Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.4, 1865).djvu/485

 CLEOMENES. 477 Then he himself first, with his step-father, Megistonus, and his friends, gave up all their wealth into one public stock, and all the other citizens followed the example. The land was divided, and every one that he had ban- ished, had a share assigned him ; for he promised to re- store all, as soon as things were settled and in quiet. And completing the number of citizens out of the best and most promising of the country people, he raised a body of four thousand men ; and instead of a spear, taught them to use a sarissa, with both hands, and to carry their shields by a band, and not by a handle,* as before. After this, he began to consult about the education of the youth, and the Discipline, as they call it ; most of the par- ticulars of which, Sphoerus, being then at Sparta, assisted in arranging ; and, in a short time, the schools of exercise and the common tables recovered their ancient decency and order, a few out of necessity, but the most volunta- rily, returning to that generous and Laconic way of living. And, that the name of monarch might give them no jeal- ousy, he made Euclidas, his brother, partner in the throne ; and that was the only time that Sparta had two kings of the same family. Then, understanding that the Achaeans and Aratus imagined that this change had disturbed and shaken his affairs, and that he would not venture out of Sparta and leave the city now unsettled in the midst of so great an alteration, he thought it great and serviceable to his de- signs, to show his enemies the zeal and forwardness of his troops. And, therefore, making an incursion into the ter- ritories of Megalopolis, he wasted the country far and wide, and collected a considerable booty.. And, at last, porpax, the precise distinction be- of the change was to have both tween which it is hard to determine, hands hold the long Macedonian Evidently the former allowed the spear, soldier to use the left hand more
 * By an ohhane, instead of a freely than the latter; the object