Polity Athenians and Lacedaemonians Part 5

V

The above is a fairly exhaustive statement of the inst.i.tutions traceable to the legislation of Lycurgus in connection with the successive stages (1) of a citizen's life. It remains that I should endeavour to describe the style of living which he established for the whole body, irrespective of age. It will be understood that, when Lycurgus first came to deal with the question, the Spartans like the rest of the h.e.l.lenes, used to mess privately at home. Tracing more than half the current misdemeanours to this custom, (2) he was determined to drag his people out of holes and corners into the broad daylight, and so he invented the public mess-rooms. Whereby he expected at any rate to minimise the transgression of orders.

(1) Lit. "with each age."; see Plut. "Lycurg." 25; Hesychius, {s. u.

irinies}; "h.e.l.l." VI. iv. 17; V. iv. 13.

(2) Reading after Cobet, {en touto}.

As to food, (3) his ordinance allowed them so much as, while not inducing repletion, should guard them from actual want. And, in fact, there are many exceptional (4) dishes in the shape of game supplied from the hunting field. Or, as a subst.i.tute for these, rich men will occasionally garnish the feast with wheaten loaves. So that from beginning to end, till the mess breaks up, the common board is never stinted for viands, nor yet extravagantly furnished.

(3) See Plut. "Lycurg." 12 (Clough, i. 97).

(4) {paraloga}, i.e. unexpected dishes, technically named {epaikla} (hors d'oeuvres), as we learn from Athenaeus, iv. 140, 141.

So also in the matter of drink. Whilst putting a stop to all unnecessary potations, detrimental alike to a firm brain and a steady gait, (5) he left them free to quench thirst when nature dictated (6); a method which would at once add to the pleasure whilst it diminished the danger of drinking. And indeed one may fairly ask how, on such a system of common meals, it would be possible for any one to ruin either himself or his family either through gluttony or wine-bibbing.

(5) Or, "apt to render brain and body alike unsteady."

(6) See "Agesilaus"; also "Mem." and "Cyrop."

This too must be borne in mind, that in other states equals in age, (7) for the most part, a.s.sociate together, and such an atmosphere is little conducive to modesty. (8) Whereas in Sparta Lycurgus was careful so to blend the ages (9) that the younger men must benefit largely by the experience of the elder--an education in itself, and the more so since by custom of the country conversation at the common meal has reference to the honourable acts which this man or that man may have performed in relation to the state. The scene, in fact, but little lends itself to the intrusion of violence or drunken riot; ugly speech and ugly deeds alike are out of place. Amongst other good results obtained through this out-door system of meals may be mentioned these: There is the necessity of walking home when the 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, (10) and that they must move as freely in the dark as in the day, even the help of a torch (11) to guide the steps being forbidden to all on active service.

(7) Cf. Plat. "Phaedr." 240 C; {elix eklika terpei}, "Equals delight in equals."

(8) Or, "these gatherings for the most part consist of equals in age (young fellows), in whose society the virtue of modesty is least likely to display itself."

(9) See Plut. "Lycurg." 12 (Clough, i. 98).

(10) Or, "that they are not going to stay all night where they have supped."

(11) See Plut. "Lycurg." 12 (Clough, i. 99).

In connection with this matter, Lycurgus had not failed to observe the effect of equal amounts of food on different persons. The hardworking man has a good complexion, his muscles are well fed, he is robust and strong. The man who abstains from work, on the other hand, may be detected by his miserable appearance; he is blotched and puffy, and devoid of strength. This observation, I say, was not wasted on him. On the contrary, turning it over in his mind that any one who chooses, as a matter of private judgment, to devote himself to toil may hope to present a very creditable appearance physically, he enjoined upon the eldest for the time being in every gymnasium to see to it that the labours of the cla.s.s were proportional to the meats. (12) And to my mind he was not out of his reckoning in this matter more than elsewhere. At any rate, it would be hard to discover a healthier or more completely developed human being, physically speaking, than the Spartan. Their gymnastic training, in fact, makes demands alike on the legs and arms and neck, (13) etc., simultaneously.

(12) I.e. "not inferior in excellence to the diet which they enjoyed."

The reading here adopted I owe to Dr. Arnold Hug, {os me ponous auton elattous ton sition gignesthai}.

(13) See Plat. "Laws," vii. 796 A; Jowett, "Plato," v. p. 365; Xen.

"Symp." ii. 7; Plut. "Lycurg." 19.

VI

There are other points in which this legislator's views run counter to those commonly accepted. Thus: in other states the individual citizen is master over his own children, domestics, (1) goods and chattels, and belongings generally; but Lycurgus, whose aim was to secure to all the citizens a considerable share in one another's goods without mutual injury, enacted that each one should have an equal power of his neighbour's children as over his own. (2) The principle is this. When a man knows that this, that, and the other person are fathers of children subject to his authority, he must perforce deal by them even as he desires his own child to be dealt by. And, if a boy chance to have received a whipping, not from his own father but some other, and goes and complains to his own father, it would be thought wrong on the part of that father if he did not inflict a second whipping on his son. A striking proof, in its way, how completely they trust each other not to impose dishonourable commands upon their children. (3)

(1) Or rather, "members of his household."

(2) See Plut. "Lycurg." 15 (Clough, i. 104).

(3) See Plut. "Moral." 237 D.

In the same way he empowered them to use their neighbour's (4) domestics in case of need. This communism he applied also to dogs used for the chase; in so far that a party in need of dogs will invite the owner to the chase, and if he is not at leisure to attend himself, at any rate he is happy to let his dogs go. The same applies to the use of horses.

Some one has fallen sick perhaps, or is in want of a carriage, (5) or is anxious to reach some point or other quickly--in any case he has a right, if he sees a horse anywhere, to take and use it, and restores it safe and sound when he has done with it.

(4) See Aristot. "Pol." ii. 5 (Jowett, i. pp. x.x.xi. and 34; ii. p.

53); Plat. "Laws," viii. 845 A; Newman, "Pol. Aristot." ii. 249 foll.

(5) "Has not a carriage of his own."

And here is another inst.i.tution attributed to Lycurgus which scarcely coincides with the customs elsewhere in vogue. A hunting party returns from the chase, belated. They want provisions--they have nothing prepared themselves. To meet this contingency he made it a rule that owners (6) are to leave behind the food that has been dressed; and the party in need will open the seals, take out what they want, seal up the remainder, and leave it. Accordingly, by his system of give-and-take even those with next to nothing (7) have a share in all that the country can supply, if ever they stand in need of anything.

(6) Reading {pepamenous}, or if {pepasmenous}, "who have already finished their repasts."

(7) See Aristot. "Pol." ii. 9 (Jowett, i. pp. xlii. and 52); Muller, "Dorians," iii. 10, 1 (vol. ii. 197, Eng. tr.)

VII

There are yet other customs in Sparta which Lycurgus inst.i.tuted in opposition to those of the rest of h.e.l.las, and the following among them.

We all know that in the generality of states every one devotes his full energy to the business of making money: one man as a tiller of the soil, another as a mariner, a third as a merchant, whilst others depend on various arts to earn a living. But at Sparta Lycurgus forbade his freeborn citizens to have anything whatsoever to do with the concerns of money-making. As freemen, he enjoined upon them to regard as their concern exclusively those activities upon which the foundations of civic liberty are based.

And indeed, one may well ask, for what reason should wealth be regarded as a matter for serious pursuit (1) in a community where, partly by a system of equal contributions to the necessaries of life, and partly by the maintenance of a common standard of living, the lawgiver placed so effectual a check upon the desire of riches for the sake of luxury? What inducement, for instance, would there be to make money, even for the sake of wearing apparel, in a state where personal adornment is held to lie not in the costliness of the clothes they wear, but in the healthy condition of the body to be clothed? Nor again could there be much inducement to ama.s.s wealth, in order to be able to expend it on the members of a common mess, where the legislator had made it seem far more glorious that a man should help his fellows by the labour of his body than by costly outlay. The latter being, as he finely phrased it, the function of wealth, the former an activity of the soul.

(1) See Plut. "Lycurg." 10 (Clough, i. 96).

He went a step further, and set up a strong barrier (even in a society such as I have described) against the pursuance of money-making by wrongful means. (2) In the first place, he established a coinage (3) of so extraordinary a sort, that even a single sum of ten minas (4) could not come into a house without attracting the notice, either of the master himself, or of some member of his household. In fact, it would occupy a considerable s.p.a.ce, and need a waggon to carry it. Gold and silver themselves, moreover, are liable to search, (5) and in case of detection, the possessor subjected to a penalty. In fact, to repeat the question asked above, for what reason should money-making become an earnest pursuit in a community where the possession of wealth entails more pain than its employment brings satisfaction?

(2) Or, "against illegitimate commerce."

(3) See Plut. "Lycurg." 9 (Clough, i. 94).

(4) = 40 pounds, circa.

(5) See Grote, "H. G." ix. 320; Aristot. "Pol." ii. 9, 37.

VIII

But to proceed. We are all aware that there is no state (1) in the world in which greater obedience is shown to magistrates, and to the laws themselves, than Sparta. But, for my part, I am disposed to think that Lycurgus could never have attempted to establish this healthy condition, (2) until he had first secured the unanimity of the most powerful members of the state. I infer this for the following reasons. (3) In other states the leaders in rank and influence do not even desire to be thought to fear the magistrates. Such a thing they would regard as in itself a symbol of servility. In Sparta, on the contrary, the stronger a man is the more readily does he bow before const.i.tuted authority.

And indeed, they magnify themselves on their humility, and on a prompt obedience, running, or at any rate not crawling with laggard step, at the word of command. Such an example of eager discipline, they are persuaded, set by themselves, will not fail to be followed by the rest.

And this is precisely what has taken place. It (4) is reasonable to suppose that it was these same n.o.blest members of the state who combined (5) to lay the foundation of the ephorate, after they had come to the conclusion themselves, that of all the blessings which a state, or an army, or a household, can enjoy, obedience is the greatest. Since, as they could not but reason, the greater the power with which men fence about authority, the greater the fascination it will exercise upon the mind of the citizen, to the enforcement of obedience.

(1) See Grote, "H. G." v. 516; "Mem." III. v. 18.