those who
gave way, often judged it better for themselves to flee than to stand
their ground.
XXII. The sophist Hippias states that Lykurgus himself was a great
warrior and took part in many campaigns; and Philostephanus even
attributed to Lykurgus the division of the cavalry into the troops
called _oulamos_. This, according to him, consisted of a troop of fifty
horsemen drawn up in a square. Demetrius Phalereus, on the other hand,
says that he had no experience in war, and arranged the whole
constitution in time of peace. Moreover the institution of the Olympic
truce seems to be the idea of a man of gentle and peaceful temperament,
some however say, according to Hermippus, that Lykurgus had at first no
communication with Iphitus, but happened to be present in the crowd;
that he then heard a voice as it were of a man behind him blaming him
and wondering why he did not encourage his fellow-citizens to take part
in the festival. As, when he turned round, there was no one who could
have said so, he concluded that it was a divine warning, and, at once
joining Iphitus and assisting him in regulating the festival, he
rendered it both more splendid and more lasting.
XXIII. The training of the Spartan youth continued till their manhood.
No one was permitted to live according to his own pleasure, but they
lived in the city as if in a camp, with a fixed diet and fixed public
duties, thinking themselves to belong, not to themselves, but to their
country. Those who had nothing else to do, either looked after the
young, and taught them what was useful, or themselves learned such
things from the old. For ample leisure was one of the blessings with
which Lykurgus provided his countrymen, seeing that they were utterly
forbidden to practise any mechanical art, while money-making and
business were unnecessary, because wealth was disregarded and despised.
The Helots tilled the ground, and produced the regular crops for them.
Indeed, a Spartan who was at Athens while the courts were sitting, and
who learned that some man had been fined for idleness, and was leaving
the court in sorrow accompanied by his grieving friends, asked to be
shown the man who had been punished for gentlemanly behaviour. So
slavish did they deem it to labour at trade and business. In Sparta, as
was natural, lawsuits became extinct, together with money, as the people
had neither excess nor deficiency, but all were equally well off, and
enjoyed abundant leisure by reason of their simple habits. All their
time was spent in dances, feasting, hunting or gymnastic exercises and
conversation, when they were not engaged in war.
XXIV. Those who were less than thirty years old never came into the
market-place at all, but made their necessary purchases through their
friends and relations. And it was thought discreditable to the older men
to be seen there much, and not to spend the greater part of the day in
the gymnasium and the _lesches_ or places for conversation. In these
they used to collect together and pass their leisure time, making no
allusions to business or the affairs of commerce, but their chief study
being to praise what was honourable, and contemn what was base in a
light satiric vein of talk which was instructive and edifying to the
hearers. Nor was Lykurgus himself a man of unmixed austerity: indeed, he
is said by Sosibius to have set up the little statue of the god of
laughter, and introduced merriment at proper times to enliven their
wine-parties and other gatherings. In a word, he trained his countrymen
neither to wish nor to understand how to live as private men, but, like
bees, to be parts of the commonwealth, and gather round their chief,
forgetting themselves in their enthusiastic patriotism, and utterly
devoted to their country. This temper of theirs we can discern in many
of their sayings. Paidaretus, when not elected into the three hundred,
went away rejoicing that the city possessed three hundred better men
than himself. Polykratidas, when he went with some others on a mission
to the generals of the great king, was asked by them, if he and his
party came as private persons or as ambassadors? He answered, "As
ambassadors, if we succeed; as private men, if we fail."
And when some citizens of Amphipolis came to Lacedaemon, and went to see
the mother of Brasidas, Argileonis, she asked them whether Brasidas died
bravely and worthily of Sparta. When they praised him to excess, and
said that he had not left his like behind, she said, "Say not so,
strangers; Brasidas was a noble and a gallant man, but Sparta has many
better than he."
XXV. Lykurgus himself composed his senate, as we have seen, of the
persons who took part in his plot; and in future be ordained that
vacancies should be filled up by those men, upwards of sixty years of
age, who were adjudged to be the most worthy.
This seemed the greatest prize in the world, and also the most difficult
to obtain; for it was not merely that a man should be adjudged swiftest
of the swift, or strongest of the strong, but he had to be chosen as the
best and wisest of all good and wise men, and, as a prize, was to obtain
power to regulate the morals of the state, as he was intrusted with
powers of life and death, and disfranchisement, and with all the highest
penalties.
The elections took place as follows: The citizens were all assembled,
and certain men were placed in a building close by, where they could
neither see nor be seen, but merely hear the shouts of the general
assembly. They decided these, as indeed they did other contests, by
shouts of approval, not of all at once, but lots were cast, and each
candidate in the order denoted by his lot came forward and silently
walked through the assembly. The men locked up in the building had
writing materials, and noted down who was cheered most loudly, not
knowing who each man was, beyond that he was first, second, third, and
so on, of the candidates. They then told the number of the man for whom
there had been most voices, and he crowned himself with a garland and
offered sacrifice to the gods, followed by many of the young men, who
congratulated him, and by many women, who sang songs praising his
virtues and his felicity. As he went from one temple to another, each of
his relatives used to offer him food, saying, "The state honours you
with this banquet." But he would pass by them all, and go to his usual
mess-table. Here nothing uncommon took place, except that he was given a
second ration, which he took away with him; and after dinner, the women
of his own family being at the doors of the mess-room, he would call for
the one whom he wished to honour, and give her his portion, saying that
he had received it as a prize, and gave it to her as such. This caused
her to be greatly envied by the other women.