Page images
PDF
EPUB

They were prompted the exercise of any mechanica art, The Ilotes, who were a kind of slaves, cultivated their lands, and paid them a certain revenue for them.

It was Lycurgus's will that his citizens should have a great deal of leisure. They had common halls, where they met together for conversation. And though their discourse frequently turned upon grave and serious subjects, it was seasoned with a wit and agreeableness, which instructed and corrected, whilst it diverted them. They were seldom alone; but were accustomed to live like bees, in swarms, and always around their chiefs. [m] The love of their country and the common good was their prevailing passion. They thought they were not to live for themselves but for their country. Pedaretus not having had the honour of being chosen one of the three hundred, who held a certain place of distinction in the city, returned home very cheerful and easy, saying, he was overjoyed to find there were three hundred better men in Sparta than himself.

Every thing at Sparta inspired the love of virtue, and hatred of vice; the actions of the citizens, their conversations, and even the public inscriptions. It was hard for men, brought up in the midst of so many precepts and living examples, not to become as virtuous as Pagans could be. It was to preserve this happy habitude in them, that Lycurgus did not allow all sorts of persons to travel, lest they should return with foreign manners, and licentious customs, which would soon have inspired them with a disgust for the life and maxims of Lacedæmon. He likewise expelled all foreigners the city, who came only for curiosity, and not out of some useful or profitable intention; apprehending that they might bring with them the

Lacedæmonians was war. Every thing had a tendency that way, and breathed nothing but arms. Their manner of life was far less rigid in the field than at home; and they were the only people in the world to whom war was a season of repose and refreshment; because then the obligations to that hard and severe discipline, which they observed at Sparta, were somewhat relaxed, and greater liberty allowed them. With them the first and most inviolable law of war, [n] as Demaratus told Xerxes, was never to turn their backs, how far superior soever in number the enemy might be; never to quit their post; never to surrender their arms; in a word, to conquer or die. [o] And hence it was, that a mother advised her son, who was setting out for a campaign, to return with his buckler, or upon his buckler; and another hearing that her son was slain in battle in defence of his country, replied coldly, [p] It was for that end I brought him into the world. And this was the common disposition of the Lacedæmonians. [9] After the famous battle of Leuctra, which was so fatal to them, the parents of those who were killed in fighting congratulating one another, and ran to the temples to thank the gods, because their children had done their duty; whereas the parents of those who survived the defeat, were inconsolable. Such as fled were ever after infamous at Sparta. They were not only excluded all offices and employments, the assemblies, and shows, but it was a disgrace to marry a daughter to them, or take a daughter from them, and they were publicly affronted upon every occasion without any remedy for the injury offered.

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]
[ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

OF PROFANE HISTORY.

They never went to battle, till they had implored the assistance of the gods by sacrifices and public prayers, and then they marched against the enemy in full confidence, as being thoroughly assured of the divine protection, or to use the expression of Plutarch, as if God were present, and fought with them ; ὡς τῷ ΘεΞ συμπαρόντος.

[ocr errors]

When they had broke their enemies, and put them to flight, they pursued them no farther than was necessary to secure the victory; after which they retired, as judging it neither glorious, nor worthy of Greece, to cut in pieces such as yielded or made no resistance. And this was no less useful than honourable to them; for their enemies knowing that all who opposed were put to the sword, and that only such as ran away escaped, generally preferred flight to resistance.

After the first institutions of Lycurgus were received and confirmed by use, and the form of government he had established seemed strong enough to support itself without any other assistance; [r] as Plato says of God, that having finished the creation of the world, he rejoiced when he saw it first move with such harmony and exactitude; so this wise legislator, charmed with the grandeur and beauty of his laws, found a double satisfaction in seeing them subsist alone, and make so happy a progress.

But desiring to make them as immortal and unchangeable as human prudence would admit, he told the people there was one point still remaining, more important and essential than all the rest, about which he would consult the oracle of Apollo; and in the mean time he obliged them all by an oath to keep up the form of government he had established, till such time as he should return. When he came to Delphos, he enquired of the god, whether his laws were good, and tended to make the Spartans happy and virtuous.

[r] This passage of Plato is in the world. Vidit Deus cuncta quæ

11

Apollo answered, that his laws were perfect; and that so long as Sparta should observe them, it would be the most glorious city in the world, and enjoy entire felicity. Lycurgus sent this answer to Sparta, and judging his ministry accomplished, he died voluntarily at Delphos, by abstaining from food. He was of opinion, that the death of great men and ministers should not be insignificant or useless to the commonwealth, but a consequence of their administration, one of their most considerable actions, and as honourable, if not more so, than' all the rest of their lives. He thought therefore, to die in this manner would be confirming and crowning all the services he had done his fellow-citizens during his life, as his death would oblige them to observe his ordinances for ever, which they had sworn to observe inviolably till his return.

The heathen were generally of opinion, that every man had a right to put himself to death, whensoever he pleased.

REFLECTIONS UPON THE GOVERNMENT OF SPARTA, AND THE LAWS OF LY· CURGUS.

I. THINGS LAUDABLE IN THE LAWS OF LY

CURGUS.

WERE we to judge only by the event, there inust have been a large fund of wisdom and prudence in the laws of Lycurgus, since so long as they were observed at Sparta, which was for above five hundred years, that city was so powerful and flourishing. They were, says [s] Plutarch, speaking of the laws of Sparta, less a form of government and civil administration, than the conduct and rules of a wise man, who passes his whole life in the exercises of virtue. Or rather, adds the same author, as the poets feign of Hercules, that with his lion's skin and club only he ran through the world, and purged it of robbers and tyrants; so

[5] Οὐ πόλεως ἡ Σπάρτη πολιτίαν, ἀλλ ̓ ἀνδρὸς ἀσκητοῦ καὶ σοφοῦ βίου έχεσα.

Sparta

[merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small]

OF PROFANE HISTORY.

Sparta with a [t] simple roll of parchment and a sorry
cloak, gave law to all Greece, which willingly sub-
mitted to their empire, threw down tyrannies and
usurpations, put an end to wars at their pleasure, and
calmed seditions, most frequently without taking up
arms, and by the dispatch of a single embassador,
who no sooner appeared, than all the states in sub-
jection ranged themselves around him, like bees
about their king; so great an awe and reverence
had the justice and good government of that city
imprinted on all mankind.

1. The Nature of the Spartan Government.

There is a reflection in Plutarch at the close of the life of Lycurgus, which is itself a great eulogium upon this wise legislator. He says that Plato, Diogenes, Zeno, and all the rest, who have undertaken to treat of the establishment of civil government, have formed their schemes upon Lycurgus's plan; with this difference, that they went no farther than mere description, whereas Lycurgus, without stopping at ideas and projects, reduced his inimitable designs to practice, and formed a whole city of philosophers.

To succeed the better, and to establish a republic as perfect as possible, he in a manner blended together whatever was to be found in any kind of government, that seemed most conducive to the interest of the republic, by qualifying one with the other, and balancing the inconveniences of each in particular by the advantages arising from the union of all together. Sparta was in some respects monarchical, from the authority of their kings; the council of the thirty, or senate, was a true aristocracy; and the power the peo ple had of nominating the senators, and giving a sanction to the laws, was a branch of democratical goThe institution of the ephori afterwards

vernment.

[] This was what the Lacedæ- a staff; whereon the orders of the

manians called coutals

اللمس

cublic to the cenerals were written

0

13

« PreviousContinue »