Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
seven hundred of the old Spartan families, of which perhaps one
hundred might have estates in land, the rest were destitute
alike of wealth and of honor, were tardy and unperforming in the
defense of their country against its enemies abroad, and eagerly
watched the opportunity for change and revolution at home.
Agis, therefore, believing it a glorious action, as in truth it
was, to equalize and repeople the state, began to sound the
inclinations of the citizens. He found the young men disposed
beyond his expectation; they were eager to enter with him upon
the contest in the cause of virtue, and to fling aside, for
freedom's sake, their old manner of life, as readily as the
wrestler does his garment. But the old men, habituated and more
confirmed in their vices, were most of them as alarmed at the
very name of Lycurgus, as a fugitive slave to be brought back
before his offended master. These men could not endure to hear
Agis continually deploring the present state of Sparta, and
wishing she might be restored to her ancient glory. But on the
other side, Lysander, the son of Libys, Mandroclidas, the son of
Ecphanes, together with Agesilaus, not only approved his design,
but assisted and confirmed him in it. Lysander had a great
authority and credit with the people; Mandroclidas was esteemed
the ablest Greek of his time to manage an affair and put it in
train, and, joined with skill and cunning, had a great degree of
boldness. Agesilaus was the king's uncle, by the mother's side;
an eloquent man, but covetous and voluptuous, who was not moved
by considerations of public good, but rather seemed to be
persuaded to it by his son Hippomedon, whose courage and signal
actions in war had gained him a high esteem and great influence
among the young men of Sparta, though indeed the true motive
was, that he had many debts, and hoped by this means to be freed
from them.
As soon as Agis had prevailed with his uncle, he endeavored by
his mediation to gain his mother also, who had many friends and
followers, and a number of persons in her debt in the city, and
took a considerable part in public affairs. At the first
proposal, she was very averse, and strongly advised her son not
to engage in so difficult and so unprofitable an enterprise.
But Agesilaus endeavored to possess her, that the thing was not
so difficult as she imagined, and that it might, in all
likelihood, redound to the advantage of her family; while the
king, her son, besought her not for money's sake to decline
assisting his hopes of glory. He told her, he could not pretend
to equal other kings in riches, the very followers and menials
of the satraps and stewards of Seleucus or Ptolemy abounding
more in wealth than all the Spartan kings put together; but if
by contempt of wealth and pleasure, by simplicity and
magnanimity, he could surpass their luxury and abundance, if he
could restore their former equality to the Spartans, then he
should be a great king indeed. In conclusion, the mother and
the grandmother also were so taken, so carried away with the
inspiration, as it were, of the young man's noble and generous
ambition, that they not only consented, but were ready on an
occasions to spur him on to a perseverance, and not only sent to
speak on his behalf with the men with whom they had an interest,
but addressed the other women also, knowing well that the
Lacedaemonian wives had always a great power with their
husbands, who used to impart to them their state affairs with
greater freedom than the women would communicate with the men in
the private business of their families. Which was indeed one
of the greatest obstacles to this design; for the money of
Sparta being most of it in the women's hands, it was their
interest to oppose it, not only as depriving them of those
superfluous trifles, in which through want of better knowledge
and experience, they placed their chief felicity, but also
because they knew their riches were the main support of their
power and credit.
Those, therefore, who were of this faction, had recourse to
Leonidas, representing to him, how it was his part, as the elder
and more experienced, to put a stop to the ill-advised projects
of a rash young man. Leonidas, though of himself sufficiently
inclined to oppose Agis, durst not openly, for fear of the
people, who were manifestly desirous of this change; but
underhand he did all he could to discredit and thwart the
project, and to prejudice the chief magistrates against him, and
on all occasions craftily insinuated, that it was as the price
of letting him usurp arbitrary power, that Agis thus proposed to
divide the property of the rich among the poor, and that the
object of these measures for canceling debts, and dividing the
lands, was, not to furnish Sparta with citizens, but purchase
him a tyrant's body-guard.
Agis, nevertheless, little regarding these rumors, procured
Lysander's election as ephor; and then took the first occasion
of proposing through him his Rhetra to the council, the chief
articles of which were these: That every one should be free from
their debts; all the lands to be divided into equal portions,
those that lay betwixt the watercourse near Pellene and Mount
Taygetus, and as far as the cities of Malea and Sellasia, into
four thousand five hundred lots, the remainder into fifteen
thousand; these last to be shared out among those of the country
people who were fit for service as heavy-armed soldiers, the
first among the natural born Spartans; and their number also
should be supplied from any among the country people or
strangers who had received the proper breeding of freemen, and
were of vigorous, body and of age for military service. All
these were to be divided into fifteen companies, some of four
hundred, and some of two, with a diet and discipline agreeable
to the laws of Lycurgus.
This decree being proposed in the council of Elders, met there
with opposition; so that Lysander immediately convoked the great
assembly of the people, to whom he, Mandroclidas, and Agesilaus
made orations, exhorting them that they would not suffer the
majesty of Sparta to remain abandoned to contempt, to gratify a
few rich men, who lorded it over them; but that they should call
to mind the oracles in old time which had forewarned them to
beware of the love of money, as the great danger and probable
ruin of Sparta, and, moreover, those recently brought from the
temple of Pasiphae. This was a famous temple and oracle at
Thalamae; and this Pasiphae, some say, was one of the daughters
of Atlas, who had by Jupiter a son called Ammon; others are of
opinion it was Cassandra, the daughter of king Priam, who, dying
in this place, was called Pasiphae, as the revealer of oracles
to all men. Phylarchus says, that this was Daphne, the daughter
of Amyclas, who, flying from Apollo, was transformed into a
laurel, and honored by that god with the gift of prophecy. But
be it as it will, it is certain the people were made to
apprehend, that this oracle had commanded them to return to
their former state of equality settled by Lycurgus. As soon as
these had done speaking, Agis stood up, and after a few words,
told them he would make the best contribution in his power to
the new legislation, which was proposed for their advantage. In
the first place, he would divide among them all his patrimony,
which was of large extent in tillage and pasture; he would also
give six hundred talents in ready money, and his mother,
grandmother, and his other friends and relations, who were the
richest of the Lacedaemonians, were ready to follow his example.
The people were transported with admiration of the young man's
generosity, and with joy, that after three hundred years'
interval, at last there had appeared a king worthy of Sparta.
But, on the other side, Leonidas was now more than ever averse,
being sensible that he and his friends would be obliged to
contribute with their riches, and yet all the honor and
obligation would redound to Agis. He asked him then before them
all, whether Lycurgus were not in his opinion a wise man, and a
lover of his country. Agis answering he was, "And when did
Lycurgus," replied Leonidas, "cancel debts, or admit strangers
to citizenship, -- he who thought the commonwealth not secure
unless from time to time the city was cleared of all
strangers?" To this Agis replied, "It is no wonder that
Leonidas, who was brought up and married abroad, and has
children by a wife taken out of a Persian court, should know
little of Lycurgus or his laws. Lycurgus took away both debts
and loans, by taking away money; and objected indeed to the
presence of men who were foreign to the manners and customs of
the country, not in any case from an ill-will to their persons,
but lest the example of their lives and conduct should infect
the city with the love of riches, and of delicate and luxurious
habits. For it is well known that he himself gladly kept
Terpander, Thales, and Pherecycles, though they were strangers,
because he perceived they were in their poems and in their
philosophy of the same mind with him. And you that are wont to
praise Ecprepes, who, being ephor, cut with his hatchet two of
the nine strings from the instrument of Phrynis, the musician,
and to commend those who afterwards imitated him, in cutting the
strings of Timotheus's harp, with what face can you blame us,
for designing to cut off superfluity and luxury and display from
the commonwealth? Do you think those men were so concerned only
about a lute-string, or intended anything else than to check in
music that same excess and extravagance which rule in our
present lives and manners, and have disturbed and destroyed all
the harmony and order of our city?"
From this time forward, as the common people followed Agis, so
the rich men adhered to Leonidas. They be sought him not to
forsake their cause; and with persuasions and entreaties so far
prevailed with the council of Elders, whose power consisted in
preparing all laws before they were proposed to the people, that
the designed Rhetra was rejected, though but by only one vote.
Whereupon Lysander, who was still ephor, resolving to be
revenged on Leonidas, drew up an information against him,
grounded on two old laws: the one forbids any of the blood of
Hercules to raise up children by a foreign woman, and the other
makes it capital for a Lacedaemonian to leave his country to
settle among foreigners. Whilst he set others on to manage this
accusation, he with his colleagues went to observe the sign,
which was a custom they had, and performed in this manner.
Every ninth year, the ephors, choosing a starlight night, when
there is neither cloud nor moon, sit down together in quiet and
silence, and watch the sky. And if they chance to see the
shooting of a star, they presently pronounce their king guilty
of some offense against the gods, and thereupon he is
immediately suspended from all exercise of regal power, till he
is relieved by an oracle from Delphi or Olympia.
Lysander, therefore, assured the people, he had seen a star
shoot, and at the same time Leonidas was cited to answer for
himself. Witnesses were produced to testify he had married an
Asian woman, bestowed on him by one of king Seleucus's
lieutenants; that he had two children by her, but she so
disliked and hated him, that, against his wishes, flying from
her, he was in a manner forced to return to Sparta, where, his
predecessor dying without issue, he took upon him the
government. Lysander, not content with this, persuaded also
Cleombrotus to lay claim to the kingdom. He was of the royal
family, and son-in-law to Leonidas; who, fearing now the event
of this process, fled as a suppliant to the temple of Minerva of