Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
him that would forbear drinking, his kingdom for a reward; and when not
a man of them was able to forbear, in short, when they had all drunk
their fill, at last comes king Sous himself to the spring, and, having
sprinkled his face only, without swallowing one drop, marches off in the
face of his enemies, refusing to yield up his conquests, because himself
and all his men had not, according to the articles,
drunk of their water.
Although he was justly had in admiration on this account, yet his family
was not surnamed from him, but from his son Eurypon (of whom they were
called Eurypontids); the reason of which was that Eurypon relaxed the
rigor of the monarchy, seeking favor and popularity with the many.
They, after this first step, grew bolder; and the succeeding kings
partly incurred hatred with their people by trying to use force, or, for
popularity's sake and through weakness, gave way; and anarchy and
confusion long prevailed in Sparta, causing, moreover, the death of the
father of Lycurgus. For as he was endeavoring to quell a riot, he was
stabbed with a butcher's knife, and left the title of king
to his eldest son Polydectes.
He, too, dying soon after, the right of succession (as every one
thought) rested in Lycurgus; and reign he did, until it was found that
the queen, his sister-in-law, was with child; upon which he immediately
declared that the kingdom belonged to her issue, provided it were male,
and that he himself exercised the regal jurisdiction only as his
guardian; the Spartan name for which office is prodicus. Soon after, an
overture was made to him by the queen, that she would herself in some
way destroy the infant, upon condition that he would marry her when he
came to the crown. Abhorring the woman's wickedness, he nevertheless
did not reject her proposal, but, making show of closing with her,
dispatched the messenger with thanks and expressions of joy, but
dissuaded her earnestly from procuring herself to miscarry, which would
impair her health, if not endanger her life; he himself, he said, would
see to it, that the child, as soon as born, should be taken out of the
way. By such artifices having drawn on the woman to the time of her
lying-in, as soon as he heard that she was in labor, he sent persons to
be by and observe all that passed, with orders that if it were a girl
they should deliver it to the women, but if a boy, should bring it to
him wheresoever he were, and whatsoever doing. It so fell out that when
he was at supper with the principal magistrates the queen was brought to
bed of a boy, who was soon after presented to him as he was at the
table; he, taking him into his arms, said to those about him, "Men of
Sparta, here is a king born unto us;" this said, he laid him down in
the king's place, and named him Charilaus, that is, the joy of the
people; because that all were transported with joy and with wonder at
his noble and just spirit. His reign had lasted only eight months, but
he was honored on other accounts by the citizens, and there were more
who obeyed him because of his eminent virtues, than because he was
regent to the king and had the royal power in his hands. Some, however,
envied and sought to impede his growing influence while he was still
young; chiefly the kindred and friends of the queen mother, who
pretended to have been dealt with injuriously. Her brother Leonidas, in
a warm debate which fell out betwixt him and Lycurgus, went so far as to
tell him to his face that he was well assured that ere long he should
see him king; suggesting suspicions and preparing the way for an
accusation of him, as though he had made away with his nephew, if the
child should chance to fail though by a natural death. Words of the
like import were designedly cast abroad by the queen-mother
and her adherents.
Troubled at this, and not knowing what it might come to, he thought it
his wisest course to avoid their envy by a voluntary exile, and to
travel from place to place until his nephew came to marriageable years,
and, by having a son, had secured the succession; setting sail,
therefore, with this resolution, he first arrived at Crete, where,
having considered their several forms of government, and got an
acquaintance with the principal men amongst them, some of their laws he
very much approved of, and resolved to make use of them in his own
country; a good part he rejected as useless. Amongst the persons there
the most renowned for their learning all their wisdom in state matters
was one Thales, whom Lycurgus, by importunities and assurances of
friendship, persuaded to go over to Lacedaemon; where, though by his
outward appearance and his own profession he seemed to be no other than
a lyric poet, in reality he performed the part of one of the ablest
lawgivers in the world. The very songs which he composed were
exhortations to obedience and concord, and the very measure and cadence
of the verse, conveying impressions of order and tranquility, had so
great an influence on the minds of the listeners, that they were
insensibly softened and civilized, insomuch that they renounced their
private feuds and animosities, and were reunited in a common admiration
of virtue. So that it may truly be said that Thales prepared the way
for the discipline introduced by Lycurgus.
From Crete he sailed to Asia, with design, as is said, to examine the
difference betwixt the manners and rules of life of the Cretans, which
were very sober and temperate, and those of the Ionians, a people of
sumptuous and delicate habits, and so to form a judgment; just as
physicians do by comparing healthy and diseased bodies. Here he had the
first sight of Homer's works, in the hands, we may suppose, of the
posterity of Creophylus; and, having observed that the few loose
expressions and actions of ill example which are to be found in his
poems were much outweighed by serious lessons of state and rules of
morality, he set himself eagerly to transcribe and digest them into
order, as thinking they would be of good use in his own country. They
had, indeed, already obtained some slight repute amongst the Greeks, and
scattered portions, as chance conveyed them, were in the hands of
individuals; but Lycurgus first made them really known.
The Egyptians say that he took a voyage into Egypt, and that, being much
taken with their way of separating the soldiery from the rest of the
nation, he transferred it from them to Sparta, a removal from contact
with those employed in low and mechanical occupations giving high
refinement and beauty to the state. Some Greek writers also record
this. But as for his voyages into Spain, Africa, and the Indies, and
his conferences there with the Gymnosophists, the whole relation, as far
as I can find, rests on the single credit of the Spartan Aristocrates,
the son of Hipparchus.
Lycurgus was much missed at Sparta, and often sent for, "for kings
indeed we have," they said, "who wear the marks and assume the titles of
royalty, but as for the qualities of their minds, they have nothing by
which they are to be distinguished from their subjects;" adding, that in
him alone was the true foundation of sovereignty to be seen, a nature
made to rule, and a genius to gain obedience. Nor were the kings
themselves averse to see him back, for they looked upon his presence as
a bulwark against the insolencies of the people.
Things being in this posture at his return, he applied himself, without
loss of time, to a thorough reformation and resolved to change the whole
face of the commonwealth; for what could a few particular laws and a
partial alteration avail? He must act as wise physicians do, in the
case of one who labors under a complication of diseases, by force of
medicines reduce and exhaust him, change his whole temperament, and then
set him upon a totally new regimen of diet. Having thus projected
things, away he goes to Delphi to consult Apollo there; which having
done, and offered his sacrifice, he returned with that renowned oracle,
in which he is called beloved of God, and rather God than man; that his
prayers were heard, that his laws should be the best, and the
commonwealth which observed them the most famous in the world.
Encouraged by these things, he set himself to bring over to his side the
leading men of Sparta, exhorting them to give him a helping hand in his
great undertaking; he broke it first to his particular friends, and then
by degrees gained others, and animated them all to put his design in
execution. When things were ripe for action, he gave order to thirty of
the principal men of Sparta to be ready armed at the market-place by
break of day, to the end that he might strike a terror into the opposite
party. Hermippus hath set down the names of twenty of the most eminent
of them; but the name of him whom Lycurgus most confided in, and who was
of most use to him, both in making his laws and putting them in
execution, was Arthmiadas. Things growing to a tumult, king Charilaus,
apprehending that it was a conspiracy against his person, took sanctuary
in the temple of Minerva of the Brazen House; but, being soon after
undeceived, and having taken an oath of them that they had no designs
against him, he quitted his refuge, and himself also entered into the
confederacy with them; of so gentle and flexible a disposition he was,
to which Archelaus, his brother-king, alluded, when, hearing him
extolled for his goodness, he said, "Who can say he is anything but
good? he is so even to the bad."
Amongst the many changes and alterations which Lycurgus made, the first
and of greatest importance was the establishment of the senate, which,
having a power equal to the kings' in matters of great consequence, and,
as Plato expresses it, allaying and qualifying the fiery genius of the
royal office, gave steadiness and safety to the commonwealth. For the
state, which before had no firm basis to stand upon, but leaned one
while towards an absolute monarchy, when the kings had the upper hand,
and another while towards a pure democracy, when the people had the
better, found in this establishment of the senate a central weight, like
ballast in a ship, which always kept things in a just equilibrium; the
twenty-eight always adhering to the kings so far as to resist democracy,
and, on the other hand, supporting the people against the establishment
of absolute monarchy. As for the determinate number of twenty-eight,
Aristotle states, that it so fell out because two of the original
associates, for want of courage, fell off from the enterprise; but
Sphaerus assures us that there were but twenty-eight of the confederates
at first; perhaps there is some mystery in the number, which consists of
seven multiplied by four, and is the first of perfect numbers after six,
being, as that is, equal to all its parts. For my part, I believe
Lycurgus fixed upon the number of twenty-eight, that, the two kings
being reckoned amongst them, they might be thirty in all. So eagerly
set was he upon this establishment, that he took the trouble to obtain
an oracle about it from Delphi, the Rhetra, which runs thus: "After that
you have built a temple to Jupiter Hellanius, and to Minerva Hellania,
and after that you have phyle'd the people phyles, and obe'd them into
obes, you shall establish a council of thirty elders, the leaders
included, and shall, from time to time, apellazein the people betwixt
Babyca and Cnacion, there propound and put to the vote. The commons
have the final voice and decision. " By phyles and obes are meant the
divisions of the people; by the leaders, the two kings; apellazein,
referring to the Pythian Apollo, signifies to assemble; Babyca and
Cnacion they now call Oenus; Aristotle says Cnacion is a river, and