Page:Greece from the Coming of the Hellenes to AD. 14.djvu/79

Rh content made the ruler suspicions, and he defended himself by acts of severity. From one reason or another a Greek tyranny rarely lasted beyond the second generation. By B.C. 500 these tyrannies had disappeared almost entirely in European Greece, and the political contests which were always frequent in the states were between oligarchy and democracy.

But one state in the Peloponnese went through none of these changes. As far as we know anything of the history of Sparta, its constitution had scarcely varied at all. And this stability is one of the reasons of its commanding influence. Sparta never governed the whole of the Peloponnese; Elis, Arcadia, Achaia, Sicyon, and Corinth remained independent. It was only Messenia that was annexed as a conquered country. But the Spartans gained such a reputation for military discipline and prowess that they were looked upon as the natural leaders in joint expeditions, and obvious referees in cases of dispute. Sparta set a standard in physical training, in hardihood and abstemiousness, in loyalty and devotion to duty, which other states admired rather than imitated.

These characteristics were promoted by a body of laws and customs, of a curious and interesting nature, usually ascribed to Lycurgus about the era of the first Olympiad (B.C. 776). The personality and the very existence of Lycurgus were very early questioned, and it is quite possible that the institutions ascribed to him were not the work of any one man, but were gradually developed. Still it is improbable that a character so unique should