Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/869

Rh LYCURGUS. fined because he married a short woman (Pint, de 7v/«t'a<. 2), from whom no kings, but only kinglings (^^aaiKicTKOL), could be expected. To the matri- monial alliance so little sanctity was attached for its own sake, that it was sacrificed without scruple to maxims of state policy or private expediency ( Plut. Li/c. 1 5 ; comp. Polyb. jn Mai's N^ov. Coll. Vet. Scnpior. ii. p. 384. j ; a regular family life was rendered impossible by the husbcind's continual ab- sence from home, either in the gymnasia, or at the chase, or at the Syssitia and Leschae. Women were excluded from the common meals of the men. It was considered disreputable for the husband to be seen much in the company of his wife (Xen. de Rep. Lac. i. 5) ; his whole existence was engrossed by his public duties. The chief and only object of marriage was the procreation of a healthy offspring to supply the state with good citizens. Hence those regulations, so shocking to our feelings, which authorised a weak or old husband to admit a strong man to his matrimonial rights ; or those which provided a widow, who had not yet any children, to supply her husband's place with a man (proba- bly a slave), and to produce heirs and successors to the deceased. (Xen. Rep. Lac. i. 6 ; Miill. Dor. iii. 10. § 4). In Sparta it was considered an act of magnanimity that, when Leonidas was sent to Thermopylae, he left as a legacy to his wife, Gorgo, the maxim, "Marry nobly, and produce a noble offspring "( Plut. de Herod. Malign. 32, p. 321, Lac. Apophth. p. 216, fr. p. 355) ; and when Acro- tatus had fought bravely in the war against Pyr- rhus, the women followed him through the town ; and some of the older ones shouted after him: " Go, Acrotatus, enjoy yourself with Chelidonis, and beget valiant sons for Sparta." (Plut. Fyrrh. 28.) We cannot blame the Spartans so much for the laws which disposed of the hands of heiresses without in the least taking notice of their individual inclinations. The laws regarding this point were pretty nearly alike in most ancient Greek states, as every where the maintenance of the existing families and properties was considered of primary importance to the welfare of the state. Hence at Sparta the next in kin had a right and was bound to marry an heiress, and to continue her father's family. (Miill. i)or. iii. 10. § 4.) But that branch of social life in which Sparta stood most aloof from the rest of Greece and the world was the education of her citizens, young and old ; for the education of the Spartan was not confined to his youth, but extended nearly through- out his whole life. The syssitia, or, as they were called at Sparta, phiditia, the common meals, may be regarded as an educational institution ; for at these meals subjects of general interest were dis- cussed and political questions debated, so that they were not a bad school in politics and laws for the citizens. The discussions on these occasions may have been a sort of compensation for the silence that was imposed on the popular assembly ; they may to some extent have answered the purpose of the Roman contiones, and of the public press of our days. And they were the more efficient for such purposes, as friends and relations generally, to the number of fifteen, formed companies for dining together at one table, mto which'companies fresh members were only admitted by unanimous election. These kraipiai (as they were called by the Dorians in Crete) formed a sort of elementary LYCURGUS. 856 division of the array, and a political body, bound together by the ties of friendship and mutual esteem. The youths and boys used to eat se- parately from the men in their own divisions. For a concise view of the Spartan system of education see Thirlwall's Hist, of Greece, vol. i. p. 327. The organisation of the Spartan army, the climax of all their political institutions and social arrange- ments, which we have now reviewed, is treated of in the Diet, of Ant.., so that we can here dispense with a repetition of its details. It was more perfect than any other in Greece, and procured to Sparta an authority among Greeks and barbarians, which the envy and hatred of her bitterest enemies could not but acknowledge. As long as Sparta could supply her armies with a sufficient number of genuine Spartan citizens they were invincible ; but the decline of her free population necessarily drew after it that of her military strength, and after the days of Leuctra and Mantineia she never rose to that eminence she had proudly occupied after the battle of Plataeae or Aegos-potami. We now return to the more immediate subject of this article, and inquire how far the framing of the constitution of Sparta must be attributed to Lycurgus. This inquiry is not a useless speculation, but will serve to throw additional light on the cha- racter of that extraordinary political organisation, as we shall have to determine whether it was a spontaneous result of the Dorian character and the peculiar circumstances of the Spartan Dorians, or whether it was stamped upon them by the hand of a superior genius, without whose interference the course of political development would have run in a different direction. We have said already that the ancients were unanimous in regarding Lycurgus not only as a real historical person, but also as the originator of all the institutions of Sparta. But their testimony in this respect proves too much. One need only read Xenophon's little work, De RepuUica Lace- daeinoniorum., in order to see the absurdity of ascribing every thing to the lawgiver. According to this view, the Spartans must have lived before Lycurgus without all law, custom, and government, which we know is not true, and cannot be true, or, what would be more wonderful still, Lycurgus had the power of sweeping away every ancient custom, and supplanting it by a whole system of new foreign regulations. To adduce a few instances of this erroneous view, we will mention the institution of the popular assembly, which is ascribed to Ly- curgus (Plut. Lye. 6). There cannot be any doubt that an assembly of the people existed in Sparta from the first, as well as in all other Greek states, even in the heroic ages. A still more essential part of every Greek commonwealth was the council of elders, and yet this also is ascribed to Lycurgus. (Plut. Lye. 5.) But it is quite ridiculous to say that Lycurgus abolished gold and silver money, and enacted that iron should be the only currency. The first money in Greece was coined about the eighth Olympiad by Pheidon, tyrant of Argos. (Miill. Aeginetica, p. 57.) This was silver money. Gold money was first coined in Asia. The Spartan state at the time of Solon possessed not gold enough to gild the face of the statue of Apollo at Thornax, and sent to Croesus to buy it. (Herod, i. 69.) A similar mistake is made when the institution of the ephors is ascribed to Lycurgus. (Herod, i. 65 ; Xen. de Rep. Laced. 8. § 3.) Other accounts 3i 4