I recall the astonishment with which I first noted the unique position of Sparta among
the states of Hellas, the relatively sparse population, and at the same time the
extraordinary powers and prestige of the community. I was puzzled to account for the fact.
It was only when I came to consider the peculiar institutions of the Spartans, that my
wonderment ceased.
When we turn to Lycurgos, instead of leaving it to each member of the state privately
to appoint a slave to be his son's tutor, he set over the young Spartans a public
guardian--the paidonomos---with complete authority over them. This guardian was
elected from those who filled the highest magistracies. He had authority to hold musters
of the boys, and as their guardian, in case of any misbehavior, to chastise severely.
Lycurgos further provided the guardian with a body of youths in the prime of life and
bearing whips to inflict punishment when necessary, with this happy result, that in Sparta
modesty and obedience ever go hand in hand, nor is there lack of either.
Instead of softening their feet with shoe or sandal, his rule was to make them hardy
through going barefoot. This habit, if practiced, would, as he believed, enable them to
scale heights more easily and clamber down precipices with less danger. In fact, with his
feet so trained the young Spartan would leap and spring and run faster unshod than another
in the ordinary way. Instead of making them effeminate with a variety of clothes, his rule
was to habituate them to a single garment the whole year through, thinking that so they
would be better prepared to withstand the variations of heat and cold. Again, as regards
food, according to his regulation, the eiren, or head of the flock, must see that
his messmates gather to the club meal with such moderate food as to avoid bloating and yet
not remain unacquainted with the pains of starvation. His belief was that by such training
in boyhood they would be better able when occasion demanded to continue toiling on an
empty stomach....On the other hand, to guard against a too great pinch of starvation, he
did give them permission to steal this thing or that in the effort to alleviate their
hunger.
Lycurgos imposed upon the bigger boys a special rule. In the very streets they were to
keep their two hands within the folds of their coat; they were to walk in silence and
without turning their heads to gaze, now here, now there, but rather to keep their eyes
fixed upon the ground before them. And hereby it would seem to be proved conclusively
that, even in the matter of quiet bearing and sobriety, the masculine type may claim
greater strength than that which we attribute to the nature of women. At any rate, you
might sooner expect a stone image to find voice than one of these Spartan youths...
When Lycurgos first came to deal with the question, the Spartans, like the rest of the
Hellenes, used to mess privately at home. Tracing more than half the current problems to
this custom, he was determined to drag his people out of holes and corners into the broad
daylight, and so he invented the public mess rooms. As to food, his ordinance allowed them
only so much as should guard them from want.....So that from beginning to end, till the
mess breaks up, the common board is never stinted for food nor yet extravagantly
furnished. So also in the matter of drink. While putting a stop to all unnecessary drink,
he left them free to quench thirst when nature dictated.....Thus there is the necessity of
walking home when a meal is over, and a consequent anxiety not to be caught tripping under
the influence of wine, since they all know of course that the supper table must be
presently abandoned and that they must move as freely in the dark as in the day, even with
the help of a torch.
It is clear that Lycurgos set himself deliberately to provide all the blessings of
heaven for the good man, and a sorry and ill-starred existence for the coward. In other
states the man who shows himself base and cowardly, wins to himself an evil reputation and
the nickname of a coward, but that is all. For the rest he buys and sells in the same
marketplace with a good man; he sits beside him at a play; he exercises with him in the
same gymnasion, and all as suits his humor. But at Sparta there is not one man who
would not feel ashamed to welcome the coward at the common mess-tables or to try
conclusions with him in a wrestling bout;....during games he is left out as the odd
man;....during the choric dance he is driven away. Nay, in the very streets it is he who
must step aside for others to pass, or, being seated, he must rise and make room, even for
a younger man....
Lycurgos also provided for the continual cultivation of virtues even to old age, by
fixing the election to the council of elders as a last ordeal at the goal of life, thus
making it impossible for a high standard of virtuous living to be disregarded even in old
age....Moreover he laid upon them, like some irresistible necessity, the obligation to
cultivate the whole virtue of a citizen. Provided they duly perform the injunctions of the
law, the city belonged to them each and all, in absolute possession, and on an equal
footing....
I wish to explain with sufficient detail the nature of the covenant between king and
state as instituted by Lycurgos; for this, I take it, is the sole type of rule which still
preserves the original form in which it was first established; whereas other constitutions
will be found either to have been already modified or else to be still undergoing
modification at this moment. Lycurgos laid it down as law that the king shall offer on
behalf of the state all public sacrifices, as being himself of divine descent, and
wherever the state shall dispatch her armies the king shall take the lead. He granted him
to receive honorary gifts of the things offered in sacrifice, and he appointed him choice
land in many of the provincial cities, enough to satisfy moderate needs without excess of
wealth. And in order that the kings might also encamp and mess in public he appointed them
public quarters, and he honored them with a double portion each at the evening meal, not
in order that they might actually eat twice as much as others, but that the king might
have the means to honor whomsoever he wished. He also granted as a gift to each of the two
kings to choose two mess-mates, which are called tuthioi. He also granted them to
receive out of every litter of swine one pig, so that the king might never be at a loss
for victims if he wished to consult the gods.
Close by the palace a lake affords an unrestricted supply of water; and how useful that
is for various purposes they best can tell who lack the luxury. Moreover, all rise from
their seats to give place to the king, save only that the ephors rise not from their
throne of office. Monthly they exchange oaths, the ephors on behalf of the state, the king
himself on his own behalf. And this is the oath on the king's part: "I will exercise
my kingship in accordance with the established laws of the state." And on the part of
the state (the ephors) the oath runs: "So long as he (who exercises kingship), shall
abide by his oath we will not suffer his kingdom to be shaken."
Source:
From: Fred Fling, ed., A Source Book of Greek History, (Boston: D. C. Heath,
1907), pp. 66-75.
Scanned by: J. S. Arkenberg, Dept. of History, Cal. State Fullerton.
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© Paul Halsall, August 1998
