The Spartans, or the people of Lacedæmon, properly the southern half of
Laconia, first became the dominant nation in that part of Greece. Of
Spartan doings and fortunes we know almost nothing until the time of the
great Legislator Lycurgus, who is said to have organized, about 850 B.
C. the famous Spartan constitution. The probable account is that he
altered and reformed existing usages, and that the reverence of after
ages ascribed to him the promulgation and establishment of a full grown,
brand new set of institutions, which must have been, in many points, of
gradual growth.