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114 SOCIALISM IN SPARTA.
114 SOCIALISM IN SPARTA.
Universal Anthology - v03
The greatest treasure is
a reticent tongue.
If you speak ill of others, you may hear more of yourself. Don't be boorish at a feast where the guests all pay ; for
there one gets the greatest pleasure at the least expense.
Don't go to church with dirty clothes on. [Literally, Do not make libations to Zeus with unwashed hands. ] For your prayers will not be heard. [That is, if you do not think your
religion of importance enough to make some effort at decency in its rites, it will not do you much good. ]
The Hawk and the Nightingale.
Now then will I speak a fable to kings, wise even though they are. Thus the hawk addressed the nightingale of varie gated throat, as he carried her in his talons, when he had caught her, very high in the clouds.
She then, pierced on all sides by his crooked talons, was wailing piteously, whilst he victoriously addressed his speech to her. " Wretch, wherefore criest thou ? 'tis a much stronger that holds thee. Thou wilt go that way by which I may lead thee, songstress though thou art ; and my supper, if I choose, I shall make, or shall let go. But senseless is he who chooses to contend against them that are stronger, and he is robbed of victory, and suffers griefs in addition to indignities. "
Pandora's Box.
Now the gods keep hidden for men their means of sub sistence ; for else easily mightest thou even in one day have wrought, so that thou shouldest have enough for the year,
102 OBSERVATIONS OF HESIOD.
even though being idle : else straightway wouldst thou lay by the rudder above the smoke, and the labors of oxen and of toil- enduring mules would be undone. But Jove in wrath at his heart concealed it, because wily Prometheus had beguiled him. Therefore, I ween, he devised baneful cares for men. And fire he hid, which indeed the good son of Iapetus stole back for mankind from counselor Jove in a hollow fennel stalk, after he had escaped the notice of Jove delighting in the thunder bolt.
Him then cloud-compelling Jove addressed in wrath: "O son of Iapetus, knowing beyond all in counsels, thou exultest in having stolen fire, and deceived my wisdom, a severe woe to thyself and to men that shall come after. To them now will I give evil instead of fire, wherewith all may delight them selves at heart, hugging their own evil. " So spake he: and outlaughed the sire of men and gods; but he bade Vulcan the illustrious with all speed mix earth with water, and endue it with man's voice and strength, and to liken in countenance to immortal goddesses the fair, lovely beauty of a maiden; then he bade Minerva teach her work, to weave the highly wrought web; and golden Aphrodite to shed around her head grace, and painful desire, and cares that waste the limbs; but to endue her with a shameless mind and tricksy manners he charged the conductor, Argicide Mercury.
So he bade; but they obeyed Jove, the sovereign son of Cronus, and forthwith out of the earth the famous crippled god fashioned one like unto a modest maiden, through the counsels of Jove, the son of Cronus, and the goddess, gleaming- eyed Minerva, girdled and arrayed her; and around her skin the goddess Graces and august Persuasion hung golden chains, whilst fair-tressed Hours crowned her about with flowers of spring, and Pallas Minerva adapted every ornament to her person. But in her breast, I wot, conductor Mercury wrought falsehoods, and wily speeches, and tricksy manners, by the counsels of deep- thundering Jove; and the herald of the gods placed within her, I ween, a winning voice; and this woman he called Pandora, because all, inhabiting Olympian mansions, bestowed on her a gift — a mischief to inventive men.
But when he had perfected the dire inextricable snare, father Jove proceeded to send to Epimetheus the famous slayer of Argus, swift messenger of the gods, carrying her as a gift; nor did Epimetheus consider how Prometheus had told him never
FRAGMENTS OF ARCHILOCHUS.
108
to accept a gift from Olympian Jove, but to send it back, lest haply any ill should arise to mortals. But he, after receiving it, felt the evil, when now he possessed it.
Now aforetime, indeed, the races of men were wont to live on the earth apart and free from ills, and without harsh labor, and painful diseases, which have brought death on mor tals. For in wretchedness men presently grow old. But the woman having with her hands removed the great lid from the vessel, dispersed them; then contrived she baneful cares for men. And Hope alone there in unbroken abode kept re maining within, beneath the verge of the vessel, nor did it flit forth abroad; for before that, she had placed on the lid of the vessel, by the counsels of aegis-bearing, cloud-compeller Jove. But myriad other ills have roamed forth among men. For full indeed is earth of woes, and full the sea; and in the day as well as at night diseases unbidden haunt mankind, silently bearing ills to men, for counselor Jove hath taken from them their voice. Thus not in any way is it possible to escape the will of Jove.
FRAGMENTS OF ARCHILOCHUS.
[Archilochcs was the earliest of Greek satirists, about b. c. 700, inventor of the iambic verse ; by the ancients ranked second only to Homer, and equally first in his own department, inferior rather in subject than in genius. He was famed for personal lampoons' so stinging that they are said to have driven their subjects to suicide ; but he wrote also better things. All that would exhibit his surpassing greatness, however, is lost: the first piece following is the longest remnant that survives.
All translations not credited are made for this work. ]
L
On Self-Control. (Translated by William Hay. )
Tossed on a sea of troubles, Soul, my Soul, Thyself do thou control ;
And to the weapons of advancing foes A stubborn breast oppose ;
Undaunted 'mid the hostile might Of squadrons burning for the fight.
104
FRAGMENTS OP ARCHILOCHUS.
Thine be no boasting when the victor's crown Wins thee deserved renown ;
Thine no dejected sorrow, when defeat Would urge a base retreat :
Rejoice in joyous things — nor overmuch Let grief thy bosom touch
'Midst evil, and still bear in mind
How changeful are the ways of humankind.
rx Fate.
Cast all care upon the gods : for often from the dust they raise
Men who grovel in abasement, toiling in the meanest ways ;
Often too they hurl men headlong — trip and throw us on our face, While we strut in pride, and leave us, beggared, homeless, in a daze, Once again to seek our fortune, all misfortunes at our heels.
ra.
The Daily Miracle.
There is naught to be despaired of, naught to be avowed absurd, Naught a wonder, when the Father of the Skies
From the noonday brings the night, with the hiding of the light, Sunshine goes, and gloomy fear upon us lies.
Just from this alone we know there is nothing here below Unbelievable or desperate for men ;
None should wonder at whatever they behold in our affairs. Should the very dolphins of the ocean for a den
Of the beasts of earth exchange their briny fields and lairs, These the thundering wave prefer to mainland home,
Those the mountain find more grateful than the foam.
XT.
The Fox's Invocation.
0 Father Zeus, thy might in heaven controls all mortals' fate ; Thou seest the deeds of humankind, the crooked and the straight ; In brutes as well thou lov'st the just, the wrongful has thy hate.
v.
Cameo op a Girl. (Translated by J. A. Symonds. )
Holding a myrtle rod she blithely moved,
And a fair blossoming rose ; the flowing hair "Shadowed her shoulders, falling to her girdle.
NIGHT. 105
vx
The Ideal Captain.
A long-legged straddling giant is not my choice for a chief— Curled and haughty and shaven, a proper sort of a beau :
Give me a bow-legged bantam, stout if his body is brief, Firm on his feet, quick-witted, full of spirit and go.
His Discretion the Better Part op his Valor.
Some Thracian is pluming himself on the shield that he found in a bush,
Where blameless I left my armor, sorely against my grain ;
But I saved myself from the consequence of death that day, at least:
Let the shield go — I can get one no worse when I want it again.
VIII.
His Autobiography.
I am an expert craftsman in one tremendous art —
To wreak full vengeance on the one who plays a foeman'g part.
NIGHT.
By ALCMAN. (Translated by William Mure. )
[Alcman (flourished about 650) was one of the founders of Greek lyric poetry : identified with Sparta, though not a native. ]
Over the drowsy earth still night prevails ; Calm sleep the mountain tops and shady vales,
The rugged cliffs and hollow glens, The castle on the hill. Deep in the sea
The countless finny race and monster brood Tranquil repose. Even the busy bee
Forgets her daily toil. The silent wood No more with noisy hum of insect rings,
And all the feathered tribes, by gentle sleep subdued, Roost in the glade, and hang their drooping wings.
106 SOCIALISM IN SPARTA.
SOCIALISM IN SPARTA. By PLUTARCH.
(From the "Life of Lycurgus. ")
Lycukgus found a prodigious inequality : the city was overcharged with many indigent persons who had no land, and the wealth centered in the hands of a few. Determined, therefore, to root out the evils of insolence, envy, avarice, and luxury, and those distempers of a state still more inveterate and fatal, — I mean poverty and riches, — he persuaded them to cancel all former divisions of land, and to make new ones, in such a manner that they might be perfectly equal in their possessions and way of living. Hence, if they were ambitious of distinction they might seek it in virtue, as no other differ ence was left between them but that which arises from the dishonor of base actions and the praise of good ones. His proposal was put in practice. He made nine thousand lots for the territory of Sparta, which he distributed among so many citizens, and thirty thousand for the inhabitants of the rest of Laconia. Each lot was capable of producing (one year with another) seventy bushels of grain for each man, and twelve for each woman, besides a quantity of wine and oil in proportion. Such a provision they thought sufficient for health and a good habit of body, and they wanted nothing more. A story goes of our legislator, that some time after returning from a journey through the fields just reaped, and seeing the shocks standing parallel and equal, he smiled, and said to some that were by, " How like is Laconia to an estate newly divided among many , brothers ! "
After this, he attempted to divide also the movables, in order to take away all appearance of inequality; but he soon perceived that they could not bear to have their goods directly taken from them, and therefore took another method, counterworking their avarice by a stratagem. First he stopped the currency of the gold and silver coin, and ordered that they should make use of iron money only, then to a great quantity and weight of this he assigned but a small value ; so that to lay up ten mince, a whole room was required, and to remove nothing less than
yoke of oxen. When this became current, many kinds of injustice ceased in Lacedaemon. Who would steal or take
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SOCIALISM IN SPARTA. 107
bribe, who would defraud or rob, when he could not conceal the booty ; when he could neither be dignified by the posses sion of it, nor if cut in pieces be served by its use ? For we are told that, when hot they quenched it in vinegar, to make it brittle and unmalleable, and consequently unfit for any other service.
In the next place, he excluded unprofitable and superfluous arts : indeed, if he had not done this, most of them would have fallen of themselves, when the new money took place, as the manufactures could not be disposed of. Their iron coin would not pass in the rest of Greece, but was ridiculed and despised ; so that the Spartans had no means of purchasing any foreign or curious wares; nor did any merchant ship unlade in their harbors. There were not even to be found in all their country either sophists, wandering fortune tellers, keepers of infamous houses or dealers in gold and silver trinkets, because there was no money. Thus luxury, losing by degrees the means that cherished and supported it, died away of itself : even they who had great possessions had no advantage from them, since they could not be displayed in public, but must lie useless in unregarded repositories. Hence it was that excellent work manship was shown in their useful and necessary furniture, as beds, chairs, and tables; and the Lacedaemonian cup called cothon, as Critias informs us, was highly valued, particularly in campaigns ; for the water, which must then of necessity be drank, though it would often otherwise offend the sight, had its muddiness concealed by the color of the cup, and the thick part stopping at the shelving brim, it came clearer to the lips.
Desirous to complete the conquest of luxury, and exter minate the love of riches, he introduced a third institution, which was wisely enough and ingeniously contrived. This was the use of public tables, where all were to eat in common of the same meat, and such kinds of it as were appointed by law. At the same time they were forbidden to eat at home, upon ex pensive couches and tables, to call in the assistance of butchers and cooks, or to fatten like voracious animals in private. For so not only their manners would be corrupted, but their bodies disordered ; abandoned to all manner of sensuality and disso luteness, they would require long sleep, warm baths, and the same indulgence as in perpetual sickness. To effect this was certainly very great ; but it was greater still, to secure riches from rapine and from envy, as Theophrastus expresses it, or
108 SOCIALISM IN SPARTA.
rather by their eating in common, and by the frugality of their table, to take from riches their very being. For what use or enjoyment of them, what peculiar display of magnificence could there be, where the poor man went to the same refreshment with the rich ? It must further be observed, that they had not the privilege to eat at home, and so to come without appetite to the public repast : they made a point of it to observe any one that did not eat and drink with them, and to reproach him as an intemperate and effeminate person that was sick of the common diet.
There were fifteen persons to a table, or a few more or less. Each of them was obliged to bring in monthly a bushel of meal, eight gallons of wine, five pounds of cheese, two pounds and a half of figs, and a little money to buy flesh and fish. If any of them happened to offer a sacrifice of first fruits, or to kill venison, he sent a part of it to the public table ; for after a sacrifice or hunting, he was at liberty to sup at home ; but the rest were to appear at the usual place. For a long time this eating in common was observed with great exactness : so that when king Agis returned from a successful expedition against the Athenians, and from a desire to sup with his wife, requested to have his portion at home, the Polemarchs refused to send it : nay, when, through resentment, he neglected, the day following, to offer the sacrifice usual on occasion of victory, they set a fine upon him.
Children also were introduced at these public tables, as so many schools of sobriety. There they heard discourses con cerning government, and were instructed in the most liberal breeding. There they were allowed to jest without scurrility, and were not to take it ill when the raillery was returned. For it was reckoned worthy of a Lacedaemonian to bear a jest ; but if any one's patience failed, he had only to desire them to be quiet, and they left off immediately. When they first entered, the oldest man present pointed to the door, and said, " Not a word spoken in this company goes out there. "
The admitting of any man to a particular table was under the following regulation. Each member of that small society took a little ball of soft bread in his hand. This he was to drop, without saying a word, into a vessel called caddot, which the waiter carried upon his head. In case he approved of the candi date, he did it without altering the figure, if not, he first pressed it flat in his hand ; for a flatted ball was considered as a nega
SOCIALISM IN SPARTA. 109
tive. And if but one such was found, the person was not ad mitted, as they thought it proper that the whole company should be satisfied with each other. He who was thus rejected, was said to have no luck in the caddog.
The dish that was in the highest esteem amongst them was the black broth. The old men were so fond of it that they ranged themselves on one side and eat leaving the meat to the young people. It related of king of Pontus, that he pur chased Lacedaemonian cook, for the sake of this broth. But when he came to taste he strongly expressed his dislike, and the cook made answer, " Sir, to make this broth relish, necessary first to bathe in the Eurotas. " After they had drunk moderately, they went home without lights. Indeed, they were forbidden to walk with light either on this or any other occa sion, that they might accustom themselves to march in the darkest night boldly and resolutely. Such was the order of their public repasts.
LycurguB left none of his laws in writing was ordered in one of the Rhetrce that none should be written. For what he thought most conducive to the virtue and happiness of city, was principles interwoven with the manners and breeding of the people. These would remain immovable, as founded in inclination, and be the strongest and most lasting tie and the habits which education produced in the youth, would answer in each the purpose of lawgiver. As for smaller matters, con tracts about property, and whatever occasionally varied, was better not to reduce these to written form and unalterable method, but to suffer them to change with the times, and to admit of additions or retrenchments at the pleasure of persons so well educated. For he resolved the whole business of legis lation into the bringing up of youth. And this, as we have observed, was the reason why one of his ordinances forbade them to have any written laws.
Another ordinance, leveled against magnificence and ex pense, directed that the ceilings of houses should be wrought with no tool but the ax, and the doors with nothing but the saw. For, as Epaminondas reported to have said afterwards, of his table, "Treason lurks not under such dinner," so Lycurgus perceived before him, that such house admits of no luxury and needless splendor. Indeed, no man could be so absurd as to bring into dwelling so homely and simple, bed steads with silver feet, purple coverlets, golden cups, and train
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110 SOCIALISM IN SPARTA.
of expense that follows these : but all would necessarily have the bed suitable to the room, the coverlet of the bed and the rest of their utensils and furniture to that. From this plain sort of dwellings proceeded the question of Leotychidas the elder to his host, when he supped at Corinth, and saw the ceil ing of the room very splendid and curiously wrought, " Whether trees grew square in his country. "
A third ordinance of Lycurgus was, that they should not often make war against the same enemy, lest, by being frequently put upon defending themselves, they too should become able warriors in their turn. And this they most blamed king Agesi- laus for afterwards, that by frequent and continued incursions into Boeotia, he taught the Thebans to make head against the Lacedaemonians. This made Antalcidas say, when he saw him wounded, " The Thebans pay you well for making them good soldiers who neither were willing nor able to fight you before. "
As for the education of youth, which he looked upon as the greatest and most glorious work of a lawgiver, he began with it at the very source, by regulating the marriages. For he did not (as Aristotle says) desist from his attempt to bring the women under sober rules. They had indeed assumed great liberty and power on account of the frequent expeditions of their husbands, during which they were left sole mistresses at home, and so gained an undue deference and improper titles ; but notwithstanding this he took all possible care of them. He ordered the virgins to exercise themselves in running, wrestling, and throwing quoits and darts ; that their bodies being strong and vigorous, the children afterwards produced from them might be the same ; and that, thus fortified by exercise, they might the better support the pangs of childbirth, and be delivered with safety.
In order to take away the excessive tenderness and delicacy of the sex, the consequence of a recluse life, he accustomed the virgins occasionally to be seen naked as well as the young men, and to dance and sing in their presence on certain festivals. There they sometimes indulged in a little raillery upon those that had misbehaved themselves, and sometimes they sung enco miums on such as deserved them, thus exciting in the young men a useful emulation and love of glory. For he who was praised for his bravery and celebrated among the virgins, went away perfectly happy : while their satirical glances, thrown out in sport, were no less cutting than serious admonitions, espe
SOCIALISM IN SPARTA. Ill
cially as the kings and senate went with the other citizens to see all that passed. As for the virgins appearing naked, there was nothing disgraceful in it, because everything was conducted with modesty, and without one indecent word or action. Nay, it caused a simplicity of manners and an emulation for the best habit of body ; their ideas, too, were naturally enlarged, while they were not excluded from their share of bravery and honor. Hence they were furnished with sentiments and language such as Gorgo, the wife of Leonidas, is said to have" made use of. When a woman of another country said to her, You of Lace- daemon are the only women in the world that rule the men," she answered, " We are the only women that bring forth men. "
These public dances and other exercises of the young maidens naked, in sight of the young men, were, moreover, in centives to marriage ; and, to use Plato's expression, drew them almost as necessarily by the attractions of love, as a geometrical conclusion follows from the premises. To encourage it still more, some marks of infamy were set upon those that continued bachelors. For they were not permitted to see these exercises of the naked virgins ; and the magistrates commanded them to march naked round the marketplace in the winter, and to sing a song composed against themselves, which expressed how justly they were punished for their disobedience to the laws. They were also deprived of that honor and respect which the younger people paid to the old ; so that nobody found fault with what was said to Dercyllidas, though an eminent com mander. It seems, when he came one day into company, a young man, instead of rising up and giving place, told him, " You have no child to give place to me, when I am old. "
It was not left to the father to rear what children he pleased, but he was obliged to carry the child to a place called Lesche, to be examined by the most ancient men of the tribe, who were assembled there. If it was strong and well-proportioned, they gave orders for its education, and assigned it one of the nine thousand shares of land ; but if it was weakly and deformed, they ordered it to be thrown into the place called Apotheta, which is a deep cavern near the mountain Taygetus ; conclud ing that its life could be no advantage either to itself or to the public, since nature had not given it at first any strength or goodness of constitution. For the same reason the women did not wash their new-born infants with water, but with wine, thus making some trial of their habit of body, imagining that sickly
112 SOCIALISM IN SPARTA.
and epileptic children sink and die under the experiment, while healthy became more vigorous and hardy.
Great care and art was also exerted by the nurses ; for, as they never swathed the infants, their limbs had a freer turn, and their countenances a more liberal air ; besides, they used them to any sort of meat, to have no terrors in the dark, nor to be afraid of being alone, and to leave all ill humor and unmanly crying. Hence people of other countries purchased Lacedae monian nurses for their children ; and Alcibiades the Athenian is said to have been nursed by Amicla, a Spartan. But if he was fortunate in a nurse, he was not so in a preceptor ; for Zopyrus, appointed to that office by Pericles, was, as Plato tells us, no better qualified than a common slave. The Spartan children were not in that manner, under tutors purchased or hired with money, nor were the parents at liberty to educate them as they pleased ; but as soon as they were seven years old, Lycurgus ordered them to be enrolled in companies, where they were all kept under the same order and discipline, and had their exercises and recreations in common. He who showed the most conduct and courage amongst them, was made captain of the company. The rest kept their eyes upon him, obeyed his orders, and bore with patience the punishment he inflicted : so that their whole education was an exercise of obedience. The old men were present at their diversions, and often sug gested some occasion of dispute or quarrel, that they might observe with exactness the spirit of each, and their firmness in battle.
As for learning, they had just what was absolutely neces sary. All the rest of their education was calculated to make them subject to command, to endure labor, to fight and con quer. They added, therefore, to their discipline, as they ad vanced in age — cutting their hair very close, making them go barefoot, and play, for the most part, quite naked. At twelve years of age, their under-garment was taken away, and but one upper one a year allowed them. Hence they were necessarily dirty in their persons, and not indulged the great favor of baths, and oils, except on some particular days of the year. They slept in companies, on beds made of the tops of reeds, which they gathered with their own hands, without knives, and brought from the banks of the Eurotas. In winter they were permitted to add a little thistle down, as that seemed to have some warmth in it.
SOCIALISM IN SPARTA. 113
At this age, the most distinguished amongst them became the favorite companions of the elder ; and the old men at tended more constantly their places of exercise, observing their trials of strength and wit, not slightly and in a cursory manner, but as their fathers, guardians, and governors : so that there was neither time nor place where persons were wanting to in struct and chastise them. One of the best and ablest men of the city was, moreover, appointed inspector of the youth, and he gave the command of each company to the discreetest and most spirited of those called Irens. An Iren was one that had been two years out of the class of boys ; a Melliren one of the oldest lads. This Iren, then, a youth twenty years old, gives orders to those under his command in their little battles, and has them to serve him at his house. He sends the oldest of them to fetch wood, and the younger to gather pot herbs : these they steal where they can find them, either slyly getting into gardens, or else craftily and warily creeping to the com mon tables. But if any one be caught, he is severely flogged for negligence or want of dexterity. They steal, too, whatever
victuals they possibly can, ingeniously contriving to do it when persons are asleep, or keep but indifferent watch. If they are discovered, they are punished not only with whipping, but with hunger.
Indeed, their supper is but slender at all times, that, to fence against want, they may be forced to exercise their courage and address. This is the first intention of their spare diet : a subordinate one is, to make them grow tall. For when the animal spirits are not too much oppressed by a great quantity of food, which stretches itself out in breadth and thickness, they mount upwards by their natural lightness, and the body easily and freely shoots up in height. This also contributes to make them handsome : for thin and slender habits yield more freely to nature, which then gives a fine proportion to the limbs ; while the heavy and gross resist her by their weight.
The boys steal with so much caution, that one of them hav ing conveyed a young fox under his garment, suffered the creature to tear out his bowels with his teeth and claws, choos ing rather to die than to be detected. Nor does this appear incredible, if we consider what their young men can endure to this day ; for we have seen many of them expire under the
lash at the altar of Diana Orthia. VOL. III.
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114 SOCIALISM IN SPARTA.
The Iren, reposing himself after supper, used to order one of the boys to sing a song ; to another he put some question which required a judicious answer ; for example, " Who was the best"man in the city ? " or " What he thought of such an action ? This accustomed them from their childhood to judge of the virtues, to enter into the affairs of their country men. For if one of them was asked, " Who is a good citizen, or who an infamous one," and hesitated in his answer, he was considered a boy of slow parts, and of a soul that would not aspire to honor. The answer was likewise to have a reason assigned for it, and proof conceived in few words. He whose account of the matter was wrong, by way of punishment had his thumb bit by the Iren. The old men and magistrates often attended these little trials, to see whether the Iren exercised his authority in a rational and proper manner. He was per mitted, indeed, to inflict the penalties ; but when the boys were gone, he was to be chastised himself if he had punished them either with too much severity or remissness.
The adopters of favorites also shared both in the honor and disgrace of their boys : and one of them is said to have been mulcted by the magistrates, because the boy whom he had taken into his affections let some ungenerous word or cry es cape him as he was fighting. This love was so honorable and in so much esteem, that the virgins too had their lovers amongst the most virtuous matrons. A competition of affection caused no misunderstanding, but rather a mutual friendship between those that had fixed their regards upon the same youth, and an united endeavor to make him as accomplished as possible.
The boys were also taught to use sharp repartee, seasoned with humor, and whatever they said was to be concise and pithy. For Lycurgus, as we have observed, fixed but a small value on a considerable quantity of his iron money; but, on the contrary, the worth of speech was to consist in its being comprised in a few plain words, pregnant with a great deal of sense ; and he contrived that by long silence they might learn to be sententious and acute in their replies. As debauchery often causes weakness and sterility in the body, so the intem perance of the tongue makes conversation empty and insipid. King Agis, therefore, when a certain Athenian laughed at the Lacedaemonian short swords, and said, "The jugglers would swallow them with ease upon the stage," answered in his la conic way, "And yet we can reach our enemies' hearts with
SOCIALISM IN SPARTA. 115
them. " Indeed, to me there seems to be something in this con cise manner of speaking which immediately reaches the object aimed at, and forcibly strikes the mind of the hearer.
Lycurgus himself was short and sententious in his discourse, if we may judge by some of his answers which are recorded, that, for instance, concerning the constitution. When one ad vised him to establish a popular government in Lacedaemon, " Go," said he, " and first make a trial of it in thy own family. " That again, concerning sacrifices to the Deity, when he was asked why he appointed them so trifling and of so little value, " That we might never be in want," said he, " of something to offer him. " Once more, when they inquired of him, what sort of martial exercises he allowed of, he answered, " All, except those in which you stretch out your hands. " Several such like replies of his are said to be taken from the letters which he wrote to his countrymen : as to their question, " How shall we best guard against the invasion of an enemy ? " — " By continu ing poor, and not desiring in your possessions to be one above another. " And to"the question, whether they should inclose Sparta with walls, That city is well fortified, which has a wall of men instead of brick. "
Whether these and some other letters ascribed to him are genuine or not, is no easy matter to determine. However, that they hated long speeches, the following apothegms are a farther proof. King Leonidas said to one who discoursed at an improper time about affairs of some concern, " My friend, you should not talk so much to the purpose, of what it is not to the purpose to talk of. " Charilaus, the nephew of Lycurgus, being asked why his uncle had made so few laws, answered, "To men of few words, few laws are sufficient. " Some people finding fault with Hecataeus the sophist, because, when ad mitted to one of the public repasts, he said nothing all the time, Archidamidas replied, "He that knows how to speak, knows also when to speak. " I said, were sea
The manner of their repartees, which, as
soned with humor, may be gathered from these instances. When a troublesome fellow was pestering Demaratus with impertinent questions, and this in particular several times re peated, " Who is the best man in Sparta? " he answered, " He that is least like you. " To some who were commending the Eleans for managing the Olympic games with so much justice and propriety, Agis said, " What great matter is the Eleans
it, if
116 SOCIALISM IN SPARTA.
do justice once in five years ? " When a stranger was profess ing his regard for Theopompus, and saying that his own country men called him Philolacon (a lover of the Lacedaemonians), the king answered him, " My good friend, it were much better, if they called you Philopolites " (a lover of your own country men). Plistonax, the son of Pausanias, replied to an orator of Athens, who said the Lacedaemonians had no learning, " True, for we are the only people of Greece that have learned no ill of you. " To one who asked what number of men there was in Sparta, Archidamidas said, "Enough to keep bad men at a distance. "
Even when they indulged a vein of pleasantry, one might perceive that they would not use one unnecessary word, nor let an expression escape them that had not some sense worth attending to. For one being asked to go and hear a person who imitated the nightingale to perfection, answered, " I have heard the nightingale herself. " Another said, upon reading this epitaph, —
Victims of Mars, at Selinus they fell, Who quenched the rage of tyranny.
" And they deserved to fall, for, instead of quenching it, they should have let it burn out. " A young man answered one that promised him some gamecocks that would stand their death, " Give me those that will be the death of others. " Another seeing some people carried into the country in litters, said, " May I never sit in any place where I cannot rise before the aged ! "
This was the manner of their apothegms : so that it has been justly enough observed that the term lakonizein (to act the Lacedaemonian) is to be referred rather to the exercises of the mind than those of the body.
Nor were poetry and music less cultivated among them than a concise dignity of expression. Their songs had a spirit which could rouse the soul, and impel it in an enthusiastic manner to action. The language was plain and manly, the subject serious and moral. For they consisted chiefly of the praises of heroes that had died for Sparta, or else of expressions of detestation for such wretches as had declined the glorious opportunity, and rather chose to drag on life in misery and contempt. Nor did they forget to express an ambition for glory suitable to their respective ages.
SOCIALISM IN SPARTA. 117
On these occasions they relaxed the severity of their disci pline, permitting their men to be curious in dressing their hair, and elegant in their arms and apparel, while they expressed their alacrity, like horses full of fire and neighing for the race. They let their hair, therefore, grow from their youth, but took more particular care, when they expected an action, to have it well combed and shining, remembering a saying of Lycurgus, that " a large head of hair made the handsome more graceful, and the ugly more terrible. " The exercises, too, of the young men, during the campaigns, were more moderate, their diet not so hard, and their whole treatment more indulgent : so that they were the only people in the world with whom military dis cipline wore, in time of war, a gentler face than usual.
When they had routed the enemy, they continued the pur suit till they were assured of the victory; after that they immediately desisted, deeming it neither generous nor worthy of a Grecian to destroy those who made no farther resistance. This was not only a proof of magnanimity, but of great service to their cause. For when their adversaries found that they killed such as stood it out, but spared the fugitives, they con cluded it was better to fly than to meet their fate upon the spot.
The discipline of the Lacedaemonians continued after they were arrived at years of maturity. For no man was at liberty to live as he pleased ; the city being like one great camp, where all had their stated allowance, and knew their public charge, each man concluding that he was born not for himself, but for his country. Hence, if they had no particular orders, they employed themselves in inspecting the boys, and teaching them something useful, or in learning of those that were older than themselves. One of the greatest privileges that Lycurgus procured his countrymen, was the enjoyment of leisure, the con sequence of his forbidding them to exercise any mechanic trade. It was not worth their while to take great pains to raise a for tune, since riches there were of no account ; and the Helotes, who tilled the ground, were answerable for the produce above- mentioned. To this purpose we have a story of a Lacedae monian who, happening to be at Athens while the court sat, was informed of a man who was fined for idleness ; and when the poor fellow was returning home in great dejection, attended by his condoling friends, he desired the company to show him the person that was condemned for keeping up his dignity. So
118 SOCIALISM IN SPARTA.
much beneath them they reckoned all attention to mechanic arts, and all desire of riches !
Lawsuits were banished from Lacedaemon with money. The Spartans knew neither riches nor poverty, but possessed an equal competency, and had a cheap and easy way of supplying their few wants. Hence, when they were not engaged in war, their time was taken up with dancing, feasting, hunting, or meeting to exercise, or converse. They went not to market under thirty years of age, all their necessary concerns being managed by their relations and adopters. Nor was it reckoned a credit to the old to be seen sauntering in the market place ; it was deemed more suitable for them to pass great part of the day in the schools of exercise, or places of conversation. Their discourse seldom turned upon money, or business, or trade, but upon the praise of the excellent, or the contempt of the worth less ; and the last was expressed with that pleasantry and humor, which conveyed instruction and correction without seeming to intend it. Nor was Lycurgus himself immoderately severe in his manner ; but, as Sosibius tells us, he dedicated a little statue to the god of laughter in each hall. He consid ered facetiousness as a seasoning of their hard exercise and diet, and therefore ordered it to take place on all proper occasions, in their common entertainments and parties of pleasure.
Upon the whole, he taught his citizens to think nothing more disagreeable than to live by (or for) themselves. Like bees, they acted with one impulse for the public good, and always assembled about their prince. They were possessed with a thirst of honor, an enthusiasm bordering upon insanity, and had not a wish but for their country. These sentiments are confirmed by some of their aphorisms. When Padaretus lost his election for one of the "three hundred," he went away " rejoicing that there were three hundred better men than him self found in the city. " Pisistratidas going with some others, ambassador to the king of Persia's lieutenants, was asked whether they came with a public commission, or on their own account, to which he answered, " If successful, for the public ; if unsuccessful, for ourselves. " Agrileonis, the mother of Brasidas, asking some Amphipolitans that waited upon her at
her house, whether Brasidas died honorably and as became a Spartan ? they greatly extolled his merit, and said there was not such a man left in Sparta : whereupon she replied, " Say not so, my friends ; for Brasidas was indeed a man of
SOCIALISM IN SPARTA. 119
honor, but Lacedaemon can boast of many better men than he. "
He would not permit all that desired to go abroad and see other countries, lest they should contract foreign manners, gain traces of a life of little discipline, and of a different form of government. He forbade strangers, too, to resort to Sparta, who could not assign a good reason for their coming ; not, as Thu- cydides says, out of fear they should imitate the constitution of that city, and make improvements in virtue, but lest they should teach his own people some evil. For along with for eigners come new subjects of discourse ; new discourse pro duces new opinions ; and from these there necessarily spring new passions and desires, which, like discords in music, would disturb the established government. He therefore thought it more expedient for the city to keep out of it corrupt customs and manners, than even to prevent the introduction of a pestilence.
Thus far, then, we can perceive no vestiges of a disregard to right and wrong, which is the fault some people find with the laws of Lycurgus ; allowing them well enough calculated to produce valor, but not to promote justice. Perhaps it was the Cryptia, as they called it, or ambuscade, if that was really one of this lawgiver's institutions, as Aristotle says it was, which gave Plato so bad an impression both of Lycurgus and his laws. The governors of the youth ordered the shrewdest of them from time to time to disperse themselves in the coun try, provided only with daggers and some necessary provisions. In the daytime they hid themselves, and rested in the most pri vate places they could find; but at night they sallied out into the roads, and killed all the Helotes they could meet with. Nay, sometimes by day, they fell upon them in the fields and murdered the ablest and strongest of them. Thucydides re lates in his history of the Peloponnesian war, that the Spartans selected such of them as were distinguished for their courage, to the number of two thousand or more, declared them free, crowned them with garlands, and conducted them to the temples of the gods ; but soon after they all disappeared ; and no one could, either then or since, give account in what manner they were destroyed. Aristotle particularly says, that the Ephori, as soon as they were invested in their office, declared war against the Helotes, that they might be massacred under pretense of law.
120 A MARTIAL ODE.
In other respects they treated them with great inhumanity: sometimes they made them drink till they were intoxicated, and in that condition led them into the public halls, to show the young men what drunkenness was. They ordered them, too, to sing mean songs, and to dance ridiculous dances, but not to meddle with any that were genteel and graceful. Those who say that a freeman in Sparta was most a freeman, and a slave most a slave, seem well to have considered the difference of states.
A MARTIAL ODE. By TYRTilUS.
[Ttbt^us, Greek elegiac poet, was a native of Attica, and lived about b. c. 700. The Lacedaemonians applied to the Athenians for a commander to lead them in the second Messenian war. They were presented with Tyrtaeus. The war lyrics which he composed so animated the flagging spirits of the Spartan troops that they renewed the contest, and ultimately secured a complete triumph to their arms. }
(Thomas Campbell's Translation. )
How glorious fall the valiant, sword in hand, In front of battle for their native land !
But oh ! what ills await the wretch that yields, A recreant outcast from his country's fields ! The mother whom he loves shall quit her home, An aged father at his side shall roam;
His little ones shall weeping with him go,
And a young wife participate his woe ;
While scorned and scowled upon by every face, They pine for food, and beg from place to place.
Stain of his breed ! dishonoring manhood's form, All ills shall cleave to him : affliction's storm Shall blind him wandering in the vale of years, Till, lost to all but ignominious fears,
He shall not blush to leave a recreant's name, And children, like himself, inured to shame.
But we will combat for our fathers' land,
And we will drain the life blood where we stand, To save our children : — fight ye side by side, And serried close, ye men of youthful pride, Disdaining fear, and deeming light the cost
Of life itself in glorious battle lost.
A MARTIAL ODE.
Leave not our sires to stem the unequal fight,
Whose limbs are nerved no more with buoyant might; Nor, lagging backward, let the younger breast
Permit the man of age (a sight unblest)
To welter in the combat's foremost thrust,
His hoary head dishevelled in the dust,
And venerable bosom bleeding bare.
But youth's fair form, though fallen, is ever fair,
And beautiful in death the boy appears,
The hero boy, that dies in blooming years:
In man's regret he lives, and woman's tears ;
More sacred than in life, and lovelier far,
For having perished in the front of war.
(Polwhele's Translation. )
If, fighting for his dear paternal soil, The soldier in the front of battle fall ;
Tis not in fickle fortune to despoil
His store of fame, that shines the charge of alL
But oppressed by penury, he rove
Far from his native town and fertile plain,
And lead the sharer of his fondest love,
In youth too tender, with her infant train
And if his aged mother — his shrunk sire Join the sad group so many bitter ill
Against the houseless family conspire,
And all the measure of the wretched fill.
Pale, shivering want, companion of his way, He meets the luster of no pitying eye
To hunger and dire infamy prey —
Dark hatred scowls, and scorn quick passes by.
Alas no traits of beauty or of birth — No blush now lingers in his sunken face Dies every feeling (as he roams o'er earth)
Of shame transmitted to wandering race.
But be ours to guard this hallowed spot, To shield the tender offspring and the wife
Here steadily await our destined lot,
And, for their sakes, resign the gift of life.
;
! it
if,
a
a
;
;
;
;
a
122 EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS.
Anecdotes and Aphorisms op EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS.
By DIOGENES LAERTIUS.
[Diogenes, of Laerte In Alicia, wrote — probably about a. d. 200-250 — a book of biographies of Greek philosophers, from which, scrappy and confused as it is, nearly all our knowledge of the history of ancient philosophy is derived. There are reasons for thinking that the extant book is not the original, but a clumsy compilation from it. ]
Thales.
Being asked why he did not become a father, he answered that it was because he was fond of children. When his mother exhorted him to marry, he said, " It is not yet time," and after wards, when he was past his youth, and she was again pressing him earnestly, he said, " It is no longer time. "
He thanked fortune for three things : first of all, that he had been born a man and not a beast ; secondly, that he was a man and not a woman ; and thirdly, that he was a Greek and not a barbarian.
It is said that once he was led out of his house by an old woman for the purpose of observing the stars, and he fell into a ditch and bewailed himself ; on which the old woman said to him, " Do you, O Thales, who cannot see what is under your feet, think that you shall understand what is in heaven ? " [For a better form of this, see Bacon's "Apothegms. "]
He said also that there was no difference between life and death. " Why, then," said some one to him, " do not you die ? " "Because," said he, "it does make no difference. "
Another man asked him whether a man who did wrong could escape the notice of the Gods. "No, not even if he thinks wrong," said he.
An adulterer inquired of him whether he should swear that he had not committed adultery. " Perjury," said he, " is no worse than adultery. "
When the question was put to"him how a man might most easily endure misfortune, he said, If he saw his enemies more unfortunate still. "
When asked how men might live most virtuously and most justly, he said, " If we never do ourselves what we blame in
others. " " The apothegm,
Know thyself," is his.
EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS. 123
Solon.
Laws are like cobwebs : if anything small or weak falls into them, they hold it fast ; if of any size, it breaks the meshes and escapes.
Kings' favorites are like the pebbles used in calculating : the masters make them count for more or less as they will.
When asked how public wrongs could be prevented, he answered, " If those not injured feel as much resentment as those who are. "
Wealth gluts men, and satiety makes them insolent.
Maxims of conduct : Consider your honor as a gentleman of more weight than an oath. Never lie. Attend to serious affairs. Do not be hasty either in making friends or discard ing them. [See Hesiod. ] Wield authority only after you have learned to obey it. Do not give agreeable advice, but good advice. Be guided by reason. Keep out of bad com pany. Honor the gods and your parents.
When lamenting his dead son, some one told him, "Your weeping does no good. " He replied, "That is why I weep — because it does no good. "
Cedxo.
He said to his brother, angry at not being made an Ephor while he (Chilo) was one, " It is because I know how to bear injustice, and you do not. "
Educated men differ from ignorant ones in the rationality of their hopes.
The three hardest things are to keep secrets, to make good use of leisure, and to be able to bear injustice.
Rule your tongue, especially at banquets, and do not speak ill of neighbors.
Threaten no one : that is a woman's trick.
Visit your friends more promptly in adversity than in pros perity.
Do not speak evil of the dead.
Watch yourself.
Choose punishment rather than dishonest gain : the former
is painful but once, the latter all one's life.
Do not deride any one in misfortune.
If you are powerful, be also kind, so that others may respect
rather than fear you.
124 EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS.
Learn to order your own household well. Do not let your tongue outrun your sense. Restrain anger. Do not wish im possibilities. Do not hasten too fast on your road. Obey the laws.
Gold is tested by hard stones ; men are tested by gold. Security, then destruction.
He said the one action of his of which he doubted the jus
tice, was voting as a juryman against a friend according to law, but inducing another to vote for and acquit him.
PlTtACUS.
Power shows the man.
The best course is to do well what one is doing at the moment.
It is the part of wise men to provide that perilous junctures shall not arise ; of brave men, to make the best of them when arisen.
Do not tell your designs beforehand: you will be laughed at if you fail.
Forbear to speak evil not only of your friends, but your enemies.
Watch your chance.
Alcaeus, his contemporary, appears to have loved him. He says Pittacus was splay-footed, dragged his feet in walking, and had scars on them ; put on airs without cause ; was fat, weak-eyed, dirty, and lazy. As another authority says he ground corn for exercise, the poet may have exaggerated.
Bias.
The hardest thing is to bear a change of fortune for the worse with magnanimity.
He said he would rather be umpire between his enemies than his friends, " For out of two friends I am sure to make one enemy; while out of two enemies I stand to make one friend. "
Men should live as though they were to live a long time and a short one both [for fear evil results of conduct would bring a long punishment, for fear there would be little time to
work or amend].
Men should love each other as if they might yet come to
hate each other.
Choose your course deliberately, then pursue it firmly.
a reticent tongue.
If you speak ill of others, you may hear more of yourself. Don't be boorish at a feast where the guests all pay ; for
there one gets the greatest pleasure at the least expense.
Don't go to church with dirty clothes on. [Literally, Do not make libations to Zeus with unwashed hands. ] For your prayers will not be heard. [That is, if you do not think your
religion of importance enough to make some effort at decency in its rites, it will not do you much good. ]
The Hawk and the Nightingale.
Now then will I speak a fable to kings, wise even though they are. Thus the hawk addressed the nightingale of varie gated throat, as he carried her in his talons, when he had caught her, very high in the clouds.
She then, pierced on all sides by his crooked talons, was wailing piteously, whilst he victoriously addressed his speech to her. " Wretch, wherefore criest thou ? 'tis a much stronger that holds thee. Thou wilt go that way by which I may lead thee, songstress though thou art ; and my supper, if I choose, I shall make, or shall let go. But senseless is he who chooses to contend against them that are stronger, and he is robbed of victory, and suffers griefs in addition to indignities. "
Pandora's Box.
Now the gods keep hidden for men their means of sub sistence ; for else easily mightest thou even in one day have wrought, so that thou shouldest have enough for the year,
102 OBSERVATIONS OF HESIOD.
even though being idle : else straightway wouldst thou lay by the rudder above the smoke, and the labors of oxen and of toil- enduring mules would be undone. But Jove in wrath at his heart concealed it, because wily Prometheus had beguiled him. Therefore, I ween, he devised baneful cares for men. And fire he hid, which indeed the good son of Iapetus stole back for mankind from counselor Jove in a hollow fennel stalk, after he had escaped the notice of Jove delighting in the thunder bolt.
Him then cloud-compelling Jove addressed in wrath: "O son of Iapetus, knowing beyond all in counsels, thou exultest in having stolen fire, and deceived my wisdom, a severe woe to thyself and to men that shall come after. To them now will I give evil instead of fire, wherewith all may delight them selves at heart, hugging their own evil. " So spake he: and outlaughed the sire of men and gods; but he bade Vulcan the illustrious with all speed mix earth with water, and endue it with man's voice and strength, and to liken in countenance to immortal goddesses the fair, lovely beauty of a maiden; then he bade Minerva teach her work, to weave the highly wrought web; and golden Aphrodite to shed around her head grace, and painful desire, and cares that waste the limbs; but to endue her with a shameless mind and tricksy manners he charged the conductor, Argicide Mercury.
So he bade; but they obeyed Jove, the sovereign son of Cronus, and forthwith out of the earth the famous crippled god fashioned one like unto a modest maiden, through the counsels of Jove, the son of Cronus, and the goddess, gleaming- eyed Minerva, girdled and arrayed her; and around her skin the goddess Graces and august Persuasion hung golden chains, whilst fair-tressed Hours crowned her about with flowers of spring, and Pallas Minerva adapted every ornament to her person. But in her breast, I wot, conductor Mercury wrought falsehoods, and wily speeches, and tricksy manners, by the counsels of deep- thundering Jove; and the herald of the gods placed within her, I ween, a winning voice; and this woman he called Pandora, because all, inhabiting Olympian mansions, bestowed on her a gift — a mischief to inventive men.
But when he had perfected the dire inextricable snare, father Jove proceeded to send to Epimetheus the famous slayer of Argus, swift messenger of the gods, carrying her as a gift; nor did Epimetheus consider how Prometheus had told him never
FRAGMENTS OF ARCHILOCHUS.
108
to accept a gift from Olympian Jove, but to send it back, lest haply any ill should arise to mortals. But he, after receiving it, felt the evil, when now he possessed it.
Now aforetime, indeed, the races of men were wont to live on the earth apart and free from ills, and without harsh labor, and painful diseases, which have brought death on mor tals. For in wretchedness men presently grow old. But the woman having with her hands removed the great lid from the vessel, dispersed them; then contrived she baneful cares for men. And Hope alone there in unbroken abode kept re maining within, beneath the verge of the vessel, nor did it flit forth abroad; for before that, she had placed on the lid of the vessel, by the counsels of aegis-bearing, cloud-compeller Jove. But myriad other ills have roamed forth among men. For full indeed is earth of woes, and full the sea; and in the day as well as at night diseases unbidden haunt mankind, silently bearing ills to men, for counselor Jove hath taken from them their voice. Thus not in any way is it possible to escape the will of Jove.
FRAGMENTS OF ARCHILOCHUS.
[Archilochcs was the earliest of Greek satirists, about b. c. 700, inventor of the iambic verse ; by the ancients ranked second only to Homer, and equally first in his own department, inferior rather in subject than in genius. He was famed for personal lampoons' so stinging that they are said to have driven their subjects to suicide ; but he wrote also better things. All that would exhibit his surpassing greatness, however, is lost: the first piece following is the longest remnant that survives.
All translations not credited are made for this work. ]
L
On Self-Control. (Translated by William Hay. )
Tossed on a sea of troubles, Soul, my Soul, Thyself do thou control ;
And to the weapons of advancing foes A stubborn breast oppose ;
Undaunted 'mid the hostile might Of squadrons burning for the fight.
104
FRAGMENTS OP ARCHILOCHUS.
Thine be no boasting when the victor's crown Wins thee deserved renown ;
Thine no dejected sorrow, when defeat Would urge a base retreat :
Rejoice in joyous things — nor overmuch Let grief thy bosom touch
'Midst evil, and still bear in mind
How changeful are the ways of humankind.
rx Fate.
Cast all care upon the gods : for often from the dust they raise
Men who grovel in abasement, toiling in the meanest ways ;
Often too they hurl men headlong — trip and throw us on our face, While we strut in pride, and leave us, beggared, homeless, in a daze, Once again to seek our fortune, all misfortunes at our heels.
ra.
The Daily Miracle.
There is naught to be despaired of, naught to be avowed absurd, Naught a wonder, when the Father of the Skies
From the noonday brings the night, with the hiding of the light, Sunshine goes, and gloomy fear upon us lies.
Just from this alone we know there is nothing here below Unbelievable or desperate for men ;
None should wonder at whatever they behold in our affairs. Should the very dolphins of the ocean for a den
Of the beasts of earth exchange their briny fields and lairs, These the thundering wave prefer to mainland home,
Those the mountain find more grateful than the foam.
XT.
The Fox's Invocation.
0 Father Zeus, thy might in heaven controls all mortals' fate ; Thou seest the deeds of humankind, the crooked and the straight ; In brutes as well thou lov'st the just, the wrongful has thy hate.
v.
Cameo op a Girl. (Translated by J. A. Symonds. )
Holding a myrtle rod she blithely moved,
And a fair blossoming rose ; the flowing hair "Shadowed her shoulders, falling to her girdle.
NIGHT. 105
vx
The Ideal Captain.
A long-legged straddling giant is not my choice for a chief— Curled and haughty and shaven, a proper sort of a beau :
Give me a bow-legged bantam, stout if his body is brief, Firm on his feet, quick-witted, full of spirit and go.
His Discretion the Better Part op his Valor.
Some Thracian is pluming himself on the shield that he found in a bush,
Where blameless I left my armor, sorely against my grain ;
But I saved myself from the consequence of death that day, at least:
Let the shield go — I can get one no worse when I want it again.
VIII.
His Autobiography.
I am an expert craftsman in one tremendous art —
To wreak full vengeance on the one who plays a foeman'g part.
NIGHT.
By ALCMAN. (Translated by William Mure. )
[Alcman (flourished about 650) was one of the founders of Greek lyric poetry : identified with Sparta, though not a native. ]
Over the drowsy earth still night prevails ; Calm sleep the mountain tops and shady vales,
The rugged cliffs and hollow glens, The castle on the hill. Deep in the sea
The countless finny race and monster brood Tranquil repose. Even the busy bee
Forgets her daily toil. The silent wood No more with noisy hum of insect rings,
And all the feathered tribes, by gentle sleep subdued, Roost in the glade, and hang their drooping wings.
106 SOCIALISM IN SPARTA.
SOCIALISM IN SPARTA. By PLUTARCH.
(From the "Life of Lycurgus. ")
Lycukgus found a prodigious inequality : the city was overcharged with many indigent persons who had no land, and the wealth centered in the hands of a few. Determined, therefore, to root out the evils of insolence, envy, avarice, and luxury, and those distempers of a state still more inveterate and fatal, — I mean poverty and riches, — he persuaded them to cancel all former divisions of land, and to make new ones, in such a manner that they might be perfectly equal in their possessions and way of living. Hence, if they were ambitious of distinction they might seek it in virtue, as no other differ ence was left between them but that which arises from the dishonor of base actions and the praise of good ones. His proposal was put in practice. He made nine thousand lots for the territory of Sparta, which he distributed among so many citizens, and thirty thousand for the inhabitants of the rest of Laconia. Each lot was capable of producing (one year with another) seventy bushels of grain for each man, and twelve for each woman, besides a quantity of wine and oil in proportion. Such a provision they thought sufficient for health and a good habit of body, and they wanted nothing more. A story goes of our legislator, that some time after returning from a journey through the fields just reaped, and seeing the shocks standing parallel and equal, he smiled, and said to some that were by, " How like is Laconia to an estate newly divided among many , brothers ! "
After this, he attempted to divide also the movables, in order to take away all appearance of inequality; but he soon perceived that they could not bear to have their goods directly taken from them, and therefore took another method, counterworking their avarice by a stratagem. First he stopped the currency of the gold and silver coin, and ordered that they should make use of iron money only, then to a great quantity and weight of this he assigned but a small value ; so that to lay up ten mince, a whole room was required, and to remove nothing less than
yoke of oxen. When this became current, many kinds of injustice ceased in Lacedaemon. Who would steal or take
a
a
it,
I
SOCIALISM IN SPARTA. 107
bribe, who would defraud or rob, when he could not conceal the booty ; when he could neither be dignified by the posses sion of it, nor if cut in pieces be served by its use ? For we are told that, when hot they quenched it in vinegar, to make it brittle and unmalleable, and consequently unfit for any other service.
In the next place, he excluded unprofitable and superfluous arts : indeed, if he had not done this, most of them would have fallen of themselves, when the new money took place, as the manufactures could not be disposed of. Their iron coin would not pass in the rest of Greece, but was ridiculed and despised ; so that the Spartans had no means of purchasing any foreign or curious wares; nor did any merchant ship unlade in their harbors. There were not even to be found in all their country either sophists, wandering fortune tellers, keepers of infamous houses or dealers in gold and silver trinkets, because there was no money. Thus luxury, losing by degrees the means that cherished and supported it, died away of itself : even they who had great possessions had no advantage from them, since they could not be displayed in public, but must lie useless in unregarded repositories. Hence it was that excellent work manship was shown in their useful and necessary furniture, as beds, chairs, and tables; and the Lacedaemonian cup called cothon, as Critias informs us, was highly valued, particularly in campaigns ; for the water, which must then of necessity be drank, though it would often otherwise offend the sight, had its muddiness concealed by the color of the cup, and the thick part stopping at the shelving brim, it came clearer to the lips.
Desirous to complete the conquest of luxury, and exter minate the love of riches, he introduced a third institution, which was wisely enough and ingeniously contrived. This was the use of public tables, where all were to eat in common of the same meat, and such kinds of it as were appointed by law. At the same time they were forbidden to eat at home, upon ex pensive couches and tables, to call in the assistance of butchers and cooks, or to fatten like voracious animals in private. For so not only their manners would be corrupted, but their bodies disordered ; abandoned to all manner of sensuality and disso luteness, they would require long sleep, warm baths, and the same indulgence as in perpetual sickness. To effect this was certainly very great ; but it was greater still, to secure riches from rapine and from envy, as Theophrastus expresses it, or
108 SOCIALISM IN SPARTA.
rather by their eating in common, and by the frugality of their table, to take from riches their very being. For what use or enjoyment of them, what peculiar display of magnificence could there be, where the poor man went to the same refreshment with the rich ? It must further be observed, that they had not the privilege to eat at home, and so to come without appetite to the public repast : they made a point of it to observe any one that did not eat and drink with them, and to reproach him as an intemperate and effeminate person that was sick of the common diet.
There were fifteen persons to a table, or a few more or less. Each of them was obliged to bring in monthly a bushel of meal, eight gallons of wine, five pounds of cheese, two pounds and a half of figs, and a little money to buy flesh and fish. If any of them happened to offer a sacrifice of first fruits, or to kill venison, he sent a part of it to the public table ; for after a sacrifice or hunting, he was at liberty to sup at home ; but the rest were to appear at the usual place. For a long time this eating in common was observed with great exactness : so that when king Agis returned from a successful expedition against the Athenians, and from a desire to sup with his wife, requested to have his portion at home, the Polemarchs refused to send it : nay, when, through resentment, he neglected, the day following, to offer the sacrifice usual on occasion of victory, they set a fine upon him.
Children also were introduced at these public tables, as so many schools of sobriety. There they heard discourses con cerning government, and were instructed in the most liberal breeding. There they were allowed to jest without scurrility, and were not to take it ill when the raillery was returned. For it was reckoned worthy of a Lacedaemonian to bear a jest ; but if any one's patience failed, he had only to desire them to be quiet, and they left off immediately. When they first entered, the oldest man present pointed to the door, and said, " Not a word spoken in this company goes out there. "
The admitting of any man to a particular table was under the following regulation. Each member of that small society took a little ball of soft bread in his hand. This he was to drop, without saying a word, into a vessel called caddot, which the waiter carried upon his head. In case he approved of the candi date, he did it without altering the figure, if not, he first pressed it flat in his hand ; for a flatted ball was considered as a nega
SOCIALISM IN SPARTA. 109
tive. And if but one such was found, the person was not ad mitted, as they thought it proper that the whole company should be satisfied with each other. He who was thus rejected, was said to have no luck in the caddog.
The dish that was in the highest esteem amongst them was the black broth. The old men were so fond of it that they ranged themselves on one side and eat leaving the meat to the young people. It related of king of Pontus, that he pur chased Lacedaemonian cook, for the sake of this broth. But when he came to taste he strongly expressed his dislike, and the cook made answer, " Sir, to make this broth relish, necessary first to bathe in the Eurotas. " After they had drunk moderately, they went home without lights. Indeed, they were forbidden to walk with light either on this or any other occa sion, that they might accustom themselves to march in the darkest night boldly and resolutely. Such was the order of their public repasts.
LycurguB left none of his laws in writing was ordered in one of the Rhetrce that none should be written. For what he thought most conducive to the virtue and happiness of city, was principles interwoven with the manners and breeding of the people. These would remain immovable, as founded in inclination, and be the strongest and most lasting tie and the habits which education produced in the youth, would answer in each the purpose of lawgiver. As for smaller matters, con tracts about property, and whatever occasionally varied, was better not to reduce these to written form and unalterable method, but to suffer them to change with the times, and to admit of additions or retrenchments at the pleasure of persons so well educated. For he resolved the whole business of legis lation into the bringing up of youth. And this, as we have observed, was the reason why one of his ordinances forbade them to have any written laws.
Another ordinance, leveled against magnificence and ex pense, directed that the ceilings of houses should be wrought with no tool but the ax, and the doors with nothing but the saw. For, as Epaminondas reported to have said afterwards, of his table, "Treason lurks not under such dinner," so Lycurgus perceived before him, that such house admits of no luxury and needless splendor. Indeed, no man could be so absurd as to bring into dwelling so homely and simple, bed steads with silver feet, purple coverlets, golden cups, and train
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110 SOCIALISM IN SPARTA.
of expense that follows these : but all would necessarily have the bed suitable to the room, the coverlet of the bed and the rest of their utensils and furniture to that. From this plain sort of dwellings proceeded the question of Leotychidas the elder to his host, when he supped at Corinth, and saw the ceil ing of the room very splendid and curiously wrought, " Whether trees grew square in his country. "
A third ordinance of Lycurgus was, that they should not often make war against the same enemy, lest, by being frequently put upon defending themselves, they too should become able warriors in their turn. And this they most blamed king Agesi- laus for afterwards, that by frequent and continued incursions into Boeotia, he taught the Thebans to make head against the Lacedaemonians. This made Antalcidas say, when he saw him wounded, " The Thebans pay you well for making them good soldiers who neither were willing nor able to fight you before. "
As for the education of youth, which he looked upon as the greatest and most glorious work of a lawgiver, he began with it at the very source, by regulating the marriages. For he did not (as Aristotle says) desist from his attempt to bring the women under sober rules. They had indeed assumed great liberty and power on account of the frequent expeditions of their husbands, during which they were left sole mistresses at home, and so gained an undue deference and improper titles ; but notwithstanding this he took all possible care of them. He ordered the virgins to exercise themselves in running, wrestling, and throwing quoits and darts ; that their bodies being strong and vigorous, the children afterwards produced from them might be the same ; and that, thus fortified by exercise, they might the better support the pangs of childbirth, and be delivered with safety.
In order to take away the excessive tenderness and delicacy of the sex, the consequence of a recluse life, he accustomed the virgins occasionally to be seen naked as well as the young men, and to dance and sing in their presence on certain festivals. There they sometimes indulged in a little raillery upon those that had misbehaved themselves, and sometimes they sung enco miums on such as deserved them, thus exciting in the young men a useful emulation and love of glory. For he who was praised for his bravery and celebrated among the virgins, went away perfectly happy : while their satirical glances, thrown out in sport, were no less cutting than serious admonitions, espe
SOCIALISM IN SPARTA. Ill
cially as the kings and senate went with the other citizens to see all that passed. As for the virgins appearing naked, there was nothing disgraceful in it, because everything was conducted with modesty, and without one indecent word or action. Nay, it caused a simplicity of manners and an emulation for the best habit of body ; their ideas, too, were naturally enlarged, while they were not excluded from their share of bravery and honor. Hence they were furnished with sentiments and language such as Gorgo, the wife of Leonidas, is said to have" made use of. When a woman of another country said to her, You of Lace- daemon are the only women in the world that rule the men," she answered, " We are the only women that bring forth men. "
These public dances and other exercises of the young maidens naked, in sight of the young men, were, moreover, in centives to marriage ; and, to use Plato's expression, drew them almost as necessarily by the attractions of love, as a geometrical conclusion follows from the premises. To encourage it still more, some marks of infamy were set upon those that continued bachelors. For they were not permitted to see these exercises of the naked virgins ; and the magistrates commanded them to march naked round the marketplace in the winter, and to sing a song composed against themselves, which expressed how justly they were punished for their disobedience to the laws. They were also deprived of that honor and respect which the younger people paid to the old ; so that nobody found fault with what was said to Dercyllidas, though an eminent com mander. It seems, when he came one day into company, a young man, instead of rising up and giving place, told him, " You have no child to give place to me, when I am old. "
It was not left to the father to rear what children he pleased, but he was obliged to carry the child to a place called Lesche, to be examined by the most ancient men of the tribe, who were assembled there. If it was strong and well-proportioned, they gave orders for its education, and assigned it one of the nine thousand shares of land ; but if it was weakly and deformed, they ordered it to be thrown into the place called Apotheta, which is a deep cavern near the mountain Taygetus ; conclud ing that its life could be no advantage either to itself or to the public, since nature had not given it at first any strength or goodness of constitution. For the same reason the women did not wash their new-born infants with water, but with wine, thus making some trial of their habit of body, imagining that sickly
112 SOCIALISM IN SPARTA.
and epileptic children sink and die under the experiment, while healthy became more vigorous and hardy.
Great care and art was also exerted by the nurses ; for, as they never swathed the infants, their limbs had a freer turn, and their countenances a more liberal air ; besides, they used them to any sort of meat, to have no terrors in the dark, nor to be afraid of being alone, and to leave all ill humor and unmanly crying. Hence people of other countries purchased Lacedae monian nurses for their children ; and Alcibiades the Athenian is said to have been nursed by Amicla, a Spartan. But if he was fortunate in a nurse, he was not so in a preceptor ; for Zopyrus, appointed to that office by Pericles, was, as Plato tells us, no better qualified than a common slave. The Spartan children were not in that manner, under tutors purchased or hired with money, nor were the parents at liberty to educate them as they pleased ; but as soon as they were seven years old, Lycurgus ordered them to be enrolled in companies, where they were all kept under the same order and discipline, and had their exercises and recreations in common. He who showed the most conduct and courage amongst them, was made captain of the company. The rest kept their eyes upon him, obeyed his orders, and bore with patience the punishment he inflicted : so that their whole education was an exercise of obedience. The old men were present at their diversions, and often sug gested some occasion of dispute or quarrel, that they might observe with exactness the spirit of each, and their firmness in battle.
As for learning, they had just what was absolutely neces sary. All the rest of their education was calculated to make them subject to command, to endure labor, to fight and con quer. They added, therefore, to their discipline, as they ad vanced in age — cutting their hair very close, making them go barefoot, and play, for the most part, quite naked. At twelve years of age, their under-garment was taken away, and but one upper one a year allowed them. Hence they were necessarily dirty in their persons, and not indulged the great favor of baths, and oils, except on some particular days of the year. They slept in companies, on beds made of the tops of reeds, which they gathered with their own hands, without knives, and brought from the banks of the Eurotas. In winter they were permitted to add a little thistle down, as that seemed to have some warmth in it.
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At this age, the most distinguished amongst them became the favorite companions of the elder ; and the old men at tended more constantly their places of exercise, observing their trials of strength and wit, not slightly and in a cursory manner, but as their fathers, guardians, and governors : so that there was neither time nor place where persons were wanting to in struct and chastise them. One of the best and ablest men of the city was, moreover, appointed inspector of the youth, and he gave the command of each company to the discreetest and most spirited of those called Irens. An Iren was one that had been two years out of the class of boys ; a Melliren one of the oldest lads. This Iren, then, a youth twenty years old, gives orders to those under his command in their little battles, and has them to serve him at his house. He sends the oldest of them to fetch wood, and the younger to gather pot herbs : these they steal where they can find them, either slyly getting into gardens, or else craftily and warily creeping to the com mon tables. But if any one be caught, he is severely flogged for negligence or want of dexterity. They steal, too, whatever
victuals they possibly can, ingeniously contriving to do it when persons are asleep, or keep but indifferent watch. If they are discovered, they are punished not only with whipping, but with hunger.
Indeed, their supper is but slender at all times, that, to fence against want, they may be forced to exercise their courage and address. This is the first intention of their spare diet : a subordinate one is, to make them grow tall. For when the animal spirits are not too much oppressed by a great quantity of food, which stretches itself out in breadth and thickness, they mount upwards by their natural lightness, and the body easily and freely shoots up in height. This also contributes to make them handsome : for thin and slender habits yield more freely to nature, which then gives a fine proportion to the limbs ; while the heavy and gross resist her by their weight.
The boys steal with so much caution, that one of them hav ing conveyed a young fox under his garment, suffered the creature to tear out his bowels with his teeth and claws, choos ing rather to die than to be detected. Nor does this appear incredible, if we consider what their young men can endure to this day ; for we have seen many of them expire under the
lash at the altar of Diana Orthia. VOL. III.
— 8
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The Iren, reposing himself after supper, used to order one of the boys to sing a song ; to another he put some question which required a judicious answer ; for example, " Who was the best"man in the city ? " or " What he thought of such an action ? This accustomed them from their childhood to judge of the virtues, to enter into the affairs of their country men. For if one of them was asked, " Who is a good citizen, or who an infamous one," and hesitated in his answer, he was considered a boy of slow parts, and of a soul that would not aspire to honor. The answer was likewise to have a reason assigned for it, and proof conceived in few words. He whose account of the matter was wrong, by way of punishment had his thumb bit by the Iren. The old men and magistrates often attended these little trials, to see whether the Iren exercised his authority in a rational and proper manner. He was per mitted, indeed, to inflict the penalties ; but when the boys were gone, he was to be chastised himself if he had punished them either with too much severity or remissness.
The adopters of favorites also shared both in the honor and disgrace of their boys : and one of them is said to have been mulcted by the magistrates, because the boy whom he had taken into his affections let some ungenerous word or cry es cape him as he was fighting. This love was so honorable and in so much esteem, that the virgins too had their lovers amongst the most virtuous matrons. A competition of affection caused no misunderstanding, but rather a mutual friendship between those that had fixed their regards upon the same youth, and an united endeavor to make him as accomplished as possible.
The boys were also taught to use sharp repartee, seasoned with humor, and whatever they said was to be concise and pithy. For Lycurgus, as we have observed, fixed but a small value on a considerable quantity of his iron money; but, on the contrary, the worth of speech was to consist in its being comprised in a few plain words, pregnant with a great deal of sense ; and he contrived that by long silence they might learn to be sententious and acute in their replies. As debauchery often causes weakness and sterility in the body, so the intem perance of the tongue makes conversation empty and insipid. King Agis, therefore, when a certain Athenian laughed at the Lacedaemonian short swords, and said, "The jugglers would swallow them with ease upon the stage," answered in his la conic way, "And yet we can reach our enemies' hearts with
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them. " Indeed, to me there seems to be something in this con cise manner of speaking which immediately reaches the object aimed at, and forcibly strikes the mind of the hearer.
Lycurgus himself was short and sententious in his discourse, if we may judge by some of his answers which are recorded, that, for instance, concerning the constitution. When one ad vised him to establish a popular government in Lacedaemon, " Go," said he, " and first make a trial of it in thy own family. " That again, concerning sacrifices to the Deity, when he was asked why he appointed them so trifling and of so little value, " That we might never be in want," said he, " of something to offer him. " Once more, when they inquired of him, what sort of martial exercises he allowed of, he answered, " All, except those in which you stretch out your hands. " Several such like replies of his are said to be taken from the letters which he wrote to his countrymen : as to their question, " How shall we best guard against the invasion of an enemy ? " — " By continu ing poor, and not desiring in your possessions to be one above another. " And to"the question, whether they should inclose Sparta with walls, That city is well fortified, which has a wall of men instead of brick. "
Whether these and some other letters ascribed to him are genuine or not, is no easy matter to determine. However, that they hated long speeches, the following apothegms are a farther proof. King Leonidas said to one who discoursed at an improper time about affairs of some concern, " My friend, you should not talk so much to the purpose, of what it is not to the purpose to talk of. " Charilaus, the nephew of Lycurgus, being asked why his uncle had made so few laws, answered, "To men of few words, few laws are sufficient. " Some people finding fault with Hecataeus the sophist, because, when ad mitted to one of the public repasts, he said nothing all the time, Archidamidas replied, "He that knows how to speak, knows also when to speak. " I said, were sea
The manner of their repartees, which, as
soned with humor, may be gathered from these instances. When a troublesome fellow was pestering Demaratus with impertinent questions, and this in particular several times re peated, " Who is the best man in Sparta? " he answered, " He that is least like you. " To some who were commending the Eleans for managing the Olympic games with so much justice and propriety, Agis said, " What great matter is the Eleans
it, if
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do justice once in five years ? " When a stranger was profess ing his regard for Theopompus, and saying that his own country men called him Philolacon (a lover of the Lacedaemonians), the king answered him, " My good friend, it were much better, if they called you Philopolites " (a lover of your own country men). Plistonax, the son of Pausanias, replied to an orator of Athens, who said the Lacedaemonians had no learning, " True, for we are the only people of Greece that have learned no ill of you. " To one who asked what number of men there was in Sparta, Archidamidas said, "Enough to keep bad men at a distance. "
Even when they indulged a vein of pleasantry, one might perceive that they would not use one unnecessary word, nor let an expression escape them that had not some sense worth attending to. For one being asked to go and hear a person who imitated the nightingale to perfection, answered, " I have heard the nightingale herself. " Another said, upon reading this epitaph, —
Victims of Mars, at Selinus they fell, Who quenched the rage of tyranny.
" And they deserved to fall, for, instead of quenching it, they should have let it burn out. " A young man answered one that promised him some gamecocks that would stand their death, " Give me those that will be the death of others. " Another seeing some people carried into the country in litters, said, " May I never sit in any place where I cannot rise before the aged ! "
This was the manner of their apothegms : so that it has been justly enough observed that the term lakonizein (to act the Lacedaemonian) is to be referred rather to the exercises of the mind than those of the body.
Nor were poetry and music less cultivated among them than a concise dignity of expression. Their songs had a spirit which could rouse the soul, and impel it in an enthusiastic manner to action. The language was plain and manly, the subject serious and moral. For they consisted chiefly of the praises of heroes that had died for Sparta, or else of expressions of detestation for such wretches as had declined the glorious opportunity, and rather chose to drag on life in misery and contempt. Nor did they forget to express an ambition for glory suitable to their respective ages.
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On these occasions they relaxed the severity of their disci pline, permitting their men to be curious in dressing their hair, and elegant in their arms and apparel, while they expressed their alacrity, like horses full of fire and neighing for the race. They let their hair, therefore, grow from their youth, but took more particular care, when they expected an action, to have it well combed and shining, remembering a saying of Lycurgus, that " a large head of hair made the handsome more graceful, and the ugly more terrible. " The exercises, too, of the young men, during the campaigns, were more moderate, their diet not so hard, and their whole treatment more indulgent : so that they were the only people in the world with whom military dis cipline wore, in time of war, a gentler face than usual.
When they had routed the enemy, they continued the pur suit till they were assured of the victory; after that they immediately desisted, deeming it neither generous nor worthy of a Grecian to destroy those who made no farther resistance. This was not only a proof of magnanimity, but of great service to their cause. For when their adversaries found that they killed such as stood it out, but spared the fugitives, they con cluded it was better to fly than to meet their fate upon the spot.
The discipline of the Lacedaemonians continued after they were arrived at years of maturity. For no man was at liberty to live as he pleased ; the city being like one great camp, where all had their stated allowance, and knew their public charge, each man concluding that he was born not for himself, but for his country. Hence, if they had no particular orders, they employed themselves in inspecting the boys, and teaching them something useful, or in learning of those that were older than themselves. One of the greatest privileges that Lycurgus procured his countrymen, was the enjoyment of leisure, the con sequence of his forbidding them to exercise any mechanic trade. It was not worth their while to take great pains to raise a for tune, since riches there were of no account ; and the Helotes, who tilled the ground, were answerable for the produce above- mentioned. To this purpose we have a story of a Lacedae monian who, happening to be at Athens while the court sat, was informed of a man who was fined for idleness ; and when the poor fellow was returning home in great dejection, attended by his condoling friends, he desired the company to show him the person that was condemned for keeping up his dignity. So
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much beneath them they reckoned all attention to mechanic arts, and all desire of riches !
Lawsuits were banished from Lacedaemon with money. The Spartans knew neither riches nor poverty, but possessed an equal competency, and had a cheap and easy way of supplying their few wants. Hence, when they were not engaged in war, their time was taken up with dancing, feasting, hunting, or meeting to exercise, or converse. They went not to market under thirty years of age, all their necessary concerns being managed by their relations and adopters. Nor was it reckoned a credit to the old to be seen sauntering in the market place ; it was deemed more suitable for them to pass great part of the day in the schools of exercise, or places of conversation. Their discourse seldom turned upon money, or business, or trade, but upon the praise of the excellent, or the contempt of the worth less ; and the last was expressed with that pleasantry and humor, which conveyed instruction and correction without seeming to intend it. Nor was Lycurgus himself immoderately severe in his manner ; but, as Sosibius tells us, he dedicated a little statue to the god of laughter in each hall. He consid ered facetiousness as a seasoning of their hard exercise and diet, and therefore ordered it to take place on all proper occasions, in their common entertainments and parties of pleasure.
Upon the whole, he taught his citizens to think nothing more disagreeable than to live by (or for) themselves. Like bees, they acted with one impulse for the public good, and always assembled about their prince. They were possessed with a thirst of honor, an enthusiasm bordering upon insanity, and had not a wish but for their country. These sentiments are confirmed by some of their aphorisms. When Padaretus lost his election for one of the "three hundred," he went away " rejoicing that there were three hundred better men than him self found in the city. " Pisistratidas going with some others, ambassador to the king of Persia's lieutenants, was asked whether they came with a public commission, or on their own account, to which he answered, " If successful, for the public ; if unsuccessful, for ourselves. " Agrileonis, the mother of Brasidas, asking some Amphipolitans that waited upon her at
her house, whether Brasidas died honorably and as became a Spartan ? they greatly extolled his merit, and said there was not such a man left in Sparta : whereupon she replied, " Say not so, my friends ; for Brasidas was indeed a man of
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honor, but Lacedaemon can boast of many better men than he. "
He would not permit all that desired to go abroad and see other countries, lest they should contract foreign manners, gain traces of a life of little discipline, and of a different form of government. He forbade strangers, too, to resort to Sparta, who could not assign a good reason for their coming ; not, as Thu- cydides says, out of fear they should imitate the constitution of that city, and make improvements in virtue, but lest they should teach his own people some evil. For along with for eigners come new subjects of discourse ; new discourse pro duces new opinions ; and from these there necessarily spring new passions and desires, which, like discords in music, would disturb the established government. He therefore thought it more expedient for the city to keep out of it corrupt customs and manners, than even to prevent the introduction of a pestilence.
Thus far, then, we can perceive no vestiges of a disregard to right and wrong, which is the fault some people find with the laws of Lycurgus ; allowing them well enough calculated to produce valor, but not to promote justice. Perhaps it was the Cryptia, as they called it, or ambuscade, if that was really one of this lawgiver's institutions, as Aristotle says it was, which gave Plato so bad an impression both of Lycurgus and his laws. The governors of the youth ordered the shrewdest of them from time to time to disperse themselves in the coun try, provided only with daggers and some necessary provisions. In the daytime they hid themselves, and rested in the most pri vate places they could find; but at night they sallied out into the roads, and killed all the Helotes they could meet with. Nay, sometimes by day, they fell upon them in the fields and murdered the ablest and strongest of them. Thucydides re lates in his history of the Peloponnesian war, that the Spartans selected such of them as were distinguished for their courage, to the number of two thousand or more, declared them free, crowned them with garlands, and conducted them to the temples of the gods ; but soon after they all disappeared ; and no one could, either then or since, give account in what manner they were destroyed. Aristotle particularly says, that the Ephori, as soon as they were invested in their office, declared war against the Helotes, that they might be massacred under pretense of law.
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In other respects they treated them with great inhumanity: sometimes they made them drink till they were intoxicated, and in that condition led them into the public halls, to show the young men what drunkenness was. They ordered them, too, to sing mean songs, and to dance ridiculous dances, but not to meddle with any that were genteel and graceful. Those who say that a freeman in Sparta was most a freeman, and a slave most a slave, seem well to have considered the difference of states.
A MARTIAL ODE. By TYRTilUS.
[Ttbt^us, Greek elegiac poet, was a native of Attica, and lived about b. c. 700. The Lacedaemonians applied to the Athenians for a commander to lead them in the second Messenian war. They were presented with Tyrtaeus. The war lyrics which he composed so animated the flagging spirits of the Spartan troops that they renewed the contest, and ultimately secured a complete triumph to their arms. }
(Thomas Campbell's Translation. )
How glorious fall the valiant, sword in hand, In front of battle for their native land !
But oh ! what ills await the wretch that yields, A recreant outcast from his country's fields ! The mother whom he loves shall quit her home, An aged father at his side shall roam;
His little ones shall weeping with him go,
And a young wife participate his woe ;
While scorned and scowled upon by every face, They pine for food, and beg from place to place.
Stain of his breed ! dishonoring manhood's form, All ills shall cleave to him : affliction's storm Shall blind him wandering in the vale of years, Till, lost to all but ignominious fears,
He shall not blush to leave a recreant's name, And children, like himself, inured to shame.
But we will combat for our fathers' land,
And we will drain the life blood where we stand, To save our children : — fight ye side by side, And serried close, ye men of youthful pride, Disdaining fear, and deeming light the cost
Of life itself in glorious battle lost.
A MARTIAL ODE.
Leave not our sires to stem the unequal fight,
Whose limbs are nerved no more with buoyant might; Nor, lagging backward, let the younger breast
Permit the man of age (a sight unblest)
To welter in the combat's foremost thrust,
His hoary head dishevelled in the dust,
And venerable bosom bleeding bare.
But youth's fair form, though fallen, is ever fair,
And beautiful in death the boy appears,
The hero boy, that dies in blooming years:
In man's regret he lives, and woman's tears ;
More sacred than in life, and lovelier far,
For having perished in the front of war.
(Polwhele's Translation. )
If, fighting for his dear paternal soil, The soldier in the front of battle fall ;
Tis not in fickle fortune to despoil
His store of fame, that shines the charge of alL
But oppressed by penury, he rove
Far from his native town and fertile plain,
And lead the sharer of his fondest love,
In youth too tender, with her infant train
And if his aged mother — his shrunk sire Join the sad group so many bitter ill
Against the houseless family conspire,
And all the measure of the wretched fill.
Pale, shivering want, companion of his way, He meets the luster of no pitying eye
To hunger and dire infamy prey —
Dark hatred scowls, and scorn quick passes by.
Alas no traits of beauty or of birth — No blush now lingers in his sunken face Dies every feeling (as he roams o'er earth)
Of shame transmitted to wandering race.
But be ours to guard this hallowed spot, To shield the tender offspring and the wife
Here steadily await our destined lot,
And, for their sakes, resign the gift of life.
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122 EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS.
Anecdotes and Aphorisms op EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS.
By DIOGENES LAERTIUS.
[Diogenes, of Laerte In Alicia, wrote — probably about a. d. 200-250 — a book of biographies of Greek philosophers, from which, scrappy and confused as it is, nearly all our knowledge of the history of ancient philosophy is derived. There are reasons for thinking that the extant book is not the original, but a clumsy compilation from it. ]
Thales.
Being asked why he did not become a father, he answered that it was because he was fond of children. When his mother exhorted him to marry, he said, " It is not yet time," and after wards, when he was past his youth, and she was again pressing him earnestly, he said, " It is no longer time. "
He thanked fortune for three things : first of all, that he had been born a man and not a beast ; secondly, that he was a man and not a woman ; and thirdly, that he was a Greek and not a barbarian.
It is said that once he was led out of his house by an old woman for the purpose of observing the stars, and he fell into a ditch and bewailed himself ; on which the old woman said to him, " Do you, O Thales, who cannot see what is under your feet, think that you shall understand what is in heaven ? " [For a better form of this, see Bacon's "Apothegms. "]
He said also that there was no difference between life and death. " Why, then," said some one to him, " do not you die ? " "Because," said he, "it does make no difference. "
Another man asked him whether a man who did wrong could escape the notice of the Gods. "No, not even if he thinks wrong," said he.
An adulterer inquired of him whether he should swear that he had not committed adultery. " Perjury," said he, " is no worse than adultery. "
When the question was put to"him how a man might most easily endure misfortune, he said, If he saw his enemies more unfortunate still. "
When asked how men might live most virtuously and most justly, he said, " If we never do ourselves what we blame in
others. " " The apothegm,
Know thyself," is his.
EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS. 123
Solon.
Laws are like cobwebs : if anything small or weak falls into them, they hold it fast ; if of any size, it breaks the meshes and escapes.
Kings' favorites are like the pebbles used in calculating : the masters make them count for more or less as they will.
When asked how public wrongs could be prevented, he answered, " If those not injured feel as much resentment as those who are. "
Wealth gluts men, and satiety makes them insolent.
Maxims of conduct : Consider your honor as a gentleman of more weight than an oath. Never lie. Attend to serious affairs. Do not be hasty either in making friends or discard ing them. [See Hesiod. ] Wield authority only after you have learned to obey it. Do not give agreeable advice, but good advice. Be guided by reason. Keep out of bad com pany. Honor the gods and your parents.
When lamenting his dead son, some one told him, "Your weeping does no good. " He replied, "That is why I weep — because it does no good. "
Cedxo.
He said to his brother, angry at not being made an Ephor while he (Chilo) was one, " It is because I know how to bear injustice, and you do not. "
Educated men differ from ignorant ones in the rationality of their hopes.
The three hardest things are to keep secrets, to make good use of leisure, and to be able to bear injustice.
Rule your tongue, especially at banquets, and do not speak ill of neighbors.
Threaten no one : that is a woman's trick.
Visit your friends more promptly in adversity than in pros perity.
Do not speak evil of the dead.
Watch yourself.
Choose punishment rather than dishonest gain : the former
is painful but once, the latter all one's life.
Do not deride any one in misfortune.
If you are powerful, be also kind, so that others may respect
rather than fear you.
124 EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS.
Learn to order your own household well. Do not let your tongue outrun your sense. Restrain anger. Do not wish im possibilities. Do not hasten too fast on your road. Obey the laws.
Gold is tested by hard stones ; men are tested by gold. Security, then destruction.
He said the one action of his of which he doubted the jus
tice, was voting as a juryman against a friend according to law, but inducing another to vote for and acquit him.
PlTtACUS.
Power shows the man.
The best course is to do well what one is doing at the moment.
It is the part of wise men to provide that perilous junctures shall not arise ; of brave men, to make the best of them when arisen.
Do not tell your designs beforehand: you will be laughed at if you fail.
Forbear to speak evil not only of your friends, but your enemies.
Watch your chance.
Alcaeus, his contemporary, appears to have loved him. He says Pittacus was splay-footed, dragged his feet in walking, and had scars on them ; put on airs without cause ; was fat, weak-eyed, dirty, and lazy. As another authority says he ground corn for exercise, the poet may have exaggerated.
Bias.
The hardest thing is to bear a change of fortune for the worse with magnanimity.
He said he would rather be umpire between his enemies than his friends, " For out of two friends I am sure to make one enemy; while out of two enemies I stand to make one friend. "
Men should live as though they were to live a long time and a short one both [for fear evil results of conduct would bring a long punishment, for fear there would be little time to
work or amend].
Men should love each other as if they might yet come to
hate each other.
Choose your course deliberately, then pursue it firmly.
