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2. Under the race of the Heraclidæ, who succeeded, instead of one king, the people admitted two, who governed with equal authority. The cause of this change seems to have sprung from a very particular accident; for Aristodemus dying, left two sons, Eurysthenes and Procles, twins, so much alike that it was hardly possible to distinguish them asunder. From hence the hint was taken by the mother, of fixing the crown upon both; so that when the Spartans came for a king, she was either unable or unwilling to decide which of them was first born, or which had the justest pretensions. This form of government continued for several succeeding centuries, and although the one was almost ever at variance with his associate on the throne, yet the government remained entire.

3. It was during this succession that slavery was first instituted in Sparta. Eurysthenes and Procles, having granted the countrymen of Sparta the same privileges with the citizens, Agis reversed what his predecessors had done in favour of the peasants, and imposed a tribute upon them. The Helotes were the only people that would not acquiesce in this impost, but rose in rebellion to vindicate their rights: the citizens, however, prevailed, the Helotes were subdued and made prisoners of war. As a still greater punishment, they and their posterity were condemned to perpetual slavery; and to increase their miseries still more, all other slaves were called by the general name of Helotes.

4. It would appear from hence that this little state was governed with turbulence and oppression, and required the curb of severe laws and rigorous discipline. These severities and rigorous discipline were at last imposed upon it by Lycurgus, one of the first and most extraordinary legislators that ever appeared among mankind.

5. There is, perhaps, nothing more remarkable in profane history, yet nothing so well attested, as what relates to the laws and government of Lycurgus. What indeed can be more amazing than to behold a mutinous and savage race of mankind yielding submission to laws that controlled every sensual pleasure, and every private affection; to behold them give up, for the good of the state all the comforts and conveniences of private life, and making a state of domestic privacy more severe and terrible than the most painful campaigns and the most warlike duties. Yet all this was effected by the perseverance and authority of a single legislator, who gave the first lesson of hard resignation in his own generous example.

6. Lycurgus was the son of Eunomus, one of the two kings who reigned together in Sparta. The two kings dying without apparent issue, the right of succession rested in Lycurgus,

who accordingly took the administration upon him. But an unexpected event came to interrupt his promotion; for the queen, his sister-in-law, proving with child, his right became doubtful. A man of less probity would have used every precaution to secure himself upon the throne; and a proposal which was made him by the queen seemed to secure his pretensions. She offered to destroy the birth upon condition that he would marry her and take her into a share of power.

7. Lycurgus wisely smothered his resentment to so unnatural a proposal; and fearful that she might use means to put her project in execution, assured her, that as soon as the child was born, he would take upon himself to remove it out of the way. Accordingly she was delivered of a boy, which Lycurgus commanded should be brought to him, as he was at supper with the magistrates; to them he presented the child as their king, and to testify his own and the people's joy, gave him the name of Charilaus. Thus Lycurgus sacrificed his ambition to his duty; and still more, continued his regency, not as king, but governor. However, dreading the resentment of the queen, and finding the state in great disorder, he resolved by travelling to avoid the dangers of the one, and to produce a remedy for the defects of the other.

8. Thus resolving to make himself acquainted with all the improvements of other nations, and to consult the most experienced persons he could meet with in the art of government, he began with the island of Crete, whose hard and severe laws were very much admired. In this island the handicraft trades were brought to some degree of perfection. There they wrought in copper and iron, and made armour, in which they danced, with a confused noise of bells, at the sacrifices of their gods. It is from them that the art of navigation was first known in Greece, and from them many legislators derived the principles of their respective institutions.

9. From Crete Lycurgus passed over into Asia, where he still found new information, and is said to have first made the discovery of the works of Homer. From thence he went into Egypt, and is said by some to have had conferences with the gymnosophists of India. But while thus employed abroad, his presence began to be greatly wanted at home. All parties conspired to wish his coming. And many messages were sent to hasten his return. The kings themselves importuned him to that effect, and let him know, that the people were arrived at such a pitch of disorder, that nothing but his authority could control their licentiousness. In fact, every thing tended to the unavoidable destruction of the state, and nothing but his presence was wished to check its increasing dissolution.

10. Lycurgus at length persuaded to return, found the people wearied out with their own importunities, and ready to receive any new impressions he might attempt. Wherefore the corruption being general, he found it necessary to change the whole form of the government; sensible that a few particular laws would produce no great effect. But considering the efficacy of religion in promoting every new institution, he went first to consult the oracle of Apollo at Delphos, where he met a reception that might flatter his highest ambition, for he was saluted by the priestess as the friend of the gods, and rather as a god than man. As to his new institution also, he was told that the gods heard his prayers, and that the commonwealth he was going to establish, would be the most excellent and durable upon earth.

11. Thus encouraged, on his return to Sparta, Lycurgus first communicated his designs to his particular friends, and then by degrees gained over the leading men to his party, until things being ripe for a change, he ordered thirty of the principal men to appear armed in the market-place. Charilaus, who was at that time king, seemed at first willing to oppose this revolution, but being intimidated by a superior force, he took shelter in the temple of Minerva; whence, being prevailed upon by his subjects, and being also of a flexible temper, he came forth and joined the confederacy. The people soon acquiesced under a set of institutions which were evidently calculated for their improvement, and gladly acknowledged submission to laws which leaned with equal weight upon every rank of society.

12. To continue the kings still with a shadow of power, he confirmed them in their right of succession as before, but diminished their authority by instituting a senate, which was to serve as a counterpoise between their prerogative and the people. They still, however, had all their former marks of outward dignity and respect. They had the chief seats in every public assembly; in voting they were allowed first to give their opinion; they received ambassadors and strangers, and overlooked public buildings and highways. In the field they were possessed of greater power; they conducted the armies of the state, and were attended by judges, field-deputies, and a general of the horse. However, they were not entirely at liberty even in war, as they received their orders from the senate, which, though for the most part, discretionary, yet they were sometimes forced to march against the enemy, or return home when they least desired to retreat.

13. The government hitherto had been unsteady, tending at one time towards despotism, at another to democracy; but the senate instituted by Lycurgus served as a check upon both, and

kept the state balanced in tranquillity. This body, which was composed of twenty-eight members, founded their chief policy in siding with the kings when the people were grasping at too much power; and on the other hand, in espousing the interest of the people, whenever the kings attempted to carry their authority too far.

14. The senators were composed of those who assisted Lycurgus in his designs, as well as of several of the citizens remarkable for their private virtues; but none were eligible till sixty years of age. They were continued for life, except upon any notorious crime; and this, as it prevented the inconveniences of too frequent a change, so it was a lasting reward to the old, and a noble incentive to the young. These formed the supreme court of judicature; and though there lay an appeal from them to the people, yet as they were only convened at the pleasure of the senate, and as the senators were not responsible for any wrong judgment, their decrees generally passed without an appeal.

15. Indeed, for several ages, such was the caution and such the integrity of this tribunal, that none seemed desirous of seeking farther justice, and both parties acquiesced in the justice of their decree. However, the great power which the senate was thus possessed of, was about a century after tempered by the erection of a superior court, called the court of the ephori, which consisted of but five in number, and the members were chosen annually into their office. They were elected from the people, and had a power of arresting and imprisoning even the persons of their kings, if they acted unbecoming their station.

16. The people also had a nominal share in the government. They had their assemblies consisting of citizens only; and also their great convention of all persons who were free of the state. But this power of convening was but a mere matter of form, as the senate alone was permitted to call them together, and as it was in the option of that body to dismiss them at pleasure. The subject of deliberation also was to be of their proposal, while the people, denied the privilege of debating or discussing, could only reject or ratify with laconic decision. To keep them still more helpless, they were left out of all offices of the state, and were considered merely as machines, which their wiser fellow-citizens were to conduct and employ.

17. So small a degree of power granted to the people might be apt to destroy these institutions in their infancy; but to reconcile them to the change, Lycurgus boldly resolved to give them a share in those lands of which, by the increasing riches of some, and the dissipation of others, they had been deprived. To keep the people in plenty and dependence, seems to have

been one of the most refined strokes in this philosopher's legislation.

18. The generality of the people were at that time so poor, that they were destitute of every kind of possession, whilst a small number of individuals were possessed of all the lands and the wealth of the country. In order, therefore, to banish the insolence, the fraud, and the luxury of the one, as well as the misery, the repining, and the factious despair of the others, he persuaded the majority, and forced the rest, to give up all their lands to the commonwealth, and to make a new division of them, that they might all live together in perfect equality. Thus all the sensual goods of life were equally distributed among the governors and the governed; and superior merit alone conferred superior distinction.

19. Lycurgus accordingly divided all the lands of Laconia into thirty thousand parts, and those of Sparta into nine thousand, and these he portioned out to the respective inhabitants of each district. Each portion was sufficient to maintain a family in that frugal manner he proposed; and, though the kings had a larger share assigned them to support their dignity, yet their tables had rather an air of decency and competency, than of superfluity or profusion.

20. It is said that some years after, as Lycurgus was returning from a long journey, observing how equally the corn was divided in all parts of the country, he was heard to observe, smiling on those next him, Does not Laconia look like an estate which several brothers have been dividing amongst them.

21. But it would have answered no permanent purpose to divide the lands, if the money were still suffered to accumulate. To prevent, therefore, all other distinction but that of merit, he resolved to level down all fortune to one standard. He did not indeed strip those possessed of gold or silver of their property; but, what was equivalent, he cried down its value, and suffered nothing but iron money to pass in exchange for every commodity. This coin also he made so heavy, and fixed at so low a rate, that a cart and two oxen were required to carry home a sum of ten minas, or about twenty pounds English, and a whole house was necessary to keep it in.

22. This iron money had no currency among any other of the Grecian states, who, so far from esteeming it, treated it with the utmost contempt and ridicule. From the neglect of foreigners, the Spartans themselves began to despise it, so that money was at last brought into disuse, and few troubled themselves with more than was barely sufficient to supply their necessities. Thus not only riches, but their attendant train of avarice, fraud,

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