Valiant and bold we are, let who will try:
Who dare accept our challenge soon shall die.
The third, which were of young children, replied to them in this
manner:—
Those seeds which Nature in our breast did sow
Shall soon to generous fruits of virtue grow;
Then all those valiant deeds which you relate
We will excel, and scorn to imitate.[48]
16. They made use of a peculiar measure in their songs, when their
armies were in their march towards an enemy, which being sung in a
full choir to their flutes seemed proper to excite in them a generous
courage and contempt of death. Lycurgus was the first who brought this
warlike music into the field, that so he might moderate and soften
the rage and fury of their minds in an engagement by solemn musical
measures, and that their valor (which should be no boisterous and
unruly thing) might always be under the government of their reason, and
not of passion. To this end it was always their custom before the fight
to sacrifice to the Muses, that they might behave themselves with as
much good conduct as with courage, and do such actions as were worthy
of memory, and which might challenge the applauses and commendations of
every one.
17. And indeed so great an esteem and veneration had they for the
gravity and simplicity of their ancient music, that no one was allowed
to recede in the least from the established rules and measures of it,
insomuch as the Ephori, upon complaint made to them, laid a severe
mulct upon Terpander (a musician of great note and eminency for his
incomparable skill and excellency in playing upon the harp, and who,
as he had ever professed a great veneration for antiquity, so ever
testified by his eulogiums and commendations the esteem he always had
of virtuous and heroic actions), depriving him of his harp, and (as
a peculiar punishment) exposing it to the censure of the people, by
fixing it upon a nail, because he had added one string more to his
instrument than was the usual and stated number, though done with no
other design and advantage than to vary the sound, and to make it more
useful and pleasant. That music was ever accounted among them the best,
which was most grave, simple, and natural. And for this reason too,
when Timotheus in their Carnean feasts, which were instituted in honor
of Apollo, contended for a preference in his art, one of the Ephori
took a knife in his hand, and cut the strings of his harp, for having
exceeded the number of seven in it. So severely tenacious were they of
their ancient customs and practices, that they would not suffer the
least innovation, though in things that were indifferent and of no
great importance, lest an indulgence in one thing might have introduced
another, till at length by gradual and insensible alterations the whole
body of their laws might be disregarded and contemned, and so the main
pillar which did support the fabric of their government be weakened and
undermined.
18. Lycurgus took away that superstition, which formerly indeed had
been the practice among them, concerning their sepulchre and funeral
solemnities, by permitting them to bury the remains of their departed
friends within the city, that so they might the better secure them
from the rude and barbarous violence of an enemy, and to erect their
monuments for them in separated places joining to their temples; that,
having their graves and tombs always before their eyes, they might
not only remember but imitate the worthy actions they had done, and
so lessen the fears and apprehensions of death with the consideration
of those honors they paid their memories when they put off their
mortalities. He took away those pollutions which they formerly looked
upon as arising from their dead bodies, and prohibited all costly
and sumptuous expenses at their funerals, it being very improper for
those who while alive generally abstained from whatever was vain and
curious to be carried to the grave with any pomp and magnificence.
Therefore without the use of drugs and ointments, without any rich
odors and perfumes, without any art or curiosity, save only the little
ornament of a red vestment and a few olive-leaves, they carried him
to the place of burying, where he was, without any formal sorrows and
public lamentations, honorably and securely laid up in a decent and
convenient sepulchre. And here it was lawful for any one who would be
at the trouble to erect a monument for the person deceased, but not to
engrave the least inscription on it; this being the peculiar reward of
such only who had signalized themselves in war, and died gallantly in
defence of their country.
19, 20. It was not allowed any of them to travel into foreign
countries, lest their conversation should be tinctured with the customs
of those places, and they at their return introduce amongst them new
modes and incorrect ways of living, to the corruption of good manners
and the prejudice of their own laws and usage; for which reason they
expelled all strangers from Sparta, lest they should insinuate their
vices and their folly into the affections of the people, and leave in
the minds of their citizens the bad principles of softness and luxury,
ease and covetousness.
21. Nothing could sooner forfeit the right and privilege of a citizen,
than refusing their children that public education which their
laws and country demanded of them. For as none of them were on any
account exempt from obedience to their laws, so, if any one out of an
extraordinary tenderness and indulgence would not suffer his sons to be
brought up according to their strict discipline and institutions, he
was straightways disfranchised. For they could not think that person
could ever prove serviceable to their government, who had not been
educated with the same care and severity with his fellow-subjects. And
it was no less a shame and reproach to the parents themselves, who
could be of such mean and abject spirits as to prefer the love of their
children to the love of their country, and the satisfaction of a fond
and imprudent passion to the honor and security of their state.
23. Nay further, as there was a community of children, so there was of
their goods and estates, it being free for them in case of necessity
to make use of their neighbor’s servants, as if they were their own;
and not only so, but of their horses and dogs too, unless the owners
stood in need of them themselves, whenever they designed the diversion
of hunting, an exercise peculiar to this nation, and to which they were
accustomed from their youth. And if upon any extraordinary occasion any
one was pressed with the want of what his neighbors were possessed of,
he went freely to them and borrowed, as though he had been the right
proprietary of their storehouses; and being supplied answerably to his
necessities, he carefully sealed them up again and left them secure.
24. In all their warlike expeditions they generally clothed themselves
with a garment of a purple color, as best becoming the profession of
soldiers, and carrying in them a signification of that blood they
were resolved to shed in the service of their country. It was of use
likewise, not only to cast a greater terror into their adversaries
and to secure from their discovery the wounds they should receive,
but likewise for distinction’s sake, that in the heat and fury of the
battle they might discriminate each other from the enemy. They always
fought with consideration and cunning, craft being many times of more
advantage to them than downright blows; for it is not the multitude
of men, nor the strongest arm and the sharpest sword, that make men
masters of the field.
25. Whenever a victory was gained through a well-contrived stratagem,
and thereby with little loss of men and blood, they always sacrificed
an ox to Mars; but when the success was purely owing to their valor
and prowess, they only offered up a cock to him; it being in their
estimation more honorable for their generals and commanders to overcome
their enemies by policy and subtlety than by mere strength and courage.
26, 27. One great part of their religion lay in their solemn prayers
and devotion, which they daily offered up to their Gods, heartily
requesting of them to enable them to bear all kinds of injuries with
a generous and unshaken mind, and to reward them with honor and
prosperity, according to their performances of piety and virtue.
28. Besides, it was a great part of that honor they paid their Gods,
of whatever sex they were, to adorn them with military weapons and
armor, partly out of superstition and an extraordinary reverence they
had for the virtue of fortitude, which they preferred to all others,
and which they looked upon as an immediate gift of the Gods, as being
the greatest lovers and patrons of those who were endued with it; and
partly to encourage every one to address his devotions to them for
it; insomuch as Venus herself, who in other nations was generally
represented naked, had her armor too, as well as her particular altars
and worshippers.
29. Whenever they take any business of moment in hand, they generally
pray to Fortune in a set form of words for their success in it;[49] it
being no better in their esteem than profaneness and irreverence to
their Gods to invoke them upon slight and trivial emergencies.
30. No discovery of what is bad and vicious comes with greater evidence
to the spirits and apprehensions of children, who are unable to bear
the force of reason, than that which is offered to them by way of
example. Therefore the Spartan discipline did endeavor to preserve
their youth (on whom philosophical discourses would have made but
small impression) from all kinds of intemperance and excess of wine,
by presenting before them all the indecencies of their drunken Helots,
persons indeed who were their slaves, and employed not only in all
kinds of servile offices, but especially in tilling of their fields
and manuring of their ground, which was let out to them at reasonable
rates, they paying in every year their returns of rent, according to
what was anciently established and ordained amongst them at the first
general division of their lands. And if any did exact greater payments
from them, it was esteemed an execrable thing amongst them; they being
desirous that the Helots might reap gain and profit from their labors,
and thereupon be obliged faithfully to serve their masters as well
as their own interest with greater cheerfulness and industry. And
therefore their lords never required more of them than what bare custom
and contracts exacted of them.
33. They adjudged it necessary for the preservation of that gravity
and seriousness of manners which was required of their youth for the
attainments of wisdom and virtue, never to admit of any light and
wanton, any ludicrous or effeminate poetry; which made them allow of
no poets among them but such only who for their grave and virtuous
compositions were approved by the public magistrate; that being hereby
under some restraint, they might neither act nor write any thing to
the prejudice of good manners, or to the dishonor of their laws and
government.
34. And therefore it was, that when they heard of Archilochus’s arrival
at Sparta (though a Lacedaemonian, and of an excellent wit), yet they
presently commanded him to depart the city, having understood how that
in a poem of his he had affirmed it was greater wisdom for a man to
throw his arms away and secure himself by flight, than to stand to his
own defence with the hazard of his life, or therein to die valiantly in
the field. His words were after this manner:—
Let who will boast their courage in the field,
I find but little safety from my shield.
Nature’s not Honor’s laws we must obey;
This made me cast my useless shield away,
And by a prudent flight and cunning save
A life, which valor could not, from the grave.
A better buckler I can soon regain,
But who can get another life again?[50]
35. It was a received opinion amongst many nations, that some of their
Gods were propitious only to their men, and others only to their women,
which made them sometimes prohibit the one and sometimes the other
from being present at their sacred rites and solemnities. But the
Lacedaemonians took away this piece of superstition by not excluding
either sex from their temples and religious services; but, as they
were always bred up to the same civil exercises, so they were to the
same common performances of their holy mysteries, so that by an early
knowledge of each other there might be a real love and friendship
established betwixt them, which ever stood most firm upon the basis of
religion.
36. Their virtuous man, as he was to do no wrong, so likewise was not
to suffer any without a due sense and modest resentment of it; and
therefore the Ephori laid a mulct upon Sciraphidas, because he could
so tamely receive the many injuries and affronts that were offered
him,—concluding that he who was so insensible of his own interest as
not to stand up in a bold and honest vindication of himself from the
wrongs and injustice that may be done to his good name and honor,
would without all doubt be as dull and listless, when an opportunity
should invite him to it, in appearing for the defence of the fame and
reputation of his country.
39. Action and not speaking was the study and commendation of a
Spartan, and therefore polite discourses and long harangues were
not with them the character of a wise or learned man, their speech
being always grave and sententious, without any ornament or tedious
argumentation. They accustomed themselves to brevity, and upon every
subject to express themselves in the finest words, with as much satire
and smartness as possible; insomuch as they had a law among them for
the instruction of their youth, by which they were enjoined to practise
a close and compendious style in all their orations; which made them
banish one Cephisophon, a talkative rhetorician, for boasting publicly
that he could upon any subject whatsoever entertain his auditory for
a whole day together; alleging this as a sufficient reason for their
justification, that it was the part of a good orator to adjust his
discourse according to the weight and dignity of the matter he was to
treat of.
40. There was indeed a strange and unnatural custom amongst them,
annually observed at the celebration of the bloody rites of Diana
Orthia, where there was a certain number of children, not only of the
vulgar sort but of the gentry and nobility, who were whipped almost
to death with rods before the altar of the goddess; their parents and
relations standing by, and all the while exhorting them to patience
and constancy in suffering. Although this ceremony lasted for the
space of a whole day, yet they underwent this barbarous rite with such
a prodigious cheerfulness and resolution of mind as never could be
expected from the softness and tenderness of their age. They did not so
much as express one little sigh or groan during the whole solemnity,
but out of a certain emulation and desire of glory there was a
great contention among them, who should excel his companions in the
constancy of enduring the length and sharpness of their pains; and he
who held out the longest was ever the most esteemed and valued person
amongst them, and the glory and reputation wherewith they rewarded his
sufferings rendered his after life much more eminent and illustrious.
42. They had a very slight regard to maritime affairs, on the account
of an ancient law amongst them, whereby they were prohibited from
applying of themselves to the becoming of good seamen or engaging
themselves in any sea-fight. Afterwards indeed, through the necessity
of affairs and the security of their country, they judged it
convenient, when they were invaded by the Athenians and other nations,
to furnish themselves with a navy; by which it was that Lysander, who
was then the general in that expedition, obtained a great victory
over the Athenians, and thereby for a considerable time secured the
sovereignty of the seas to themselves. But finding afterwards this
grievance arising from it, that there was a very sensible corruption
of good manners and decay of discipline amongst them, from the
conversation of their rude and debauched mariners, they were obliged
to lay this profession wholly aside, and by a revival of this law
endeavor to retrieve their ancient sobriety, and, by turning the bent
and inclinations of the people into their old channel again, to make
them tractable and obedient, modest and virtuous. Though indeed they
did not long hold to their resolution herein, any more than they were
wont to do in other matters of moment, which could not but be variable,
according to the circumstances of affairs and the necessities of their
government. For though great riches and large possessions were things
they hated to death, it being a capital crime and punishment to have
any gold or silver in their houses, or to amass up together heaps of
money (which was generally made with them of iron or leather),—for
which reason several had been put to death, according to that law which
banished covetousness out of the city, on the account of an answer of
their oracle to Alcamenes and Theopompus, two of their Spartan kings,