Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/868

Rh 854 LYCUIiGUS. military institutions of Sparta were not intended to enable her to make foreign conquests, but to maintain those she had already made. Sparta, although constantly at war, made no conquests after the subjection of Messenia ; all her wars may be called defensive wars, for their object was chiefly to maintain her commanding position, as the head of the Hellenic race. In an army nothing can be of higher importance than subordination. Hence it was the pride of the Spartans, as king Archidamus {Isocrat. §}51,p. 132, Steph.) said, " that they excelled in Greece, not through the size of their city, nor through the number of their citizens, but because they lived like a well-disciplined army, and yielded a willing obedience to their magistrates." We have seen already that these magistrates, and the ephors of later times in particular, were entrusted with very extensive power. They resembled less consuls or tribunes, than dictators, chosen in time of need and danger. Another striking feature in the government of Sparta was the excessive degree to which the inter- ference of the state was carried, a practice never realised to such an extent in any other government, before or after, except in the ideal states of Plato and other philosophers. In a constitutional monarchy, Buch as England, people know not from experience what state-interference is ; but even in the most absolute monarchies of the Continent, where people complain that the state meddles with everything, nothing short of a revolution would immediately follow the attempt at an introduction of anything only distantly similar to the state-interference of Sparta. The whole mode of viewing things at present is different, nay the reverse of what it ■was then. We maintain that the state exists for the sake of its individual citizens ; at Sparta, the citizen only existed for the state, — he had no inte- rest but the state's, no will, no property, but that of the state. Hence the extraordinary feature in Sparta, that not only equality, but even community of property, existed to an extent which is unequalled in any other age or country. Modern politicians dread nothing more than the spreading of com- munism or socialism. In Sparta it was laid down as a fundamental principle of the constitution, that all citizens were entitled to the enjoyment of an equal portion of the common property. We know that such a state of things could not exist in our age for a single moment, and even all the vigilance and severity of Sparta was unable to prevent in course of .time the accumulation of property in a few haftds ; but that it could at all exist there to a certain degree for a long period, can again only be accounted for by the existence of the same cause to which we must trace all the institutions of Sparta. It was devised for securing to the com- monwealth a large number of citizens and soldiers, free from the toils and labours for their sustenance, and able to devote their whole time to warlike ex- ercises, in order so to keep up the ascendancy of Sparta over her perioici and helots ; and on the other hand, it was the toils and labours of the pe- rioici and helots which alone could supply the state with a stock of property available for an equal dis- tribution among the citizens. Where no such subject population existed, it would have been a fruitless attempt to introduce the Spartan consti- tution. The Spartans were to be warriors and nothing LYCUROUS. but warriors. Therefore not only all mechanical labour was thought to degrade them, and only to become their slaves ; not only was husbandry, the pride of the noblest Romans, despised and neg- lected, trade and manufactures kept off like a con- tagious disease, all intercourse with foreign nations prevented, or at least impeded, by laws prohibiting Spartans to travel and foreigners to come to La- conia, and by the still more effective means of the iron money ; but also the nobler arts and sciences, which might have adorned and sweetened the leisure of the camp, as the lyre soothed the grief of Achilles, were so effectually stifled, that Sparta is a blank in the history of the arts and literature of Greece, and has contributed nothing to the in- struction and enjoyment of mankind. What little trade and art there was in Laconia was left to the care of an oppressed race, the Lacedaemonian pro- vincials, who received little or no encouragement from Sparta, and never rose to any distinction. But the sort of state interference which is the most repulsive to our feelings, and the most objec- tionable on moral and political grounds, was that which was exercised in the sanctuary of that circle which forms the basis of every state, the family. It is evident that, in order to maintain their supe- riority, the Spartans were obliged to keep up their numbers ; even the most heroic valour and the best organisation of military discipline would fail to perpetuate the subjection of the Helots, if these should ever outnumber their lords too dispropor- tionably. We have seen that, to prevent this, by thinning their ranks, the most barbarous and ini- quitous policy was pursued. But even this was inefficient, and it was necessary to devise means for raising the number of citizens as well as lower- ing that of the slaves. Sparta seems never to have suffered from a dread of over population. It is the fate of all close corporations, which admit no new element from without, to decrease more and more in number, as, for instance, the body of the patricians in Rome. The Spartans were particularly jealous of their political franchise, and consequently their numbers rapidly diminished. In her better days Sparta mustered from 8000 to 10,000 heavy-armed men (Herod, vii. 234 ; Arist. Pol ii. 6. 12) ; but in the days of Aristotle this number had sunk to 1000 (Arist. Pol. ii. 6 § 11); and king Agis, when he attempted his reform, found only 700. (Plut. A</is^ 5.) Even as early as the time of Lycurgus Sparta must have felt a decrease of citizens, for to him is ascribed a law which rewarded a father of three children with release from military service, and one of four children with freedom from all duties to the state. (Arist. Pol. ii. 6, 13. Comp,, how- ever, Manso, Sparta, i. 1, p. 128, who doubts whether this was a law of Lycurgus.) But the mere person of a citizen was of little use to the community. In order to be of efficient service, he must have a strong healthy body, sufficient property in land and slaves to enable him to live as a soldier, and he must, moreover, be trained in the regular school of Spartan state eduaition, which alone could form the true Spartan citizen. P'rom these causes are derived the laws regulating marriage, the succes- sion of property and education. Every Spartan was bound to marry, in order to give citizens to the state ; and he must miirry neither too early nor too late, nor an unsuitable woman. (Miill. JJor, iv. 4. § 3.) The king Archidamus, for instance, was