Polity Athenians and Lacedaemonians Part 6

(2) Or, reading after L. Dindorf, {eutaxian}, "this world-renowned orderliness."

(3) Or, "from these facts."

(4) Or, "It was only natural that these same..."

(5) Or, "helped." See Aristot. "Pol." v. 11, 3; ii. 9, 1 (Jowett, ii.

224); Plut. "Lycurg." 7, 29; Herod. i. 65; Muller, "Dorians," iii.

7, 5 (vol. ii. p. 125, Eng. tr.)

Accordingly the ephors are competent to punish whomsoever they choose; they have power to exact fines on the spur of the moment; they have power to depose magistrates in mid career (6)--nay, actually to imprison them and bring them to trial on the capital charge. Entrusted with these vast powers, they do not, as do the rest of states, allow the magistrates elected to exercise authority as they like, right through the year of office; but, in the style rather of despotic monarchs, or presidents of the games, at the first symptom of an offence against the law they inflict chastis.e.m.e.nt without warning and without hesitation.

(6) Or, "before the expiration of their term of office." See Plut.

"Agis," 18 (Clough, iv. 464); Cic. "de Leg." iii. 7; "de Rep." ii.

33.

But of all the many beautiful contrivances invented by Lycurgus to kindle a willing obedience to the laws in the hearts of the citizens, none, to my mind, was happier or more excellent than his unwillingness to deliver his code to the people at large, until, attended by the most powerful members of the state, he had betaken himself to Delphi, (7) and there made inquiry of the G.o.d whether it were better for Sparta, and conducive to her interests, to obey the laws which he had framed. And not until the divine answer came: "Better will it be in every way,"

did he deliver them, laying it down as a last ordinance that to refuse obedience to a code which had the sanction of the Pythian G.o.d himself (8) was a thing not illegal only, but profane.

(7) See Plut. "Lycurg." 5, 6, 29 (Clough, i. 89, 122); Polyb. x. 2, 9.

(8) Or, "a code delivered in Pytho, spoken by the G.o.d himself."

IX

The following too may well excite our admiration for Lycurgus. I speak of the consummate skill with which he induced the whole state of Sparta to regard an honourable death as preferable to an ign.o.ble life. And indeed if any one will investigate the matter, he will find that by comparison with those who make it a principle to retreat in face of danger, actually fewer of these Spartans die in battle, since, to speak truth, salvation, it would seem, attends on virtue far more frequently than on cowardice--virtue, which is at once easier and sweeter, richer in resource and stronger of arm, (1) than her opposite. And that virtue has another familiar attendant--to wit, glory--needs no showing, since the whole world would fain ally themselves after some sort in battle with the good.

(1) See Homer, "Il." v. 532; Tyrtaeus, 11, 14, {tressanton d' andron pas' apolol arete}.

Yet the actual means by which he gave currency to these principles is a point which it were well not to overlook. It is clear that the lawgiver 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 market-place as the good man; he sits beside him at play; he exercises with him in the same gymnasium, and all as suits his humour. But at Lacedaemon there is not one man who would not feel ashamed to welcome the coward at the common mess-tabe, or to try conclusions with such an antagonist in a wrestling bout. Consider the day's round of his existence. The sides are being picked up in a football match, (2) but he is left out as the odd man: there is no place for him. During the choric dance (3) he is driven away into ignominious quarters. Nay, in the very streets it is he who must step aside for others to pa.s.s, or, being seated, he must rise and make room, even for a younger man. At home he will have his maiden relatives to support in isolation (and they will hold him to blame for their unwedded lives). (4) A hearth with no wife to bless it--that is a condition he must face, (5) and yet he will have to pay damages to the last farthing for incurring it. Let him not roam abroad with a smooth and smiling countenance; (6) let him not imitate men whose fame is irreproachable, or he shall feel on his back the blows of his superiors.

Such being the weight of infamy which is laid upon all cowards, I, for my part, am not surprised if in Sparta they deem death preferable to a life so steeped in dishonour and reproach.

(2) See Lucian, "Anacharsis," 38; Muller, "Dorians," (vol. ii. 309, Eng. tr.)

(3) The {khoroi}, e.g. of the Gymnopaedia. See Muller, op. cit. iv. 6, 4 (vol. ii. 334, Eng. tr.)

(4) {tes anandrias}, cf. Plut. "Ages." 30; or, {tes anandreias}, "they must bear the reproach of his cowardice."

(5) Omitting {ou}, or translate, "that is an evil not to be disregarded." See Dindorf, ad loc.; Sturz, "Lex. Xen." {Estia}.

(6) See Plut. "Ages." 30 (Clough, iv. 36); "h.e.l.l." VI. iv. 16.

X

That too was a happy enactment, in my opinion, by which Lycurgus provided for the continual cultivation of virtue, even to old age. By fixing (1) the election to the council of elders (2) as a last ordeal at the goal of life, he made it impossible for a high standard of virtuous living to be disregarded even in old age. (So, too, it is worthy of admiration in him that he lent his helping hand to virtuous old age.

(3) Thus, by making the elders sole arbiters in the trial for life, he contrived to charge old age with a greater weight of honour than that which is accorded to the strength of mature manhood.) And a.s.suredly such a contest as this must appeal to the zeal of mortal man beyond all others in a supreme degree. Fair, doubtless, are contests of gymnastic skill, yet are they but trials of bodily excellence, but this contest for the seniority is of a higher sort--it is an ordeal of the soul itself. In proportion, therefore, as the soul is worthier than the body, so must these contests of the soul appeal to a stronger enthusiasm than their bodily ant.i.types.

(1) Reading {protheis}. See Plut. "Lycurg." 26 (Clough. i. 118); Aristot. "Pol." ii. 9, 25.

(2) Or, "seniory," or "senate," or "board of elders"; lit. "the Gerontia."

(3) Or, "the old age of the good. Yet this he did when he made...

since he contrived," etc.

And yet another point may well excite our admiration for Lycurgus largely. It had not escaped his observation that communities exist where those who are willing to make virtue their study and delight fail somehow in ability to add to the glory of their fatherland. (4) That lesson the legislator laid to heart, and in Sparta he enforced, as a matter of public duty, the practice of virtue by every citizen. And so it is that, just as man differs from man in some excellence, according as he cultivates or neglects to cultivate it, this city of Sparta, with good reason, outs.h.i.+nes all other states in virtue; since she, and she alone, as made the attainment of a high standard of n.o.ble living a public duty.

(4) Is this an autobiographical touch?

And was this not a n.o.ble enactment, that whereas other states are content to inflict punishment only in cases where a man does wrong against his neighbour, Lycurgus imposed penalties no less severe on him who openly neglected to make himself as good as possible? For this, it seems, was his principle: in the one case, where a man is robbed, or defrauded, or kidnapped, and made a slave of, the injury of the misdeed, whatever it be, is personal to the individual so maltreated; but in the other case whole communities suffer foul treason at the hands of the base man and the coward. So that it was only reasonable, in my opinion, that he should visit the heaviest penalty upon these latter.

Moreover, he laid upon them, like some irresistible necessity, the obligation to cultivate the whole virtue of a citizen. Provided they duly performed the injunctions of the law, the city belonged to them, each and all, in absolute possession and on an equal footing. Weakness of limb or want of wealth (5) was no drawback in his eyes. But as for him who, out of the cowardice of his heart, shrank from the painful performance of the law's injunction, the finger of the legislator pointed him out as there and then disqualified to be regarded longer as a member of the brotherhood of peers. (6)

(5) But see Aristot. "Pol." ii. 9, 32.

(6) Grote, "H. G." viii. 81; "h.e.l.l." III. iii. 5.

It may be added, that there was no doubt as to the great antiquity of this code of laws. The point is clear so far, that Lycurgus himself is said to have lived in the days of the Heraclidae. (7) But being of so long standing, these laws, even at this day, still are stamped in the eyes of other men with all the novelty of youth. And the most marvellous thing of all is that, while everybody is agreed to praise these remarkable inst.i.tutions, there is not a single state which cares to imitate them.

(7) See Plut. "Lycurg." 1.

XI

The above form a common stock of blessings, open to every Spartan to enjoy, alike in peace and in war. But if any one desires to be informed in what way the legislator improved upon the ordinary machinery of warfare and in reference to an army in the field, it is easy to satisfy his curiosity.

In the first instance, the ephors announce by proclamation the limit of age to which the service applies (1) for cavalry and heavy infantry; and in the next place, for the various handicraftsmen. So that, even on active service, the Lacedaemonians are well supplied with all the conveniences enjoyed by people living as citizens at home. (2) All implements and instruments whatsoever, which an army may need in common, are ordered to be in readiness, (3) some on waggons and others on baggage animals. In this way anything omitted can hardly escape detection.

(1) I.e. "in the particular case." See "h.e.l.l." VI. iv. 17; Muller, "Dorians," iii. 12 (vol. ii. 242 foll., Eng. tr.)

(2) Or, "the conveniences of civil life at home."

(3) Reading {parekhein}, or if {paragein}, "to be conveyed." Cf.

Pausan. I. xix. 1. See "Cyrop." VI. ii. 34.

For the actual encounter under arms, the following inventions are attributed to him. The soldier has a crimson-coloured uniform and a heavy s.h.i.+eld of bronze; his theory being that such an equipment has no sort of feminine a.s.sociation, and is altogether most warrior-like. (4) It is most quickly burnished; it is least readily soiled. (5)

(4) Cf. Aristoph. "Acharn." 320, and the note of the scholiast.

(5) See Ps. Plut. "Moral." 238 F.

He further permitted those who were above the age of early manhood to wear their hair long. (6) For so, he conceived, they would appear of larger stature, more free and indomitable, and of a more terrible aspect.