Page:The City-State of the Greeks and Romans.djvu/102

78 which are capable of growing into invaluable constitutional principles. Two things seem necessary to a young State which is to have a great future, — the full realisation of authority and of the obedience due to it, and a sense of the moral limits which reason sets both on obedience and authority. Both these were present in early Rome, as in early England.

III. The third form of monarchy which we are to consider in this chapter is that of Sparta. Of the early history of the Spartan kingship we know hardly anything; but as a late and most curious survival into historical times it well repays study. As in the Homeric Basileus we have the undefined stage of early magisterial authority, and in the Roman Rex its complete and defined realisation, so in the history of Spartan kingship in the sixth and fifth centuries we have a picture of the way in which life might slowly leave an old and valuable institution, while its venerable framework remained, as much respected and cherished as ever.

The Spartan resembled the Roman in many ways, and one of them was the tenacity with which he clung to old ideas and institutions. When the Romans got rid of their kings they retained not only many of the outward signs of kingship, but also the imperium itself — the very essence of the king's magisterial power. The Spartans, on the other hand, kept the kingship throughout their history, but allowed it by slow degrees to moulder away into a picturesque ruin. The explanation of this is to be found not only in the dual form of