Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/375

 SPARTAN CONSTITUTION OLIGARCHIC L. 359 ft close, unscrupulous, and well-obeyed oligarchy, including within it, as subordinate, those portions which had once been dominant, the kings and the senate, and softening the odium, without abating the mischief, of the system, by its annual change of the ruling ephors. We must at the same time distinguish the government from the Lykurgean discipline and education, which doubtless tended much to equalize rich and poor, in respect to practical life, habits, and enjoyments. Herodotus (and seem- ingly, also, Xenophon) thought that the form just described was that which the government had originally received from the hand of Lykurgus. Now, though there is good reason for supposing otherwise, and for believing the ephors to be a subsequent addi- tion, yet, the mere fact that Herodotus was so informed at Sparta, points our attention to one important attribute of the Spartan polity, which it is proper to bring into view. This attri- bute is, its unparalleled steadiness, for four or five successive centuries, in the midst of governments like the Grecian, all of which had undergone more or less of fluctuation. No considera- ble revolution not even any palpable or foi'mal change oc- curred in it, from the days of the Messenian war, down to those of Agis the Third : in spite of the irreparable blow which the power and territory of the state sustained from Epameinondas and the Thebans, the form of government, nevertheless, remained unchanged. It was the only government in Greece which could trace an unbroken, peaceable descent from a high antiquity, and from its real or supposed founder. Now this was one of the main circumstances (among others which will hereafter be men- tioned) of the astonishing ascendency which the Spartans ac- quired over the Hellenic mind, and which they will not be found at all to deserve by any superior ability in the conduct of affairs. The steadiness of their political sympathies, exhibited at one time, by putting down the tyrants, or despots, at another, by overthrowing the democracies, stood in the place of ability ; and even the recognized failings of their government were often covered by the sentiment of respect for its early commencement and uninterrupted continuance. If such a feeling acted on tho Greeks generally, 1 much more powerful was its action upon the 1 A specimen of the way in which this antiquity was lauded, may be seen in Isokrates, Or. xii. (Panathenaic.) p. 288