What! are these stones, yon column’s broken shaft,
Where moss-crowned Ruin long hath sat and laughed,
These shattered steps, these walls that earthward bow,
All Sparta’s Royal Square can boast of now?
--NICHOLAS MICHELL.
[Sidenote: [_ca._ 885 B.C.]]
The characteristic development of Sparta depends partly on the nature of
the land and partly on the relations formed there by strange conquerors.
Sparta is a peninsular land, enclosed by an almost uninterrupted line
of mountains, a hundred miles square in area, which opens itself out
southwards towards the sea between two necks of land. On the west side
are the steep walls of Taygetus, which before entering into the Tænarian
promontory are penetrated by a pass which leads into Messenia; to the
east on the coast is the chain of Parnon. Between these mountains, which
enclose many cultivable valleys, the valley of the Eurotas runs from
north to south and is narrow in its upper part to below the defile in
which Sparta lies; south of this it extends itself in the shape of a
trough into a fertile plain which again narrows itself towards the sea;
there are no good ports. Therefore on all sides Sparta was not easily
accessible to the enemy, or even to friends; and had produce enough for
its inhabitants.
Sparta had three classes of inhabitants. They were:
(1) the Helots, those old inhabitants of the land who in consequence
of their obstinate resistance were made slaves; and were not so much
oppressed as hated and despised; they had to pay a “fixed and moderate
rent” for the land on which they (bound to the soil) dwelt, nevertheless
they were partly public and partly private slaves and could only go about
in a special slave costume; the so-called _crypteia_[8] was a yearly
campaign against them when they showed themselves refractory; it served
as military exercise or manœuvres to the youthful conquerors.
(2) The Laconians stood under far more favourable relations; they were
the populations of the hundred towns of the province; a portion of them
were strangers who had joined the Dorians at the conquest, but, for
the greater part, they were old inhabitants who early enough subjected
themselves to the conquerors. They stood in the relation of subjects, and
had no political rights, but were in no way oppressed; they had landed
property for which they paid rent to the state; and they carried on trade
and art.
(3) The Dorian conquerors, the real Spartans, dwelt in the capital, which
remained an “open camp,” all the more so as they formed only a small
part of the whole population and could keep the land in subjection only
by arms. They were the ruling citizens, possessed the best lands which
were in the vicinity of the capital, and had these cultivated by slaves
(helots) whilst they dedicated themselves to war and the affairs of state.
These relations certainly existed in the beginnings of the Dorian
conquest, but they were only brought about by circumstances, without
being regulated by law. Many errors must have arisen through this, and
they seem to have given rise to the “Legislation of Lycurgus.”[b]
While modern criticism makes few inroads upon the accepted stories of the
Spartan régime it assails the very existence of Lycurgus, the so-called
creator of it. The earliest accounts of his legislation are three
centuries later than the time of his alleged career. The old Spartan poet
Tyrtæus does not seem to have mentioned him. Pindar credits his edicts to
Ægimius the mythical ancestor of the Dorians. Hellanicus and Thucydides
do not credit them to Lycurgus, and the “argument from silence” is strong
against him. His name means “wolf-repeller,” and it is thought that from
being originally a god of protection worshipped by the predecessors of
the Dorians, he came to be accepted finally as a man and a lawgiver. But
historical cities have denied the existence of other heroes of tradition
only to restore them later to their old glory, and it is necessary to
present here the Lycurgus of venerable story, as all the traditions of
early Spartan communal life centre about his name; and their alleged
ancient lawgiver becomes, therefore, one of the most important personages
in Grecian history. As to his personality--accepting him for the nonce
as a reality--opinions differ according to the bias of the individual
historian. We shall perhaps be in best position to gain a judicious idea
of the subject by first following the biography of Lycurgus by Plutarch,
and afterward turning to modern investigators for an estimate of the
man and his laws. Whatever our individual opinion as to the personality
of the hero himself, we shall at least gain an insight into the actual
customs of the Spartans; and it perhaps does not greatly matter if we are
left in doubt as to the share which any single man--be his name Lycurgus
or what not--had in shaping them.[a]
[Illustration: THE VALLEY OF SPARTA]
PLUTARCH’S ACCOUNT OF LYCURGUS
Of Lycurgus, the lawgiver, says Plutarch, we have nothing to relate that
is certain and uncontroverted. For there are different accounts of his
birth, his travels, his death, and especially of the laws and form of
government which he established. But least of all are the times agreed
upon in which this great man lived. For some say he flourished at the
same time with Iphitus, and joined with him in settling the cessation of
arms during the Olympic Games. Among these is Aristotle the philosopher,
who alleges for proof an Olympic quoit, on which was preserved the
inscription of Lycurgus’ name. But others who, with Eratosthenes and
Apollodorus, compute the time by the succession of the Spartan kings,
place him much earlier than the first Olympiad. Timæus, however,
supposes, that, as there were two Lycurguses in Sparta at different
times, the actions of both are ascribed to one, on account of his
particular renown; and that the more ancient of them lived not long after
Homer: Nay, some say he had seen him. Xenophon, too, confirms the opinion
of his antiquity, when he makes him contemporary with the Heraclidæ. It
is true, the latest of the Lacedæmonian kings were of the lineage of
the Heraclidæ; but Xenophon there seems to speak of the first and more
immediate descendants of Hercules. As the history of those times is thus
involved, in relating the circumstances of Lycurgus’ life, we shall
endeavour to select such as are least controverted, and follow authors of
the greatest credit.
For a long time anarchy and confusion prevailed in Sparta, by which
one of its kings, the father of Lycurgus, lost his life. For while he
was endeavouring to part some persons who were concerned in a fray,
he received a wound by a kitchen knife, of which he died, leaving the
kingdom to his eldest son Polydectes.
But he, too, dying soon after, the general voice gave it for Lycurgus
to ascend the throne; and he actually did so, till it appeared that his
brother’s widow was pregnant. As soon as he perceived this, he declared
that the kingdom belonged to her issue, provided it were male, and he
kept the administration in his hands only as his guardian. This he did
with the title of Prodicos, which the Lacedæmonians give to the guardians
of infant kings. Soon after, the queen made him a private overture, that
she would destroy her child, upon condition that he would marry her
when king of Sparta. Though he detested her wickedness, he said nothing
against the proposal, but pretending to approve it, charged her not to
take any drugs to procure an abortion, lest she should endanger her own
health or life; for he would take care that the child, as soon as born,
should be destroyed. Thus he artfully drew on the woman to her full
time, and, when he heard she was in labour, he sent persons to attend
and watch her delivery, with orders, if it were a girl, to give it to
the women, but if a boy, to bring it to him, in whatever business he
might be engaged. It happened that he was at supper with the magistrates
when she was delivered of a boy, and his servants, who were present,
carried the child to him. When he received it, he is reported to have
said to the company, “Spartans, see here your new-born king.” He then
laid him down upon the chair of state, and named him Charilaus, because
of the joy and admiration of his magnanimity and justice testified by
all present. Thus the reign of Lycurgus lasted only eight months. But
the citizens had a great veneration for him on other accounts, and there
were more that paid him their attentions, and were ready to execute his
commands, out of regard to his virtues, than those that obeyed him as
a guardian to the King, and director of the administration. There were
not, however, wanting those that envied him, and opposed his advancement,
as too high for so young a man; particularly the relations and friends
of the queen-mother, who seemed to have been treated with contempt. Her
brother Leonidas one day boldly attacked him with virulent language,
and scrupled not to tell him, that he was well assured he would soon
be king. Insinuations of the same kind were likewise spread by the
queen-mother. Moved with this ill treatment, and fearing some dark
design, he determined to get clear of all suspicion, by travelling into
other countries, till his nephew should be grown up, and have a son to
succeed him in the kingdom.
He set sail, therefore, and landed in Crete. There having observed the
forms of government, and conversed with the most illustrious personages,
he was struck with admiration of some of their laws, and resolved at
his return to make use of them in Sparta. Some others he rejected. From
Crete Lycurgus passed to Asia, desirous, as is said, to compare the
Ionian expense and luxury with the Cretan frugality and hard diet, so as
to judge what effect each had on their several manners and governments.
The Egyptians likewise suppose that he visited them; and as of all their
institutions he was most pleased with their distinguishing the military
men from the rest of the people, he took the same method at Sparta, and,
by separating from these the mechanics and artificers, he rendered the
constitution more noble and more of a piece.
Returning, he immediately applied himself to alter the whole frame of the
constitution; sensible that a partial change, and the introducing of some
new laws, would be of no sort of advantage, he applied to the nobility,
and desired them to put their hands to the work; addressing himself
privately at first to his friends, and afterwards, by degrees, trying
the disposition of others, and preparing them to concur in the business.
When matters were ripe, he ordered thirty of the principal citizens to
appear armed in the market-place by break of day, to strike terror into
such as might desire to oppose him. Upon the first alarm, King Charilaus,
apprehending it to be a design against his person, took refuge in the
_Chalcioicos_ [brazen temple]. But he was soon satisfied, and accepted
their oath, and joined in the undertaking.
_The Institutions of Lycurgus_
Among the many new institutions of Lycurgus, the first and most important
was that of a senate; which sharing, as Plato says, in the power of the
kings, too imperious and unrestrained before, and having equal authority
with them, was the means of keeping them within the bounds of moderation,
and highly contributed to the preservation of the state. For before,
it had been veering and unsettled, sometimes inclining to arbitrary
power, and sometimes towards a pure democracy; but this establishment
of a senate, an intermediate body, like ballast, kept in it a just
equilibrium, and put it in a safe posture: the twenty-eight senators
adhering to the kings, whenever they saw the people too encroaching, and,
on the other hand, supporting the people, when the kings attempted to
make themselves absolute. This, according to Aristotle, was the number
of senators fixed upon, because two of the thirty associates of Lycurgus
deserted the business through fear.
He had this institution so much at heart, that he obtained from Delphi an
oracle in its behalf called _rhetra_, or _the decree_.
Though the government was thus tempered by Lycurgus, yet soon after
it degenerated into an oligarchy, whose power was exercised with such
wantonness and violence, that it wanted indeed a bridle, as Plato
expresses it. This curb they found in the authority of the ephori, about
one hundred and thirty years after Lycurgus.
A second and bolder political enterprise of Lycurgus, was a new
division of the lands. For he found a prodigious inequality, the city
over-charged with many indigent persons, who had no land, and the wealth
centred in the hands of a few. Determined, therefore, to root out the
evils of insolence, envy, avarice, and luxury, and those distempers of
a state still more inveterate and fatal, I mean poverty and riches,
he persuaded them to cancel all former divisions of land, and to make
new ones, in such a manner that they might be perfectly equal in
their possessions and way of living. Hence, if they were ambitious of
distinction they might seek it in virtue, as no other difference was left
between them, but that which arises from the dishonour of base actions
and the praise of good ones. His proposal was put in practice.
After this, he attempted to divide also the movables, in order to take
away all appearance of inequality; but he soon perceived that they could
not bear to have their goods directly taken from them, and therefore took
another method, counterworking their avarice by a stratagem. First he
stopped the currency of the gold and silver coin, and ordered that they
should make use of iron money only: then to a great quantity and weight
of this he assigned but a small value; so that to lay up ten minæ [£30
or $150] a whole room was required, and to remove it nothing less than a
yoke of oxen. When this became current, many kinds of injustice ceased
in Lacedæmon. Who would steal or take a bribe, who would defraud or rob,
when he could not conceal the booty? Their iron coin would not pass in
the rest of Greece, but was ridiculed and despised; so that the Spartans
had no means of purchasing any foreign or curious wares; nor did any
merchant-ship unlade in their harbours. There were not even to be found
in all their country either sophists, wandering fortune-tellers, keepers
of infamous houses, or dealers in gold and silver trinkets, because there
was no money. Thus luxury, losing by degrees the means that cherished and
supported it, died away of itself: even they who had great possessions,
had no advantage from them, since they could not be displayed in public,
but must lie useless, in unregarded repositories.
Desirous to complete the conquest of luxury, and exterminate the love of
riches, he introduced a third institution, which was wisely enough and
ingeniously contrived. This was the use of public tables, where all were
to eat in common of the same meat, and such kinds of it as were appointed
by law. At the same time, they were forbidden to eat at home, upon
expensive couches and tables, to call in the assistance of butchers and
cooks, or to fatten like voracious animals in private. For so not only
their manners would be corrupted, but their bodies disordered; abandoned
to all manner of sensuality and dissoluteness, they would require long
sleep, warm baths, and the same indulgence as in perpetual sickness. To
effect this was certainly very great; but it was greater still, to secure
riches from rapine and from envy, as Theophrastus expresses it, or rather
by their eating in common, and by the frugality of their table, to take
from riches their very being. For what use or enjoyment of them, what
peculiar display of magnificence could there be, where the poor man went
to the same refreshment with the rich?
The rich, therefore (we are told), were more offended with this
regulation than with any other, and, rising in a body, they loudly
expressed their indignation: nay, they proceeded so far as to assault
Lycurgus with stones, so that he was forced to fly from the assembly and
take refuge in a temple.
The public repasts were called by the Cretans _andria_; but the
Lacedæmonians styled them _phiditia_, either from their tendency to
_friendship_ and mutual benevolence, _phiditia_ being used instead of
_philitia_; or else from their teaching frugality and _parsimony_, which
the word _pheido_ signifies. But it is not at all impossible, that the
first letter might by some means or other be added, and so _phiditia_
take place of _editia_, which barely signifies _eating_. There were
fifteen persons to a table, or a few more or less. Each of them was
obliged to bring in monthly a bushel of meal, eight gallons of wine, five
pounds of cheese, two pounds and a half of figs, and a little money to
buy flesh and fish. If any of them happened to offer a sacrifice of first
fruits, or to kill venison, he sent a part of it to the public table: for
after a sacrifice or hunting, he was at liberty to sup at home: but the
rest were to appear at the usual place. For a long time this eating in
common was observed with great exactness: so that when King Agis returned
from a successful expedition against the Athenians, and from a desire to
sup with his wife, requested to have his portion at home, the polemarchs
refused to send it: nay, when, through resentment, he neglected the day
following to offer the sacrifice usual on occasion of victory, they set
a fine upon him. Children were also introduced at these public tables,
as so many schools of sobriety. There they heard discourses concerning
government, and were instructed in the most liberal breeding. There they
were allowed to jest without scurrility, and were not to take it ill when
the raillery was returned. For it was reckoned worthy of a Lacedæmonian
to bear a jest: but if any one’s patience failed, he had only to desire
them to be quiet, and they left off immediately. After they had drunk
moderately, they went home without lights. Indeed, they were forbidden to
walk with a light either on this or any other occasion, that they might
accustom themselves to march in the darkest night boldly and resolutely.
Such was the order of their public repasts.
Lycurgus left none of his laws in writing; it was ordered in one of the
_rhetræ_ that none should be written. For what he thought most conducive
to the virtue and happiness of a city, was principles interwoven with
the manners and breeding of the people. As for smaller matters, it was
better not to reduce these to a written form and unalterable method,
but to suffer them to change with the times, and to admit of additions
or retrenchments at the pleasure of persons so well educated. For he
resolved the whole business of legislation into the bringing up of youth.
And this, as we have observed, was the reason why one of his ordinances
forbade them to have any written laws.
Another ordinance levelled against magnificence and expense, directed
that the ceilings of houses should be wrought with no tool but the axe,
and the doors with nothing but the saw.
_Regulations Regarding Marriage and the Conduct of Women_
As for the education of youth, which he looked upon as the greatest and
most glorious work of a lawgiver, he began with it at the very source,
taking into consideration their conception and birth, by regulating the
marriages. For he did not (as Aristotle says) desist from his attempt
to bring the women under sober rules. They had, indeed, assumed great
liberty and power on account of the frequent expeditions of their
husbands, during which they were left sole mistresses at home, and so
gained an undue deference and improper titles; but notwithstanding this
he took all possible care of them. He ordered the virgins to exercise
themselves in running, wrestling, and throwing quoits and darts; that
their bodies being strong and vigorous, the children afterwards produced
from them might be the same; and that, thus fortified by exercise, they
might the better support the pangs of childbirth, and be delivered with
safety. In order to take away the excessive tenderness and delicacy of
the sex, the consequence of a recluse life, he accustomed the virgins
occasionally to be seen naked as well as the young men, and to dance
and sing in their presence on certain festivals. There they sometimes
indulged in a little raillery upon those that had misbehaved themselves,
and sometimes they sung encomiums on such as deserved them, thus exciting
in the young men a useful emulation and love of glory. For he who was
praised for his bravery and celebrated among the virgins, went away
perfectly happy: while their satirical glances thrown out in sport, were
no less cutting than serious admonitions; especially as the kings and
senate went with the other citizens to see all that passed. As for the
virgins appearing naked, there was nothing disgraceful in it, because
everything was conducted with modesty, and without one indecent word or
action. Nay, it caused a simplicity of manners and an emulation for the
best habit of body; their ideas, too, were naturally enlarged, while they
were not excluded from their share of bravery and honour. Hence they
were furnished with sentiments and language, such as Gorgo the wife of
Leonidas is said to have made use of. When a woman of another country
said to her, “You of Lacedæmon are the only women in the world that rule
the men:” she answered, “We are the only women that bring forth men.”
These public dances and other exercises of the young maidens naked,
in sight of the young men, were, moreover, incentives to marriage;
and, to use Plato’s expression, drew them almost as necessarily by
the attractions of love, as a geometrical conclusion follows from the
premises. To encourage it still more, some marks of infamy were set
upon those that continued bachelors. For they were not permitted to see
these exercises of the naked virgins; and the magistrates commanded
them to march naked round the market-place in the winter, and to sing a
song composed against themselves, which expressed how justly they were
punished for their disobedience to the laws. They were also deprived of
that honour and respect which the younger people paid to the old; so that
nobody found fault with what was said to Dercyllidas, though an eminent
commander. It seems, when he came one day into company, a young man,
instead of rising up and giving place, told him, “You have no child to
give place to me, when I am old.”
In their marriages the bridegroom carried off the bride by violence;
and she was never chosen in a tender age, but when she had arrived at
full maturity. Then the woman that had the direction of the wedding, cut
the bride’s hair close to the skin, dressed her in man’s clothes, laid
her upon a mattress, and left her in the dark. The bridegroom, neither
oppressed with wine nor enervated with luxury, but perfectly sober, as
having always supped at the common table, went in privately, untied her
girdle, and carried her to another bed. Having stayed there a short time,
he modestly retired to his usual apartment, to sleep with the other young
men: and observed the same conduct afterwards, spending the day with
his companions, and reposing himself with them in the night, nor even
visiting his bride but with great caution and apprehensions of being
discovered by the rest of the family; the bride at the same time exerted
all her art to contrive convenient opportunities for their private
meetings. And this they did not for a short time only, but some of them
even had children before they had an interview with their wives in the
day-time. This kind of commerce not only exercised their temperance and
chastity, but kept their bodies fruitful, and the first ardour of their
love fresh and unabated; for as they were not satiated like those that
are always with their wives, there still was place for unextinguished
desire.
When he had thus established a proper regard to modesty and decorum
with respect to marriage, he was equally studious to drive from that
state the vain and womanish passion of jealousy; by making it quite
as reputable to have children in common with persons of merit, as to
avoid all offensive freedom in their own behaviour to their wives. He
laughed at those who revenge with wars and bloodshed the communication
of a married woman’s favours; and allowed, that if a man in years should
have a young wife, he might introduce to her some handsome and honest
young man, whom he most approved of, and when she had a child of this
generous race, bring it up as his own. On the other hand, he allowed,
if a man of character should entertain a passion for a married woman on
account of her modesty and the beauty of her children, he might treat
with her husband for admission to her company, that so planting in a
beauty-bearing soil, he might produce excellent children, the congenial
offspring of excellent parents.
For in the first place, Lycurgus considered children, not so much the
property of their parents, as of the state; and therefore he would not
have them begot by ordinary persons, but by the best men in it. In the
next place, he observed the vanity and absurdity of other nations, where
people study to have their horses and dogs of the finest breed they can
procure, either by interest or money; and yet keep their wives shut up,
that they may have children by none but themselves, though they may
happen to be doting, decrepit, or infirm. As if children, when sprung
from a bad stock, and consequently good for nothing, were no detriment
to those whom they belong to, and who have the trouble of bringing them
up, nor any advantage, when well descended and of a generous disposition.
These regulations tending to secure a healthy offspring, and consequently
beneficial to the state, were so far from encouraging that licentiousness
of the women which prevailed afterwards, that adultery was not known
amongst them.
_The Rearing of Children_
It was not left to the father to rear what children he pleased, but he
was obliged to carry the child to a place called Lesche, to be examined
by the most ancient men of the tribe, who were assembled there. If it
was strong and well proportioned, they gave orders for its education,
and assigned it one of the nine thousand shares of land; but if it was
weakly and deformed, they ordered it to be thrown into the place called
Apothetæ, which is a deep cavern near the mountain Taygetus: concluding
that its life could be no advantage either to itself or to the public,
since nature had not given it at first any strength or goodness of
constitution. For the same reason the women did not wash their new-born
infants with water, but with wine, thus making some trial of their habit
of body; imagining that sickly and epileptic children sink and die under
the experiment, while healthy became more vigorous and hardy. Great care
and art was also exerted by the nurses; for, as they never swathed the
infants, their limbs had a freer turn, and their countenances a more
liberal air; besides, they used them to any sort of meat, to have no
terrors in the dark, nor to be afraid of being alone, and to leave all
ill humour and unmanly crying. Hence people of other countries purchased
Lacedæmonian nurses for their children.
The Spartan children were not in that manner, under tutors purchased or
hired with money, nor were the parents at liberty to educate them as they
pleased: but as soon as they were seven years old, Lycurgus ordered them
to be enrolled in companies, where they were all kept under the same
order and discipline, and had their exercises and recreations in common.
He who showed the most conduct and courage amongst them, was made
captain of the company. The rest kept their eyes upon him, obeyed his
orders, and bore with patience the punishment he inflicted: so that their
whole education was an exercise of obedience. The old men were present
at their diversions, and often suggested some occasion of dispute or
quarrel, that they might observe with exactness the spirit of each, and
their firmness in battle.
As for learning, they had just what was absolutely necessary. All the
rest of their education was calculated to make them subject to command,
to endure labour, to fight and conquer. They added, therefore, to their
discipline, as they advanced in age; cutting their hair very close,
making them go barefoot, and play, for the most part, quite naked. At
twelve years of age, their under garment was taken away, and but one
upper one a year allowed them. Hence they were necessarily dirty in their
persons, and not indulged the great favour of baths and oils, except on
some particular days of the year. They slept in companies, on beds made
of the tops of reeds, which they gathered with their own hands, without
knives, and brought from the banks of the Eurotas. In winter they were
permitted to add a little thistle-down, as that seemed to have some
warmth in it.
They steal, too, whatever victuals they possibly can, ingeniously
contriving to do it when persons are asleep, or keep but indifferent
watch. If they are discovered, they are punished not only with whipping,
but with hunger. Indeed, their supper is but slender at all times, that,
to fence against want, they may be forced to exercise their courage and
address. This is the first intention of their spare diet: a subordinate
one is, to make them grow tall. For when the animal spirits are not too
much oppressed by a great quantity of food, which stretches itself out
in breadth and thickness, they mount upwards by their natural lightness,
and the body easily and freely shoots up in height. This also contributes
to make them handsome: for thin and slender habits yield more freely to
nature, which then gives a fine proportion to the limbs; whilst the heavy
and gross resist her by their weight.
The boys steal with so much caution, that one of them, having conveyed a
young fox under his garment, suffered the creature to tear out his bowels
with his teeth and claws, choosing rather to die than to be detected.
Nor does this appear incredible, if we consider what their young men can
endure to this day; for we have seen many of them expire under the lash
at the altar of Diana Orthia.
_The Famed Laconic Discourse; Spartan Discipline_
The boys were also taught to use sharp repartee, seasoned with humour,
and whatever they said was to be concise and pithy. For Lycurgus, as
we have observed, fixed but a small value on a considerable quantity
of his iron money; but on the contrary, the worth of speech was to
consist in its being comprised in a few plain words, pregnant with a
great deal of sense: and he contrived that by long silence they might
learn to be sententious and acute in their replies. As debauchery often
causes weakness and sterility in the body, so the intemperance of the
tongue makes conversation empty and insipid. King Agis, therefore, when
a certain Athenian laughed at the Lacedæmonian short swords and said,
“The jugglers would swallow them with ease upon the stage,” answered in
his laconic way, “And yet we can reach our enemies’ hearts with them.”
Indeed, to me there seems to be something in this concise manner of
speaking which immediately reaches the object aimed at, and forcibly
strikes the mind of the hearer.
Lycurgus himself was short and sententious in his discourse, if we may
judge by some of his answers which are recorded: that, for instance,
concerning the constitution. When one advised him to establish a popular
government in Lacedæmon, “Go,” said he, “and first make a trial of it in
thy own family.” That again, concerning sacrifices to the deity, when
he was asked why he appointed them so trifling and of so little value,
“That we may never be in want,” said he, “of something to offer him.”
Once more, when they inquired of him, what sort of martial exercises he
allowed of, he answered, “All, except those in which you stretch out
your palms.” Several such like replies of his are said to be taken from
the letters which he wrote to his countrymen: as to their question, “How
shall we best guard against the invasion of an enemy?” “By continuing
poor, and not desiring in your possessions to be one above another.” And
to the question, whether they should enclose Sparta with walls, “That
city is well fortified which has a wall of men instead of brick.” Whether
these and some other letters ascribed to him are genuine or not, is no
easy matter to determine.
Even when they indulged a vein of pleasantry, one might perceive, that
they would not use one unnecessary word, nor let an expression escape
them that had not some sense worth attending to. For one being asked
to go and hear a person who imitated the nightingale to perfection,
answered, “I have heard the nightingale herself.”
Nor were poetry and music less cultivated among them, than a concise
dignity of expression. Their songs had a spirit, which could rouse the
soul, and impel it in an enthusiastic manner to action. The language
was plain and manly, the subject serious and moral. For they consisted
chiefly of the praises of heroes that had died for Sparta, or else of
expressions of detestation for such wretches as had declined the glorious
opportunity, and rather chose to drag on life in misery and contempt.
Nor did they forget to express an ambition for glory suitable to their
respective ages.
Hippias the sophist tells us, that Lycurgus himself was a man of great
personal valour, and an experienced commander. Philostephanus also
ascribes to him the first division of cavalry into troops of fifty, who
were drawn up in a square body. But Demetrius the Phalerean says, that
he never had any military employment, and that there was the profoundest
peace imaginable when he established the Constitution of Sparta. His
providing for a cessation of arms during the Olympic Games is likewise a
mark of the humane and peaceable man.
The discipline of the Lacedæmonians continued after they were arrived at
years of maturity. For no man was at liberty to live as he pleased; the
city being like one great camp, where all had their stated allowance,
and knew their public charge, each man concluding that he was born,
not for himself, but for his country. Hence, if they had no particular
orders, they employed themselves in inspecting the boys, and teaching
them something useful, or in learning of those that were older than
themselves. One of the greatest privileges that Lycurgus procured
his countrymen, was the enjoyment of leisure, the consequence of his
forbidding them to exercise any mechanic trade. It was not worth their
while to take great pains to raise a fortune, since riches there were of
no account: and the helots, who tilled the ground, were answerable for
the produce above-mentioned.
Lawsuits were banished from Lacedæmon with money. The Spartans knew
neither riches nor poverty, but possessed an equal competency, and had a
cheap and easy way of supplying their few wants. Hence, when they were
not engaged in war, their time was taken up with dancing, feasting,
hunting, or meeting to exercise or converse. They went not to market
under thirty years of age, all their necessary concerns being managed by
their relations and adopters. Nor was it reckoned a credit to the old to
be seen sauntering in the market-place; it was deemed more suitable for
them to pass great part of the day in the schools of exercise, or places
of conversation. Their discourse seldom turned upon money, or business,
or trade, but upon the praise of the excellent, or the contempt of the
worthless; and the last was expressed with that pleasantry and humour,
which conveyed instruction and correction without seeming to intend it.
Nor was Lycurgus himself immoderately severe in his manner; but, as
Sosibius tells us, he dedicated a little statue to the god of laughter
in each hall. He considered facetiousness as a seasoning of their hard
exercise and diet, and therefore ordered it to take place on all proper
occasions, in their common entertainments and parties of pleasures. Upon
the whole, he taught his citizens to think nothing more disagreeable than
to live by (or for) themselves.
_The Senate; Burial Customs; Home-Staying; The Ambuscade_
The Senate, as said before, consisted at first of those that were
assistants to Lycurgus in his great enterprise. Afterwards, to fill up
any vacancy that might happen, he ordered the most worthy men to be
selected, of those that were full threescore years old. This was the most
respectable dispute in the world, and the contest was truly glorious: for
it was not who should be swiftest among the swift, or strongest of the
strong, but who was the wisest and best among the good and wise. He who
had the preference was to bear this mark of superior excellence through
life, this great authority, which put into his hands the lives and honour
of the citizens, and every other important affair. The manner of the
election was this: When the people were assembled, some persons appointed
for the purpose were shut up in a room near the place; where they could
neither see nor be seen, and only hear the shouts of the constituents:
for by them they decided this and most other affairs. Each candidate
walked silently through the assembly, one after another according to lot.
Those that were shut up had writing tables, in which they set down in
different columns the number and loudness of the shouts, without knowing
whom they were for; only they marked them as first, second, third, and
so on, according to the number of the competitors. He that had the most
and loudest acclamations, was declared duly elected. Then he was crowned
with a garland, and went round to give thanks to the gods: a number of
young men followed, striving which should extol him most, and the women
celebrated his virtues in their songs, and blessed his worthy life and
conduct. Each of his relations offered him a repast, and their address
on the occasion was, “Sparta honours you with this collation.” When he
had finished the procession, he went to the common table, and lived as
before. Only two portions were set before him, one of which he carried
away: and as all the women related to him attended at the gates of the
public hall, he called her for whom he had the greatest esteem, and
presented her with the portion, saying at the same time, “That which I
received as a mark of honour, I give to you.” Then she was conducted home
with great applause by the rest of the women.
Lycurgus likewise made good regulations with respect to burials. In the
first place, to take away all superstition, he ordered the dead to be
buried in the city, and even permitted their monuments to be erected
near the temples; accustoming the youth to such sights from their
infancy, that they might have no uneasiness from them nor any horror
for death, as if people were polluted with the touch of a dead body, or
with treading upon a grave. In the next place, he suffered nothing to
be buried with the corpse, except the red cloth and the olive leaves in
which it was wrapped. Nor would he suffer the relations to inscribe any
names upon the tombs, except of those men that fell in battle, or those
women who died in some sacred office. He fixed eleven days for the time
of mourning: on the twelfth they were to put an end to it, after offering
sacrifice to Ceres. No part of life was left vacant and unimproved, but
even with their necessary actions he interwove the praise of virtue and
the contempt of vice: and he so filled the city with living examples,
that it was next to impossible for persons who had these from their
infancy before their eyes, not to be drawn and formed to honour.
For the same reason he would not permit all that desired to go abroad
and see other countries, lest they should contract foreign manners,
gain traces of a life of little discipline, and of a different form of
government. He forbade strangers, too, to resort to Sparta, who could
not assign a good reason for their coming; not, as Thucydides says, out
of fear they should imitate the constitution of that city, and make
improvements in virtue, but lest they should teach his own people some
evil. For along with foreigners come new subjects of discourse; new
discourse produces new opinions; and from these there necessarily spring
new passions and desires, which, like discords in music, would disturb
the established government. He, therefore, thought it more expedient for
the city, to keep out of it corrupt customs and manners, than even to
prevent the introduction of a pestilence.
Thus far, then, we can perceive no vestiges of a disregard to right and
wrong, which is the fault some people find with the laws of Lycurgus,
allowing them well enough calculated to produce valour, but not to
promote justice. Perhaps it was the _crypteia_, as they called it, or
_ambuscade_, if that was really one of this lawgiver’s institutions, as
Aristotle says it was, which gave Plato so bad an impression both of
Lycurgus and his laws. The governors of the youth ordered the shrewdest
of them from time to time to disperse themselves in the country, provided
only with daggers and some necessary provisions. In the day-time they
hid themselves, and rested in the most private places they could find,
but at night they sallied out into the roads, and killed all the helots
they could meet with. Nay, sometimes by day, they fell upon them in
the fields, and murdered the ablest and strongest of them. Thucydides
relates, in his history of the Peloponnesian War, that the Spartans
selected such of them as were distinguished for their courage, to the
number of two thousand or more, declared them free, crowned them with
garlands, and conducted them to the temples of the gods; but soon after
they all disappeared; and no one could, either then or since, give
account in what manner they were destroyed. Aristotle particularly
says, that the _ephori_, as soon as they were invested in their
office, declared war against the helots, that they might be massacred
under pretence of law. In other respects they treated them with great
inhumanity: sometimes they made them drink till they were intoxicated,
and in that condition led them into the public halls, to show the young
men what drunkenness was. They ordered them, too, to sing mean songs, and
to dance ridiculous dances, but not to meddle with any that were genteel
and graceful. Thus they tell us, that when the Thebans afterwards invaded
Laconia, and took a great number of the helots prisoners, they ordered
them to sing the odes of Terpander, Alcman, or Spendon the Lacedæmonian,
but they excused themselves, alleging that it was forbidden by their
masters. Those who say, that a freeman in Sparta was most a freeman, and
a slave most a slave, seem well to have considered the difference of
states. But in my opinion, it was in aftertimes that these cruelties took
place among the Lacedæmonians; chiefly after the great earthquake, when,
as history informs us, the helots, joining the Messenians, attacked them,
did infinite damage to the country, and brought the city to the greatest
extremity. I can never ascribe to Lycurgus so abominable an act as that
of the ambuscade. I would judge in this case by the mildness and justice
which appeared in the rest of his conduct.
_Lycurgus’ Subterfuge to Perpetuate His Laws_
When his principal institutions had taken root in the manners of the
people, and the government was come to such maturity as to be able to
support and preserve itself, then, as Plato says of the Deity, that he
rejoiced when he had created the world, and given it its first motion;
so Lycurgus was charmed with the beauty and greatness of his political
establishment, when he saw it exemplified in fact, and move on in
due order. He was next desirous to make it immortal, so far as human
wisdom could effect it, and to deliver it down unchanged to the latest
times. For this purpose he assembled all the people, and told them, the
provisions he had already made for the state were indeed sufficient for
virtue and happiness, but the greatest and most important matter was
still behind, which he could not disclose to them till he had consulted
the oracle; that they must therefore inviolably observe his laws, without
altering anything in them, till he returned from Delphi; and then he
would acquaint them with the pleasure of Apollo. When they had promised
to do so, he took an oath of the kings and senators, and afterwards of
all the citizens, that they would abide by the present establishment till
Lycurgus came back. He then took his journey to Delphi.
When he arrived there, he offered sacrifice to the gods, and consulted
the oracle, whether his laws were sufficient to promote virtue, and
secure the happiness of the state. Apollo answered, that the laws
were excellent, and that the city which kept to the constitution he
had established, would be the most glorious in the world. This oracle
Lycurgus took down in writing, and sent it to Sparta. He then offered
another sacrifice, and embraced his friends and his son, determined
never to release his citizens from their oath, but voluntarily there to
put a period to his life; while he was yet of an age when life was not
a burden, when death was not desirable, and while he was not unhappy in
any one circumstance. He, therefore, destroyed himself by abstaining
from food, persuaded that the very death of lawgivers, should have its
use, and their exit, so far from being insignificant, have its share
of virtue, and be considered as a great action. To him, indeed, whose
performances were so illustrious, the conclusion of life was the crown of
happiness, and his death was left guardian of those invaluable blessings
he had procured his countrymen through life, as they had taken an oath
not to depart from his establishment till his return. Nor was he deceived
in his expectations. Sparta continued superior to the rest of Greece,
both in its government at home and reputation abroad, so long as it
retained the institution of Lycurgus; and this it did during the space
of five hundred years, and the reign of fourteen successive kings, down
to Agis the son of Archidamus. As for the appointment of the ephors, it
was so far from weakening the constitution, that it gave it additional
vigour, and though it seemed to be established in favour of the people,
it strengthened the aristocracy.[c]
EFFECTS OF LYCURGUS’ SYSTEM
Thus far we have followed Plutarch; now let us see what modern authority
will say of the influence of Lycurgus.
The best commentary on the laws of Lycurgus is the history of Sparta; let
us read it and judge the tree by its fruits.
Lycurgus, if we unite under his name all the laws mentioned, without
pausing to make sure that they are rightfully attributed, had operated
with rare sagacity to render Sparta immutable and its constitution
immortal. But there exists an arch-enemy to the things of this world that
call themselves eternal--the old man with the white beard and denuded
scalp that antiquity armed with a scythe. Legislators like, no better
than poets, to take him into account; they are ready enough to declare
that they have erected an edifice more solid than brass. Time advances
and the whole structure crumbles to the earth. Sparta braved him through
several centuries, by sacrificing the liberty of her citizens whom she
kept bowed under the severest discipline. She lasted long, but never
truly lived. As soon as her inflexible, and in some respects immoral,
constitution, established outside the usual conditions under which
society exists, was shaken, her decadence was rapid and irrevocable.
Lycurgus had desired to make fixed, population, lands, and the number
and fortune of citizens; as it turned out never was there a city where
property changed hands more frequently, where the condition of citizens
was more unstable, or their number subject to more steady diminution. He
had singularly restricted individual property rights to strengthen the
power of the state; and Aristotle says: “In Sparta the state is poor, the
individual rich and avaricious.” He had failed to recognise the laws of
nature in the education and destiny of women; and Aristotle, charging the
Spartan women with immorality, with greed, and even calling into question
their courage, sees in the license they allowed themselves one of the
causes of Lacedæmon’s downfall.
He made the helots tremble under his rule, and finally sent them back to
their masters. He prohibited long wars; but he had made war attractive
by freeing the soldiers from the heavy rules laid upon the citizen, and
it was by war and victory that his republic perished. He withdrew from
his fellow-citizens all power of initiative, assigning to each moment
of their lives its particular duty; in a word, to speak with Rousseau,
who was also a master of political paradox, “His laws completely changed
the nature of man to make of him a citizen.” Yet Sparta, become a
revolutionary city, perished for want of men. He proscribed gold and
silver that there might be no corruption, and nowhere since the Median
wars, was venality so pronounced and shameless.
He banished the arts, except for the adornment of his temple of Apollo
at Amyclæ; and in this he succeeded. Pausanias makes note of some fifty
temples in Lacedæmonia, but not a stone of them remains. Rustic piety and
not art erected them. Save for a certain taste in music, the dance, and
a severe style of poetry, Sparta stands alone as a barbarian city in the
middle of Greece, a spot of darkness where all else is light; she did not
even know thoroughly the only art she practised, that of war; at least
she always remained ignorant of certain features of it.
As Aristotle says: “Trained for war, Lacedæmonia, like a sword in its
scabbard, rests in peace.” All her institutions taught her to fight, not
one to live the life of the spirit. Savage and egotistical, she satisfied
the pride of her children, and won the praise of those who admire power
and success, but what did she do for the world? A war machine perfectly
fitted to destroy but incapable of production, what has she left behind
her? Not an artist nor a man of genius, not even a ruin that bears her
name; she is dead in every part as Thucydides predicted, while Athens,
calumniated by rhetoricians of all ages, still has to show the majestic
ruins of her temples, source of inspiration to modern art in two worlds,
as her poets and philosophers are the source of eternal beauty.
To sum up, and this is the lesson taught by this history: rigidly
as Lycurgus might decree for Sparta equality of possessions, an end
contrary to natural as to social conditions, nowhere in Greece was social
inequality so marked. Something of her discipline subsisted longer, and
it was this strange social ordonnance that won for Lacedæmon her power
and renown, striking as it did all other populations with astonishment.
The Spartans have further set a noble example of sobriety, and of
contempt for passion, pain, and death. They could obey and they could
die. Law was for them, according to the felicitous expression of Pindarus
and of Montaigne: “Queen and Empress of the World.” Let us accord to them
one more virtue which does them honour, respect for those upon whose head
Time has placed the crown of whitened locks.
The aristocratic poet of Bœotia who like another Dorian, Theognis of
Megara hated the masses, admired the city where reigned under a line of
hereditary kings, “The wisdom of old men, and the lances of young, the
choirs of the Muse and sweet harmony.” Simonides more clearly recognises
the true reason of Sparta’s greatness; he called Lacedæmon “the city
which tames men.” Empire over oneself usually gives empire over others,
and for a long time the Spartan possessed both.[d]
FOOTNOTES
[8] [J. B. Bury translates it as “a secret police.”]
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