first place, he abolished all silly superstition, and raised no
objections to burial in the city, and to placing tombs near the temples,
in order to accustom the young to such sights from their infancy, so
that they might not feel any horror of death, or have any notion about
being defiled by touching a dead body, or walking among tombs. Next, he
permitted nothing to be buried with the dead, but they placed the body
in the grave, wrapped in a purple cloth and covered with olive-leaves.
It was not permitted to inscribe the name of the deceased upon his tomb,
except in the case of men who had fallen in war, or of women who had
been priestesses. A short time was fixed for mourning, eleven days; on
the twelfth they were to sacrifice to Demeter (Ceres) and cease from
their grief. For, in Sparta, nothing was left without regulation, but,
with all the necessary acts of life, Lykurgus mingled some ceremony
which might enkindle virtue or discourage vice; indeed he filled his
city with examples of this kind, by which the citizens were insensibly
moulded and impelled towards honourable pursuits. For this reason he
would not allow citizens to leave the country at pleasure, and to wander
in foreign lands, where they would contract outlandish habits, and
learn to imitate the untrained lives and ill-regulated institutions to
be found abroad. Also, he banished from Lacedaemon all strangers who
were there for no useful purpose; not, as Thucydides says, because he
feared they might imitate his constitution, and learn something
serviceable for the improvement of their own countries, but rather for
fear that they might teach the people some mischief. Strangers introduce
strange ideas; and these lead to discussions of an unsuitable character,
and political views which would jar with the established constitution,
like a discord in music. Wherefore he thought that it was more important
to keep out evil habits than even to keep the plague from coming into
the city.
XXVII. In all these acts of Lykurgus, we cannot find any traces of the
injustice and unfairness which some complain of in his laws, which they
say are excellent to produce courage, but less so for justice. And the
institution called Krypteia, if indeed it is one of the laws of
Lykurgus, as Aristotle tells us, would agree with the idea which Plato
conceived about him and his system. The Krypteia was this: the leaders
of the young men used at intervals to send the most discreet of them
into different parts of the country, equipped with daggers and necessary
food; in the daytime these men used to conceal themselves in
unfrequented spots, and take their rest, but at night they would come
down into the roads and murder any Helots they found. And often they
would range about the fields, and make away with the strongest and
bravest Helots they could find. Also, as Thucydides mentions in his
History of the Peloponnesian War, those Helots who were especially
honoured by the Spartans for their valour were crowned as free men, and
taken to the temples with rejoicings; but in a short time they all
disappeared, to the number of more than two thousand, and in such a way
that no man, either then or afterwards, could tell how they perished.
Aristotle says that the Ephors, when they first take office, declare war
against the Helots, in order that it may be lawful to destroy them. And
much other harsh treatment used to be inflicted upon them; and they were
compelled to drink much unmixed wine, and then were brought into the
public dining-halls, to show the young what drunkenness is.
They were also forced to sing low songs, and to dance low dances, and
not to meddle with those of a higher character. It is said that when the
Thebans made their celebrated campaign in Lacedaemon, they ordered the
Helots whom they captured to sing them the songs of Terpander, and
Alkman, and Spendon the Laconian; but they begged to be excused, for,
they said, "the masters do not like it." So it seems to have been well
said that in Lacedaemon, the free man was more free, and the slave more
a slave than anywhere else. This harsh treatment, I imagine, began in
later times, especially after the great earthquake, when they relate
that the Helots joined the Messenians, ravaged the country, and almost
conquered it. I cannot impute this wicked act of the Krypteia to
Lykurgus, when I consider the gentleness and justice of his general
behaviour, which also we know was inspired by Heaven.
XXVIII. When the leading men of the city were thoroughly imbued with the
spirit of his institutions, and the newly constituted state was able to
walk by itself without leading-strings, and bear its own weight alone,
then, as Plato says of God, that he was pleased with the world that he
had created, when it first began to live and move, so was it with
Lykurgus. He admired the spectacle of his laws in operation, and, as far
as was possible by human prudence, he desired to leave it eternal and
unchangeable. He assembled all the citizens, and told them that the city
was now fairly well provided with materials for happiness and virtue,
but that he would not bestow upon them the most valuable gift of all,
until he had taken counsel with Heaven. It was therefore their duty to
abide by the already established laws, and to change and alter nothing
till he returned from Delphi; on his return, he would do whatever the
god commanded. They all assented, and bade him depart, and he, after
making first the kings and elders, and then the rest of the citizens,
swear that they would keep their existing constitution till Lykurgus
came back, set out for Delphi. Upon reaching the temple he sacrificed to
the god, and inquired whether his laws were good, and sufficient for the
prosperity and happiness of his country. Receiving answer from the
oracle that his laws were indeed good, and that the city would become
famous if it kept the constitution of Lykurgus, he wrote down this
prophecy and sent it to Sparta. But he himself, after offering a second
sacrifice to the god, and having embraced his friends and his son,
determined not to release his countrymen from their oath, but to put an
end to his own life, being at an age when, though life was still
pleasant, it seemed time to go to his rest, after having excellently
arranged all his people's affairs. He departed by starvation, as he
thought that a true statesman ought to make even his death of service to
the state, and not like that of a private person, the useless end of an
idle life. His death came in the fulness of time, after he had done an
excellent work, and it was left as the guardian of all the good that he
had done, because the citizens had sworn that they would abide by his
constitution until he returned to them. Nor was he deceived in his
expectations; for the state was by far the most celebrated in Greece,
for good government at home and renown abroad, during a period of five
hundred years, under his constitution, which was kept unaltered by
fourteen kings, counting from himself down to Agis the son of
Archidamus. For the institution of Ephors was not a relaxation, but a
strengthening of the original scheme, and while it seemed popular it
really confirmed the power of the oligarchy.
XXIX. But in the reign of Agis money found its way into Sparta, and,
after money, selfishness and greed for gain came in, on account of
Lysander, who, though himself incorruptible, yet filled his country with
luxury and love of gold, as he brought back gold and silver from the
wars, and disregarded the laws of Lykurgus. Before this, when those laws
were in force, Sparta was like a wise and practised warrior more than a
city, or rather, she with her simple staff and cloak, like Herakles with
his lion-skin and club, ruled over a willing Greece, deposed bad kings
or factions, decided wars, and crushed revolutions; and that, too, often
without moving a single soldier, but merely by sending a commissioner,
who was at once obeyed, even as bees collect and rank themselves in
order when their queen appears. Sparta then had so much order and
justice as to be able to supply her neighbours; and I cannot understand
those who say that the Lacedaemonians "knew how to obey, but not how to
rule;" nor that story of some one who said to king Theopompus that the
safety of Sparta lay in her kings knowing how to rule. "Rather," he
answered, "in her citizens knowing how to obey."
They would not brook an incapable commander: their very obedience is a
lesson in the art of command; for a good leader makes good followers,
and just as it is the object of the horse-breaker to turn out a gentle
and tractable horse, so it is the object of rulers to implant in men the
spirit of obedience. But the Lacedaemonians produced a desire in other
states to be ruled by them and to obey them; for they used to send
embassies and ask not for ships or money or troops, but for one Spartan
for a leader; and when they obtained him, they respected him and feared
him, as, for instance, the Sicilians had Gylippus as a general, the
people of Chalkidike had Brasidas, while Lysander and Kallikratidas and
Agesilaus were made use of by all the Greeks in Asia Minor. These men
were called Regulators and Pacificators in each several state, and the
whole city of Sparta was regarded as a school and example of orderly
public life and of settled political institutions. This was alluded to
by Stratonikus when he said in jest that the Athenians ought to conduct
mysteries and shows, the Eleans to be stewards at the games, and the
Lacedaemonians to be beaten if the others did not do right. This was not
spoken seriously; but Antisthenes, the Sokratic philosopher, was serious
when he said of the Thebans, who were in high spirits after their
victory at Leuktra, that they were as pleased as schoolboys who had
beaten their master.
XXXI. Not that this was Lykurgus's main object, that his country should
dominate over as many other states as possible; but seeing that, in
states as in individuals, happiness is derived from virtue and
single-mindedness, he directed all his efforts to implant in his
countrymen feelings of honour, self-reliance, and self-control. These
were also taken as the basis of their constitution by Plato, Diogenes,
Zeno, and all who have written with any success upon this subject. But
they have left mere dissertations; Lykurgus produced an inimitable
constitution, confuted those who complained of the unreality of the
'Essay on the True Philosopher,' by showing them the spectacle of an
entire city acting like philosophers, and thereby obtained for himself a
greater reputation than that of any other Greek legislator at any
period. For this reason Aristotle says that he has less honour in
Lacedaemon than he deserves, although his memory is greatly respected;
for he has a temple, and they sacrifice to him every year as if he was a
god. It is also said that after his remains were carried home, his tomb
was struck by lightning. This distinction befell scarcely any other man
of note except Euripides, who died long after him, and was buried at
Arethusa in Macedonia. It was considered a great proof and token of his
fame by the admirers of Euripides, that this should happen to him after
his death which happened before to the especial favourite of Heaven.
Some say that Lykurgus died at Kirrha, but Apollothemis says that he was
taken to Elis and died there, and Timaeus and Aristoxenus say that he
ended his days in Crete. Aristoxenus even says that the Cretans show his
tomb in what is called the Strangers' Road in Pergamia. He is said to
have left one son, Antiorus, who died childless, and so ended the
family. His companions and relatives and their descendants kept up the
practice of meeting together for a long period; and the days when they
met were called Lykurgids. Aristokrates the son of Hipparchus says that
when Lykurgus died in Crete, his friends burned his body and threw the
ashes into the sea, at his own request, as he feared that if any remains
of him should be brought back to Lacedaemon, they would think themselves
absolved from their oath, and change the constitution. This is the story
of Lykurgus.
LIFE OF NUMA.
I. There is a considerable conflict of opinion about the time of King
Numa's reign, although several pedigrees seem to be accurately traced to
him. One Clodius, in a book on the verification of dates, insists that
all these old records were destroyed during the Gaulish troubles, and
that those which are now extant were composed by interested persons, by
whose means men who had no right to such honours claimed descent from
the noblest families. Though Numa is said to have been a friend of
Pythagoras, yet some deny that he had any tincture of Greek learning,
arguing that either he was born with a natural capacity for sound
learning, or that he was taught by some barbarian.[A] Others say that
Pythagoras was born much later, some five generations after the times of
Numa, but that Pythagoras the Spartan, who won the Stadium race at
Olympia on the thirteenth Olympiad, wandered into Italy, and there
meeting Numa, assisted him in the establishment of his constitution; and
that from this cause, the Roman constitution in many points resembles
the Laconian. The Olympic games were instituted in the third year of
Numa's reign. Another story is that Numa was a Sabine by birth, and the
Sabines consider themselves to be of Lacedaemonian origin. It is hard to
reconcile the dates, especially those which refer to Olympiads, the
table of which is said to have been made out by Hippias of Elis, on no
trustworthy basis. However, what things I have heard about Numa that are
worthy of mention I shall proceed to relate, beginning from a
starting-point of my own.
[Footnote A: That is, by some one who was not a Greek.]
II. Rome had been founded, and Romulus had reigned, for thirty-seven
years, when upon the fifth day of the month of July, which day is now
called _nonae caprotinae_, he was performing a public sacrifice outside
the gates, at a place called the Goat's Marsh, in the presence of the
Senate and most of the people. Suddenly a great commotion began in the
air, thick clouds covered the earth, with violent gusts and showers. The
people fled in terror, and Romulus disappeared. His body could never be
found, but suspicion fell upon the patricians, and a report was current
among the populace that they had long been jealous of his power as king,
and had determined to get it into their own hands. Indeed, he had dealt
with them very harshly and tyrannically. Fearing this suspicion, they
gave out that he was not dead, but had been caught up into heaven; and
Proclus, a man of mark, swore that he saw Romulus ascend into heaven in
his armour as he was, and that he heard a voice ordering that he should
be called Quirinus. Another disturbance took place in Rome about the
election of the next king, because the new citizens were not yet
thoroughly amalgamated with the old ones, the people were unquiet, and
the patricians suspicious of one another. Nevertheless they all
determined that they would have a king, but they disagreed not merely
about who, but of what race he should be.
Romulus's original colonists thought it a monstrous thing that the
Sabines, because they had been admitted to a share of the city and the
country, should propose to rule over it; while the Sabines not
unreasonably urged that because, after the death of Tatius, they had
acquiesced in Romulus reigning alone, now in their turn they ought to
furnish a king of their own nation. They had not, they said, been
adopted by a more powerful race than themselves, but had, by their
combination with the Romans, greatly raised the power and renown of
their city.
The two races were at issue on these points. The patricians, fearing
that confusion might arise if the state were left without a head, made
one of their own number every day assume the insignia of royalty,
perform the usual sacrifices to the gods, and transact business for six
hours by day, and six by night. This equal division of their periods of
rule was not only just for those in office, but prevented any jealousy
of them being felt by the populace, each day and night, because they saw
one who had been a king become a private person. This form of
government the Romans call an interregnum.
III. But, although they appeared to manage things so smoothly,
suspicions and threatenings of disturbance arose, for men said that they
meditated altering the form of government to an oligarchy, in order to
keep all political power in their own hands, and would not therefore
elect a king. Hereupon the two factions agreed that one should select a
king from the ranks of the other. This, they thought, would both put an
end to their quarrels for the present, and also ensure the candidate who
should be chosen being impartial, because he would be friendly to the
one party because it had chosen him, and to the other because he
belonged to it by birth. The Sabines gave the Romans their choice which
they would do; and they decided that it would be better to choose a
Sabine king themselves, than to be ruled by a Roman chosen by the
Sabines. After deliberation amongst themselves, they chose Numa
Pompilius, a man who was not one of those Sabines who had settled in
Rome, but whose excellence was so well-known to all, that the Sabines,
as soon as they heard his name, were even more eager for him than the
Romans who had chosen him. When they had informed the people of their
decision, they sent an embassy to Numa, composed of the leading men of
both parties, to beg of him to come to Rome and assume the crown.
Numa belonged to a celebrated Sabine city, Cures, from which the united
Romans and Sabines called themselves Quirites. He was the son of
Pomponius, an honourable citizen, and was the youngest of four brothers.
By a miraculous coincidence he was born on the very day on which Romulus
founded Rome; that is, the tenth day before the Calends of May. His
naturally good disposition had been so educated by sorrow and
philosophic pursuits, that he rose superior not merely to commonplace
vices, but even to the worship of brute force, so common among
barbarians, and considered true courage to consist in the conquest of
his own passions. Accordingly he banished all luxury and extravagance
from his house, and was known as a trusty friend and counsellor, both by
his countrymen and by strangers. When at leisure, he disregarded sensual
enjoyments and money-getting, but devoted himself to the service of the
gods and to speculations about their nature and power, so that he
obtained great celebrity. Indeed Tatius, when he was acting as
joint-king with Romulus, chose him for the husband of his only daughter
Tatia. But Numa was not elated by his marriage, and did not remove to
the town where his father-in-law was king, but stayed where he was in
Cures, among the Sabines, tending his aged father; while Tatia also
preferred the quiet of a private citizen's life to the pomp which she
might have enjoyed in Rome. She is said to have died in the thirteenth
year after her marriage.
IV. Now Numa was in the habit of leaving the city and passing much of
his time in the country, wandering alone in the sacred groves and
dwelling in desert places. Hence the story first arose that it was not
from any derangement of intellect that he shunned human society, but
because he held converse with higher beings, and had been admitted to
marriage with the gods, and that, by passing his time in converse with
the nymph Egeria, who loved him, he became blessed, and learned heavenly
wisdom. It is evident that this is the same as many ancient myths; such
as that told by the Phrygians about Attis, that of the Bithynians about
Herodotus, that of the Arcadians about Endymion, and many others. Yet it
seems probable that a god, who loves man better than bird or beast,
should take pleasure in conversing with those men who are remarkable for
goodness, and not despise nor disdain to hold communion with the wise
and righteous. But it is hard to believe that a god or deity could feel
the passion of love for a human form; although the Egyptians not
unreasonably say, that a woman may be impregnated by the spirit of a
god, but that a man can have no material union with a god. However it is
very right to believe that a god can feel friendship for a man, and from
this may spring a love which watches over him and guides him in the path
of virtue. There is truth in the myths of Phorbas, of Hyacinthus, and of
Admetus, who were all loved by Apollo, as was also Hippolytus of Sicyon.
It is said that whenever he set sail from Sikyon to Kirrha on the
opposite coast, the Pythia would recite the verse,
"Now goes our dear Hippolytus to sea,"
as if the god knew that he was coming and rejoiced at it.
There is also a legend that Pan loved Pindar and his verses; and for the
Muse's sake, Hesiod and Archilochus were honoured after their deaths;
while Sophokles during his life is said, by a legend which remains
current at the present day, to have become the friend of Aesculapius,
and on his death to have had the rites of burial supplied by the care of
another god.
If, then, we believe the legends which are told about these persons, why
should we doubt that Zaleukus, Minos, Zoroaster, Numa, and Lykurgus were
inspired by Heaven, when they governed their kingdoms and gave them
laws? We may suppose that the gods, when in an earnest mood, would hold
converse with such men as these, the best of their kind, to talk with
and encourage them, just as they visit the poets, if they do at all,
when inclined for pleasure. However, if any one thinks differently, as
Bacchylides says, "The way is broad."
The other view, which some take about Lykurgus and Numa and such men,
seems very plausible, that they, having to deal with an obstinate and
unmanageable people when introducing great political changes, invented
the idea of their own divine mission as a means of safety for
themselves.
V. It was in Numa's fortieth year that the envoys came from Rome to ask
him to be king. Their spokesmen were Proculus and Velesius, one of whom
had very nearly been elected king, for the Romulus people inclined much
to Proculus, and those of Tatius were equally in favour of Velesius.
These men made a short speech, imagining that Numa would be delighted
with his fortune; but it appears that it took much hard pleading to
induce a man who had lived all his life in peace to take the command of
a city which owed its origin and its increase alike to war. He said, in
the presence of his father and of Marcius, one of his relations, "Every
change in a man's life is dangerous; and when a man is not in want of
anything needful, and has no cause for being dissatisfied with his lot,
it is sheer madness for him to change his habits and way of life; for
these, at any rate, have the advantage of security, while in the new
state all is uncertain. Not even uncertain are the perils of royalty,
judging from Romulus himself, who was suspected of having plotted
against his partner Tatius, and whose peers were suspected of having
assassinated him. Yet these men call Romulus the child of the gods, and
tell how he had a divinely sent nurse, and was preserved by a miracle
while yet a child; while I was born of mortal parents, and brought up by
people whom you all know: even the points which you praise in my
character are far from those which make a good king, being love of
leisure and of unprofitable speculation, and also a great fondness for
peace and unwarlike matters, and for men who meet together for the glory
of the gods or for cheerful converse with one another, and who at other
times plough their fields and feed their cattle at home. But you Romans
have very likely many wars left upon your hands by Romulus, for the
conduct of which the state requires a vigorous warrior in the prime of
life. The people too, from their successes, are accustomed to and eager
for war, and are known to be longing for fresh conquests and
possessions; so that they would ridicule me when I told them to honour
the gods and act justly, and if I tried to instil a hatred of wars and
of brute force into a city which wants a general more than a king."