Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/361

 SANCTION BROUGHT BY LYKURGUS FROM DELPHI. 34 a from Delphi. 1 Such were the steps by which Lykurgus acquired his ascendency : we have now to see how he employed it. His first proceeding, pursuant to the Rhetra or Compact brought from Delphi, was to constitute the Spartan senate, consisting of twenty-eight ancient men ; making an aggregate of thirty in con- junction with the two kings, who sat and voted in it. With this were combined periodical assemblies of the Spartan people, in the open air, between the river Knakion and the bridge Babyka. Yet no discussion was permitted in these assemblies, their functions were limited to the simple acceptance or rejection of that which had previously been determined in the senate. 2 Such was the 1 Plutarch, Lykurg. c. 5-6. Hcrmippus, the scholar c/ Aristotle, professed to give the names of twenty out of these thirty devoted partisans. There was, however, a different story, which represented that Lykurgus, on his return from his travels, found Charilaus governing like a despot (Hera- clid. Pontic. c. 2). 2 The words of the old Ilhetra Atof 'E/U.avi'ov not 'A&ijvaf 'E^/lavt'af ispbv I6pvad/j.vov, v?,u vPid^avra, teal (jj3uf u/3d^avTa, rpiuKovTa, yepovaiav KVV up^ayeratf, /caraar^cravra, wpaf k$ tipaf aitek'Ku.&iv fisra^i) Bajvuae Kal Kvatduvor. ovrcjf eiefyspciv TS nal atpiffTaa&ai- (5a//a> cT uyopav tlpev nal lipdrof. (Plutarch, ib.) The reading dyopuv (last word but three) is that of Coray's edition: other readings proposed are Kvpiav, uvu-yuv, dyopiav, etc. The MSS., however, are incurably corrupt, and none of the conjectures can be pronounced certain. The Rhetra contains various remarkable archaisms, u7re/U,aetv dfyi crafftfai, the latter word in the sense of putting the question for decision corresponding to the function of the 'A0ecn%> at Knidus, (Plutarch, Quaest. Grac. c. 4 ; see Schneider, Lexicon, ad. voc.) O. Miiller connects rpuiKovra with ufiaf, and lays it down that there were thirty Obes at Sparta : I rather agree with those critics who place the comma after t>/3u;ov7-a, and refer the number thirty to the senate. Urlu-hs, in his Dissertation Ueber Die Lykurgisch. Rhetren (published in the Rheinisches Museum for 1847, p. 204), introduces the word Tcpeoftvyevias after rpiaKovra ; which seems a just conjecture, when we look to the addition afterwards made by Theopompus. The statements of Muller about the Obes seem to me to rest on no authority. The word Rhetra means a solemn compact, either originally emanating from, or subsequently sanctioned by, the gods, who are always parties to such agreements : see the old Treaty between the Eleians and Heraeans, 'A Fpurpa, between the two, commemorated in the valuable inscription atill preserved, as ancient, according to Boeckh, as Olymp. 40-60, (Boeckh, Corp. Inscript. No. 2, p. 26, part i.) The words of Tyrtseus imply such a ompact between contracting parties : first the kings, then the senate, lastly 15*