Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/353

 LAWS AND DISCIPLINE OF LYKUEGUS. 337 contained more specialties of its own, and approached nearer to the ^Eolic and to the Eleian, than any other variety of the Dorian : it stands at the extreme of what has been classified as the strict Dorian, that is, the farthest removed from Ionic and Attic. The Kretan towns manifest also a strict Dorism ; as well as the Lacedaemonian colony of Tarentum, and, seemingly, most of the Italiotic Greeks, though some of them are called Achaean colonies. Most of the other varieties of the Doric dialect (Pho- kian, Lokrian, Delphian, Achaean of Phthiotis) exhibit a form departing less widely from the Ionic and Attic : Argos, and the towns in the Argolic peninsula, seem to form a stepping-stone between the two. These positions represent the little which can be known re- specting those varieties of Grecian speech which are not known to us by written works. The little presumption which can be raised upon them favors the belief that the Dorian invaders of Laconia and Messenia found there a dialect little different from that which they brought with them, a conclusion which it is the more necessary to state distinctly, since the work of 0. Muller has caused an exaggerated estimate to be formed of the distinc- tive peculiarities whereby Dorism was parted off from the rest of Hellas. CHAPTER VI. LAWS AND DISCIPLINE OF LYKURGUS AT SPAKTA. PLUTAUCH begins his biography of Lykurgus with the following ominous words : " Concerning the lawgiver Lykurgus, we can assert absolutely nothing which is not controverted : there are different stories in respect to his birth, his travels, his death, and also his mode of proceeding, political as well as legislative : least of all is the time in which he lived agreed upon." VOL. ir. 15 22oc.