590 



LYCURGUS. 



lawgiver, to save his life, fled towards a temple. On 

 the way, he received a blow, which struck out one 

 of his eyes. He merely turned round, and showed 

 to his pursuers his face streaming with blood. This 

 sight filled all with shame and repentance ; they 

 implored his pardon, and led him respectfully home. 

 The person who had done the deed, a young man of 

 rank, and of a fiery character, was given up to him. 

 Lycurgus pardoned him, and dismissed him covered 

 with shame. 



After having thus formed a constitution for Sparta, 

 Lycurgus endeavoured to provide for its continuance. 

 He made all the citizens take a solemn oath, that they 

 would change nothing in the laws which he had in- 

 troduced, before his return. lie then went to Delphi, 

 and asked the god whether the new laws were suffi- 

 cient for the happiness of Sparta. The answer was, 

 " Sparta will remain the most prosperous of all states 

 as long as it observes these laws." He sent this 

 answer to Lacedasmon, and banished himself. He 

 died, as it is said, of voluntary starvation, far from 

 his country ; according to some, at Cirrha ; accord- 

 ing to others, at Elis or Crete. According to his 

 commands, his body was burned, and the ashes 

 thrown into the sea, lest they should be carried to 

 Sparta, and the people thus think themselves released 

 from their oath. A temple was erected in honour of 

 him at Sparta, and a society was instituted by his 

 friends, which continued until the latest times of 

 Sparta, and had for its object to celebrate the memory 

 of his virtues. 



The principal object of the laws of Lycurgus was, 

 to introduce into his country a mixed form of govern- 

 ment, composed of monarchy, aristocracy and demo- 

 cracy, in such a manner that each element was re- 

 strained by the others. The two kings, and with 

 them the council of Gerontes, stood at the head of 

 the government ; the people, however, having an in- 

 direct influence upon their measures. He divided all 

 the inhabitants of Sparta into three, according to 

 some into six or more classes, subdivided into thirty 

 tribes. With this was, probably, connected the ad- 

 ministration of the police and of justice, and the rules 

 of military service. As the Spartans had already made 

 some progress in civilization, we may well admire the 

 resolution and the genius of Lycurgus, who was able 

 to change not only their civil relations, but their 

 morals and manners, and to induce such a nation to 

 sacrifice even the comforts of life. Even his propo- 

 sition of the equal division of property, which at first 

 was violently opposed, was still accepted as a law by 

 all the citizens. At the time when Lycurgus altered 

 the constitution, there existed three classes the rul- 

 ing Spartans, the tributary Lacedemonians, and the 

 Helot slaves. (See Helots.) Though it appears 

 cruel in him to have left the Helots in slavery, this 

 was not shocking in the eyes of the Greeks. They 

 had no idea of the injustice of such a distinction be- 

 tween men. Lycurgus sought to use, in the way 

 which he thought most for the good of the state, the 

 bonds which nature, relationship, and love form 

 among men. He treated love only as a means of 

 producing vigorous citizens for the state, and thus 

 preserving national independence. He appointed 

 punishments for unmarried men, and for those who 

 married too late, or married persons of a very unequal 

 age. He made it difficult for those who were newly 

 married to meet their wives, that their passions might 

 remain unabated ; and he allowed old or impotent 

 men to li-nd their wives to vigorous youths, and men 

 of a sound constitution, if their wives were weak and 

 impotent, to take others. Children were not the pro- 

 perty of the parents, but of the state. The state de- 

 termined on their life or death, and directed their 

 education without regard to the parents. To intro- 



duce temperance and moderation among the people, 

 lie ordered that the houses should be built in the 

 most simple manner, and that all should take their 

 meals in i>ublic, affixing also severe penalties to de- 

 bauchery and drunkenness. No foreigner could re- 

 main in Sparta longer than was necessary ; no Spar- 

 tan, except in times of war, could leave the country. 

 The people were allowed to possess neither gold nor 

 silver ; but iron was used for money. The Spartans 

 were never to devote themselves to the sciences, but 

 only to learn the most indispensable branches of 

 knowledge ; they were not to have theatres, nor to 

 perfect their music ; they could have among them 

 neither artists nor orators without the consent of the 

 government. Lycurgus made no change in the re- 

 ligious constitution of Sparta ; he used it, on the 

 contrary, for his political e.nds, and united the highest 

 priestly dignity with the royal office. He ordered a 

 simple burial for the dead, forbade all public lamen- 

 tations, and limited private mourning to eleven days. 

 He allowed, however, the dead to be buried in the 

 city, and monuments to be erected to them in the 

 temples, in order that the hope of obtaining such 

 honours after death might lessen the fear of losing life. 

 With regard to the administration of justice, he gave 

 but few laws ; but these were sufficient, if the other 

 laws were obeyed. The quarrels which arose were 

 decided either by the kings, or by the assembly of 

 the people, or by the gerousia, or, more generally, by 

 impartial and equitable citizens. One of the most 

 remarkable institutions of Lycurgus, was the military 

 education of the Spartan youth, which was such as to 

 destroy all sensibility to suffering, and to overcome 

 the fear of death. The beginning of a war was to 

 them the beginning of a festival, and the camp was a 

 place of recreation, for here ceased all that strictness 

 of life which was observed at home ; even the bodily 

 exercises were less frequent. Victory or death was 

 their highest glory ; eternal shame followed the 

 cowards and those who fled. The courage of the 

 Spartans was maintained, also, by those laws which 

 forbade them to surround their city with walls, to 

 fight often with the same enemy, to pursue too far a 

 routed enemy, to plunder the dead during battle; and 

 also by the solemn burial of their heroes, the monu- 

 ments to their memory, the festivals and temples in 

 their honour. Nevertheless, Lycurgus did not in- 

 tend that the Spartans should become a conquering 

 nation, as is evident from his forbidding them a navy. 



The institutions of Lycurgus have been blamed as 

 much as they have been praised. Plato, in particu- 

 lar, accuses them of destroying every thing humane, 

 and making mechanical valour the highest virtue, 

 and thinks that this suppression of all the feelings of 

 humanity was the cause of the countless evils which 

 fell upon Lacedaemon, and were prepared by her for 

 other nations. Thucydides makes Pericles say, that 

 the virtue of the Spartans is morose, and founded only 

 upon fear, and that their education made them cruel 

 and inhuman. 



We have here given the commonly received tra- 

 ditions concerning Lycurgus and his institutions, 

 which, however, must be received with much cau- 

 tion. If there were such an individual, for this is 

 doubtful, he lived before the time of historical cer- 

 tainty ; and what are called his laws, were probably 

 the usages and institutions which were common to 

 the whole Doric race from the earliest period. A 

 very full and critical examination of the whole sub- 

 ject may be found in Muller's learned work, Die 

 Dorter, which has been translated into English, under 

 the title of the History and Antiquities of the Doric 

 Race (2 vols., 8vo, London, 1830). 



Lycurgus was also the name of an Attic orator of 

 some celebrity. He was a contemporary of Demos- 



