Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/471

 ACQUIRED ASCENDENCY OF SPARTA. 455 primitive aspect of a group of adjacent hill-villages rather than a regular city. When, along with such territorial advantages, we contemplate the personal training peculiar to the Spartan citizens, as yet undiminished in their numbers, combined with the effect of that training upon Grecian sentiment, in inspiring awe and ad- miration, we shall not be surprised to find that, during the half-century which elapsed between the year 600 B. c. and the final conquest of Thyreatis from Argos, Sparta had acquired and begun to exercise a recognized ascendency over all the Grecian states. Her military force was at that time superior to that of any of the rest, in a degree much greater than it afterwards came to be ; for other states had not yet attained their maximum, and Athens in particular was far short of the height which she after- wards reached. In respect to discipline as well as number, the Spartan military force had even at this early period reached a point which it did not subsequently surpass ; while in Athens, Thebes, Argos, Arcadia, and even Elis (as will be hereafter shown), the military training in later days received greater at- tention, and improved considerably. The Spartans (observes Aristotle) * brought to perfection their gymnastic training and their military discipline, at a time when other Greeks neglected both the one and the other : their early superiority was that of the trained men over the untrained, and ceased in after-days, when other states came to subject their citizens to systematic exercises of analogous character or tendency. This fact," the early period at which Sparta attained her maximum of discipline, power, and territory, is important to bear in mind, when we are explaining the general acquiescence which her ascendency met with in Greece, and which her subsequent acts would cer- tainly not have enabled her to earn. That acquiescence first began, and became a habit of the Grecian mind, at a time when Sparta had no rival to come near her, when she had complete- 1 Aristot Polit. viii. 3, 4. "En 5e atVotif -ot'c Awuvac lo/iev, u$ /jii-v ai>Tol T(toarj6pevov ralf dt/Lo7rov/a*f, vTrepe^ovraf ruv UA/MV vvv <5e, /cat ro?f Kal Tolf nofaftiKolf iy&drt, fatirofievvvf ETspuv ' ov yap T> rot)f a&iv TOV rpo~ov TOVTOV 6if(j>epov t  fiovov firj Trpdf aaKovv- rof uaneiv ...... ' AvrayuviffTu" yup TTJS ?ra5e<af vvv e^ovat- KpoTwo* 6i <A* tlov.