1. Herodotus, Histories, 5.39-5.41, 6.56, 6.61-6.70, 7.204 (5th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)
| 5.41. After no long time the second wife gave birth to Cleomenes. She, then, gave the Spartans an heir to the royal power, and as luck would have it, the first wife, who had been barren before, conceived at that very time. ,When the friends of the new wife learned that the other woman was pregt, they began to make trouble for her. They said that she was making an empty boast, so that she might substitute a child. The Ephors were angry, and when her time drew near, they sat around to watch her in childbirth because of their skepticism. ,She gave birth first to Dorieus, then straightway to Leonidas, and right after him to Cleombrotus. Some, however, say that Cleombrotus and Leonidas were twins. As for the later wife, the mother of Cleomenes and the daughter of Prinetadas son of Demarmenus, she bore no more children. 6.56. These privileges the Spartans have given to their kings: two priesthoods, of Zeus called Lacedaemon and of Zeus of Heaven; they wage war against whatever land they wish, and no Spartan can hinder them in this on peril of being put under a curse; when the armies go forth the kings go out first and return last; one hundred chosen men guard them in their campaigns; they sacrifice as many sheep and goats as they wish at the start of their expeditions, and take the hides and backs of all sacrificed beasts. 6.61. While Cleomenes was in Aegina working for the common good of Hellas, Demaratus slandered him, not out of care for the Aeginetans, but out of jealousy and envy. Once Cleomenes returned home from Aegina, he planned to remove Demaratus from his kingship, using the following affair as a pretext against him: Ariston, king of Sparta, had married twice but had no children. ,He did not admit that he himself was responsible, so he married a third time. This is how it came about: he had among the Spartans a friend to whom he was especially attached. This man's wife was by far the most beautiful woman in Sparta, but she who was now most beautiful had once been the ugliest. ,Her nurse considered her inferior looks and how she was of wealthy people yet unattractive, and, seeing how the parents felt her appearance to be a great misfortune, she contrived to carry the child every day to the sacred precinct of Helen, which is in the place called Therapne, beyond the sacred precinct of Phoebus. Every time the nurse carried the child there, she set her beside the image and beseeched the goddess to release the child from her ugliness. ,Once as she was leaving the sacred precinct, it is said that a woman appeared to her and asked her what she was carrying in her arms. The nurse said she was carrying a child and the woman bade her show it to her, but she refused, saying that the parents had forbidden her to show it to anyone. But the woman strongly bade her show it to her, ,and when the nurse saw how important it was to her, she showed her the child. The woman stroked the child's head and said that she would be the most beautiful woman in all Sparta. From that day her looks changed, and when she reached the time for marriage, Agetus son of Alcidas married her. This man was Ariston's friend. 6.62. So love for this woman pricked Ariston, and he contrived as follows: He promised to give to his comrade any one thing out of all he owned, whatever Agetus might choose, and he bade his comrade make him the same promise. Agetus had no fear about his wife, seeing that Ariston was already married, so he agreed and they took oaths on these terms. ,Ariston gave Agetus whatever it was that he chose out of all his treasures, and then, seeking equal recompense from him, tried to take the wife of his comrade. Agetus said that he had agreed to anything but that, but he was forced by his oath and by the deceitful trick to let his wife be taken. 6.63. In this way Ariston married his third wife, after divorcing the second one. But his new wife gave birth to Demaratus too soon, before ten lunar months had passed. ,When one of his servants announced to him as he sat in council with the ephors that he had a son, Ariston, knowing the time of the marriage, counted up the months on his fingers and swore on oath, “It's not mine.” The ephors heard this but did not make anything of it. When the boy grew up, Ariston regretted having said that, for he firmly believed Demaratus to be his own son. ,He named him Demaratus because before his birth all the Spartan populace had prayed that Ariston, the man most highly esteemed out of all the kings of Sparta, might have a son. Thus he was named Demaratus, which means “answer to the people's prayer.” 6.64. Time passed and Ariston died, so Demaratus held the kingship. But it seems that these matters had to become known and cause Demaratus to lose his kingship. He had already fallen out with Cleomenes when he had brought the army back from Eleusis, and now they were even more at odds when Cleomenes crossed over after the Aeginetans who were Medizing. 6.65. Cleomenes wanted revenge, so he made a deal with Leotychides son of Menares son of Agis, of the same family as Demaratus. The deal was that Leotychides would go with Cleomenes against the Aeginetans if he became king. ,Leotychides had already become strongly hostile to Demaratus for the following reason: Leotychides was betrothed to Percalus, daughter of Demarmenus, but Demaratus plotted and robbed him of his marriage, stealing Percalus and marrying her first. ,From this affair Leotychides was hostile toward Demaratus, so at Cleomenes' instigation he took an oath against him, saying that he was not king of the Spartans by right, since he was not Ariston's son. After making this oath, he prosecuted him, recalling that utterance which Ariston had made when the servant told him he had a son, and he counted up the months and swore that it was not his. ,Taking his stand on this remark, Leotychides declared that Demaratus was not Ariston's son and that he was not rightly king of Sparta, bringing as witnesses the ephors who had been sitting beside Ariston and heard him say this. 6.66. Disputes arose over it, so the Spartans resolved to ask the oracle at Delphi if Demaratus was the son of Ariston. ,At Cleomenes' instigation this was revealed to the Pythia. He had won over a man of great influence among the Delphians, Cobon son of Aristophantus, and Cobon persuaded the priestess, Periallus, to say what Cleomenes wanted her to. ,When the ambassadors asked if Demaratus was the son of Ariston, the Pythia gave judgment that he was not. All this came to light later; Cobon was exiled from Delphi, and Periallus was deposed from her position. 6.67. So it was concerning Demaratus' loss of the kingship, and from Sparta he went into exile among the Medes because of the following reproach: after he was deposed from the kingship, he was elected to office. ,When it was the time of the dateGymnopaidia /date, Leotychides, now king in his place, saw him in the audience and, as a joke and an insult, sent a messenger to him to ask what it was like to hold office after being king. ,He was grieved by the question and said that he had experience of both, while Leotychides did not, and that this question would be the beginning for Sparta of either immense evil or immense good fortune. He said this, covered his head, left the theater, and went home, where he immediately made preparations and sacrificed an ox to Zeus. Then he summoned his mother. 6.68. When she came in, he put some of the entrails in her hands and entreated her, saying, “Mother, appealing to Zeus of the household and to all the other gods, I beseech you to tell me the truth. Who is my father? Tell me truly. ,Leotychides said in the disputes that you were already pregt by your former husband when you came to Ariston. Others say more foolishly that you approached to one of the servants, the ass-keeper, and that I am his son. ,I adjure you by the gods to speak what is true. If you have done anything of what they say, you are not the only one; you are in company with many women. There is much talk at Sparta that Ariston did not have child-bearing seed in him, or his former wives would have given him children.” 6.69. Thus he spoke. His mother answered, “My son, since you adjure me by entreaties to speak the truth, I will speak out to you all that is true. On the third night after Ariston brought me to his house, a phantom resembling him came to me. It came and lay with me and then put on me the garlands which it had. ,It went away, and when Ariston came in later and saw me with the garlands, he asked who gave them to me. I said he did, but he denied it. I swore an oath that just a little while before he had come in and lain with me and given me the garlands, and I said it was not good of him to deny it. ,When he saw me swearing, he perceived that this was some divine affair. For the garlands had clearly come from the hero's precinct which is established at the courtyard doors, which they call the precinct of Astrabacus, and the seers responded that this was the same hero who had come to me. Thus, my son, you have all you want to know. ,Either you are from this hero and Astrabacus the hero is your father, or Ariston is, for I conceived you that night. As for how your enemies chiefly attack you, saying that Ariston himself, when your birth was announced, denied in front of a large audience that you were his because the ten months had not yet been completed, he spoke an idle word, out of ignorance of such things. ,Some women give birth after nine months or seven months; not all complete the ten months. I gave birth to you, my son, after seven months. A little later Ariston himself recognized that he had blurted out that speech because of foolishness. Do not believe other stories about your manner of birth. You have heard the whole truth. May the wife of Leotychides himself, and the wives of the others who say these things, give birth to children fathered by ass-keepers.” 7.204. Each city had its own general, but the one most admired and the leader of the whole army was a Lacedaemonian, Leonidas, son of Anaxandrides, son of Leon, son of Eurycratides, son of Anaxandrus, son of Eurycrates, son of Polydorus, son of Alcamenes, son of Teleclus, son of Archelaus, son of Hegesilaus, son of Doryssus, son of Leobotes, son of Echestratus, son of Agis, son of Eurysthenes, son of Aristodemus, son of Aristomachus, son of Cleodaeus, son of Hyllus, son of Heracles. Leonidas had gained the kingship at Sparta unexpectedly. |
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2. Xenophon, Hellenica, 3.3.1-3.3.4 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
| 3.3.1. After this Agis, having gone to Delphi and offered to the god the appointed tithe of his booty, on his way back fell sick at Heraea, being now an old man, and although he was still living when brought home to Lacedaemon, once there he very soon died; and he received a burial more splendid than belongs to man. When the prescribed days of mourning had been religiously observed and it was necessary to appoint a king, Leotychides, who claimed to be a son of Agis, and Agesilaus, a brother of Agis, contended for the kingship. 3.3.2. And Leotychides said: 397 B.C. But, Agesilaus, the law directs, not that a brother, but that a son of a king, should be king; if, however, there should chance to be no son, in that case the brother would be king. It is I, then, who should be king. How so, when I am alive? Because he whom you call your father said that you were not his son. Nay, but my mother, who knows far better than he did, says even to this day that I am. But Poseidon showed that you are entirely in the wrong, for he drove your father Leotychides was reputed to be the son of Alcibiades. For the incident here mentioned, cp. Plut. Alc. 23. out of her chamber into the open by an earthquake. And time also, which is said to be the truest witness, gave testimony that the god was right; for you were born in the tenth month from the time when he fled from the chamber. Such were the words which passed between these two. 3.3.3. But Diopeithes, a man very well versed in oracles, said in support of Leotychides that there was also an oracle of Apollo which bade the Lacedaemonians beware of the lame kingship. Agesilaus was lame. Lysander, however, made reply to him, on behalf of Agesilaus, that he did not suppose the god was bidding them beware lest a king of theirs should get a sprain and become lame, but rather lest one who was not of the royal stock should become king. For the kingship would be lame in very truth when it was not the descendants of Heracles who were at the head of the state. 3.3.4. After hearing such arguments from both claimants the state chose Agesilaus king. When Agesilaus had been not yet a year in the kingly office, once while he was offering one of the appointed sacrifices in behalf of the state, the seer said that the gods revealed a conspiracy of the most 397 B.C. terrible sort. And when he sacrificed again, the seer said that the signs appeared still more terrible. And upon his sacrificing for the third time, he said: Agesilaus, just such a sign is given me as would be given if we were in the very midst of the enemy. There-upon they made offerings to the gods who avert evil and to those who grant safety, and having with difficulty obtained favourable omens, ceased sacrificing. And within five days after the sacrifice was ended a man reported to the ephors a conspiracy, and Cinadon as the head of the affair. |
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3. Xenophon, Constitution of The Spartans, 4.5, 13.2, 15.2-15.5 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
| 4.5. Here then you find that kind of strife that is dearest to the gods, and in the highest sense political — the strife that sets the standard of a brave man’s conduct; and in which either party exerts itself to the end that it may never fall below its best, and that, when the time comes, every member of it may support the state with all his might. Horsemanship , 2.1. 13.2. But I will go back to the beginning, and explain how the King sets out with an army. First he offers up sacrifice at home to Zeus the Leader and to the gods associated with him. Or, if we read οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ with Haase, he and his staff. By the associated gods we should understand Castor and Pollux, the Dioscuri. In the Oxford text I gave τοῖν σιοῖν , the twin gods. If the sacrifice appears propitious, the Fire-bearer takes fire from the altar and leads the way to the borders of the land. There the King offers sacrifice again to Zeus and Athena. 15.2. He ordained that the King shall offer all the public sacrifices on behalf of the state, in virtue of his divine descent, and that, whatever may be the destination to which the state sends out an army, he shall be its leader. 15.3. He also gave him the right to receive certain parts of the beasts sacrificed, and assigned to him enough choice land in many of the outlanders’ cities to ensure him a reasonable competence without excessive riches. 15.4. In order that even the kings should mess in public, he assigned to them a public mess tent; he also honoured them with a double portion at the meal, not that they might eat enough for two, but that they might have the wherewithal to honour anyone whom they chose. 15.5. He also allowed each King to choose two messmates, who are called Pythii. Further, he granted them to take of every litter of pigs a porker, that a King may never want victims, in case he wishes to seek counsel of the gods. |
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4. Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 2.8.1-2.8.5 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
| 2.8.1. μεταστάντος δὲ Ἡρακλέους εἰς θεοὺς οἱ παῖδες αὐτοῦ φυγόντες Εὐρυσθέα πρὸς Κήυκα παρεγένοντο. ὡς δὲ ἐκείνους ἐκδιδόναι λέγοντος Εὐρυσθέως καὶ πόλεμον ἀπειλοῦντος ἐδεδοίκεσαν, Τραχῖνα καταλιπόντες διὰ τῆς Ἑλλάδος ἔφυγον. διωκόμενοι δὲ ἦλθον εἰς Ἀθήνας, καὶ καθεσθέντες ἐπὶ τὸν ἐλέου βωμὸν ἠξίουν βοηθεῖσθαι. Ἀθηναῖοι δὲ οὐκ ἐκδιδόντες αὐτοὺς πρὸς τὸν Εὐρυσθέα πόλεμον ὑπέστησαν, καὶ τοὺς μὲν παῖδας αὐτοῦ Ἀλέξανδρον Ἰφιμέδοντα Εὐρύβιον Μέντορα Περιμήδην ἀπέκτειναν· αὐτὸν δὲ Εὐρυσθέα φεύγοντα ἐφʼ ἅρματος καὶ πέτρας ἤδη παριππεύοντα Σκειρωνίδας 1 -- κτείνει διώξας Ὕλλος, καὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν ἀποτεμὼν Ἀλκμήνῃ δίδωσιν· ἡ δὲ κερκίσι τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἐξώρυξεν αὐτοῦ. 2.8.2. ἀπολομένου δὲ Εὐρυσθέως ἐπὶ Πελοπόννησον ἦλθον οἱ Ἡρακλεῖδαι, καὶ πάσας εἷλον τὰς πόλεις. ἐνιαυτοῦ δὲ αὐτοῖς ἐν τῇ καθόδῳ διαγενομένου φθορὰ 1 -- πᾶσαν Πελοπόννησον κατέσχε, καὶ ταύτην γενέσθαι χρησμὸς διὰ τοὺς Ἡρακλείδας ἐδήλου· πρὸ γὰρ τοῦ δέοντος αὐτοὺς κατελθεῖν. ὅθεν ἀπολιπόντες Πελοπόννησον ἀνεχώρησαν 2 -- εἰς Μαραθῶνα κἀκεῖ κατῴκουν. Τληπόλεμος οὖν κτείνας οὐχ ἑκὼν Λικύμνιον (τῇ βακτηρίᾳ γὰρ αὐτοῦ θεράποντα 3 -- πλήσσοντος ὑπέδραμε) πρὶν ἐξελθεῖν αὐτοὺς 4 -- ἐκ Πελοποννήσου, φεύγων μετʼ οὐκ ὀλίγων ἧκεν εἰς Ῥόδον, κἀκεῖ κατῴκει. Ὕλλος δὲ τὴν μὲν Ἰόλην κατὰ τὰς τοῦ πατρὸς ἐντολὰς 5 -- ἔγημε, τὴν δὲ κάθοδον ἐζήτει τοῖς Ἡρακλείδαις κατεργάσασθαι. διὸ παραγενόμενος εἰς Δελφοὺς ἐπυνθάνετο πῶς ἂν κατέλθοιεν. ὁ δὲ θεὸς ἔφησε 6 -- περιμείναντας τὸν τρίτον καρπὸν κατέρχεσθαι. νομίσας δὲ Ὕλλος τρίτον καρπὸν λέγεσθαι τὴν τριετίαν, τοσοῦτον περιμείνας χρόνον σὺν τῷ στρατῷ κατῄει τοῦ Ἡρακλέους 7 -- ἐπὶ Πελοπόννησον, Τισαμενοῦ τοῦ Ὀρέστου βασιλεύοντος Πελοποννησίων. καὶ γενομένης πάλιν μάχης νικῶσι Πελοποννήσιοι καὶ Ἀριστόμαχος θνήσκει. ἐπεὶ δὲ ἠνδρώθησαν οἱ Κλεοδαίου 1 -- παῖδες, ἐχρῶντο περὶ καθόδου. τοῦ θεοῦ δὲ εἰπόντος ὅ τι καὶ τὸ πρότερον, Τήμενος ᾐτιᾶτο λέγων τούτῳ πεισθέντας 2 -- ἀτυχῆσαι. ὁ δὲ θεὸς ἀνεῖλε τῶν ἀτυχημάτων αὐτοὺς αἰτίους εἶναι· τοὺς γὰρ χρησμοὺς οὐ συμβάλλειν. λέγειν γὰρ οὐ γῆς ἀλλὰ γενεᾶς καρπὸν τρίτον, καὶ στενυγρὰν τὴν εὐρυγάστορα, δεξιὰν κατὰ τὸν Ἰσθμὸν ἔχοντι τὴν θάλασσαν. 3 -- ταῦτα Τήμενος ἀκούσας ἡτοίμαζε τὸν στρατόν, καὶ ναῦς ἐπήξατο 1 -- τῆς Λοκρίδος ἔνθα νῦν ἀπʼ ἐκείνου ὁ τόπος Ναύπακτος λέγεται. ἐκεῖ δʼ ὄντος τοῦ στρατεύματος Ἀριστόδημος κεραυνωθεὶς ἀπέθανε, παῖδας καταλιπὼν ἐξ Ἀργείας τῆς Αὐτεσίωνος διδύμους, Εὐρυσθένη καὶ Προκλέα. 2.8.3. συνέβη δὲ καὶ τὸν στρατὸν ἐν Ναυπάκτῳ συμφορᾷ περιπεσεῖν. ἐφάνη γὰρ αὐτοῖς μάντις χρησμοὺς λέγων καὶ ἐνθεάζων, ὃν ἐνόμισαν μάγον εἶναι ἐπὶ λύμῃ τοῦ στρατοῦ πρὸς Πελοποννησίων ἀπεσταλμένον. τοῦτον βαλὼν ἀκοντίῳ Ἱππότης ὁ Φύλαντος τοῦ Ἀντιόχου τοῦ Ἡρακλέους τυχὼν ἀπέκτεινεν. οὕτως δὲ γενομένου τούτου τὸ μὲν ναυτικὸν διαφθαρεισῶν τῶν νεῶν ἀπώλετο, τὸ δὲ πεζὸν ἠτύχησε λιμῷ, καὶ διελύθη τὸ στράτευμα. χρωμένου δὲ περὶ τῆς συμφορᾶς Τημένου, καὶ τοῦ θεοῦ διὰ τοῦ μάντεως γενέσθαι ταῦτα λέγοντος, καὶ κελεύοντος φυγαδεῦσαι δέκα ἔτη τὸν ἀνελόντα καὶ χρήσασθαι ἡγεμόνι τῷ τριοφθάλμῳ, τὸν μὲν Ἱππότην ἐφυγάδευσαν, τὸν δὲ τριόφθαλμον ἐζήτουν. καὶ περιτυγχάνουσιν Ὀξύλῳ τῷ Ἀνδραίμονος, ἐφʼ ἵππου καθημένῳ 1 -- μονοφθάλμου 2 -- (τὸν γὰρ ἕτερον τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν ἐκκέκοπτο 3 -- τόξῳ). ἐπὶ φόνῳ γὰρ οὗτος φυγὼν εἰς Ἦλιν, ἐκεῖθεν εἰς Αἰτωλίαν ἐνιαυτοῦ διελθόντος ἐπανήρχετο. συμβαλόντες οὖν τὸν χρησμόν, τοῦτον ἡγεμόνα ποιοῦνται. καὶ συμβαλόντες τοῖς πολεμίοις καὶ τῷ πεζῷ καὶ τῷ ναυτικῷ προτεροῦσι στρατῷ, καὶ Τισαμενὸν κτείνουσι τὸν Ὀρέστου. θνήσκουσι δὲ συμμαχοῦντες αὐτοῖς οἱ Αἰγιμίου παῖδες, Πάμφυλος καὶ Δύμας. 2.8.4. ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἐκράτησαν Πελοποννήσου, τρεῖς ἱδρύσαντο βωμοὺς πατρῴου Διός, καὶ ἐπὶ τούτων ἔθυσαν, καὶ ἐκληροῦντο τὰς πόλεις. πρώτη μὲν οὖν λῆξις Ἄργος, δευτέρα δὲ Λακεδαίμων, τρίτη δὲ Μεσσήνη. κομισάντων δὲ ὑδρίαν ὕδατος, ἔδοξε ψῆφον βαλεῖν ἕκαστον. Τήμενος οὖν καὶ οἱ Ἀριστοδήμου παῖδες Προκλῆς καὶ Εὐρυσθένης ἔβαλον λίθους, Κρεσφόντης δὲ βουλόμενος Μεσσήνην λαχεῖν γῆς ἐνέβαλε βῶλον. ταύτης δὲ διαλυθείσης ἔδει τοὺς δύο κλήρους ἀναφανῆναι. ἑλκυσθείσης δὲ πρώτης 4 -- μὲν τῆς Τημένου, δευτέρας δὲ τῆς τῶν Ἀριστοδήμου παίδων, Μεσσήνην ἔλαβε 1 -- Κρεσφόντης. 2.8.5. ἐπὶ δὲ τοῖς βωμοῖς οἷς ἔθυσαν εὗρον σημεῖα κείμενα οἱ μὲν λαχόντες Ἄργος φρῦνον, οἱ δὲ Λακεδαίμονα 2 -- δράκοντα, οἱ δὲ Μεσσήνην ἀλώπεκα. περὶ δὲ τῶν σημείων ἔλεγον οἱ μάντεις, τοῖς μὲν τὸν φρῦνον καταλαβοῦσιν 3 -- ἐπὶ τῆς πόλεως μένειν ἄμεινον (μὴ γὰρ ἔχειν ἀλκὴν πορευόμενον τὸ θηρίον), τοὺς δὲ δράκοντα καταλαβόντας δεινοὺς ἐπιόντας ἔλεγον ἔσεσθαι, τοὺς δὲ τὴν ἀλώπεκα δολίους. Τήμενος μὲν οὖν παραπεμπόμενος τοὺς παῖδας Ἀγέλαον καὶ Εὐρύπυλον καὶ Καλλίαν, τῇ θυγατρὶ προσανεῖχεν Ὑρνηθοῖ καὶ τῷ ταύτης ἀνδρὶ Δηιφόντῃ. ὅθεν οἱ παῖδες πείθουσί τινας 4 -- ἐπὶ μισθῷ τὸν πατέρα αὐτῶν φονεῦσαι. γενομένου δὲ τοῦ φόνου τὴν βασιλείαν ὁ στρατὸς ἔχειν ἐδικαίωσεν Ὑρνηθὼ καὶ Δηιφόντην. 5 -- Κρεσφόντης δὲ οὐ πολὺν Μεσσήνης βασιλεύσας χρόνον μετὰ δύο παίδων φονευθεὶς ἀπέθανε. Πολυφόντης δὲ ἐβασίλευσεν, αὐτῶν 6 -- τῶν Ἡρακλειδῶν ὑπάρχων, καὶ τὴν τοῦ φονευθέντος γυναῖκα Μερόπην ἄκουσαν ἔλαβεν. ἀνῃρέθη δὲ καὶ οὗτος. τρίτον γὰρ ἔχουσα παῖδα Μερόπη καλούμενον Αἴπυτον 1 -- ἔδωκε τῷ ἑαυτῆς πατρὶ τρέφειν. οὗτος ἀνδρωθεὶς καὶ κρύφα κατελθὼν ἔκτεινε Πολυφόντην καὶ τὴν πατρῴαν βασιλείαν ἀπέλαβεν. | |
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5. Plutarch, Agesilaus, 3.1-3.5 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
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6. Plutarch, Comparison of Numa With Lycurgus, 1.1, 3.3 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
| 1.1. Now that we have recounted the lives of Numa and Lycurgus, and both lie clearly before us, we must attempt, even though the task be difficult, to assemble and put together their points of difference. For their points of likeness are obvious from their careers: their wise moderation, their piety, their talent for governing and educating, and their both deriving their laws from a divine source. But each also performed noble deeds peculiar to himself. To begin with, Numa accepted, but Lycurgus resigned, a kingdom. |
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7. Plutarch, Lycurgus, 1.1, 3.2-3.5, 23.2, 28.1-28.4, 29.3-29.5, 31.1-31.4 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
| 1.1. Concerning Lycurgus the lawgiver, in general, nothing can be said which is not disputed, since indeed there are different accounts of his birth, his travels, his death, and above all, of his work as lawmaker and statesman; and there is least agreement among historians as to the times in which the man lived. Some say that he flourished at the same time with Iphitus, and in concert with him established the Olympic truce. Among these is Aristotle the philosopher, and he alleges as proof the discus at Olympia on which an inscription preserves the name of Lycurgus. As joining with Iphitus in founding, or reviving, the Olympic games, in 776 B.C., the date assigned to the first recorded victory. Cf. Pausanias, v. 4, 5 f. ; 20, 1. A stay of hostilities was observed all over Greece during the festival. 3.5. There was a party, however, which envied him and sought to impede the growing power of so young a man, especially the kinsmen and friends of the queen-mother, who thought she had been treated with insolence. Her brother, Leonidas, actually railed at Lycurgus once quite boldly, assuring him that he knew well that Lycurgus would one day be king, thereby promoting suspicion and paving the way for the accusation, in case any thing happened to the king, that he had plotted against his life. Some such talk was set in circulation by the queen-mother also, in consequence of which Lycurgus was sorely troubled and fearful of what might be in store for him. He therefore determined to avoid suspicion by travelling abroad, and to continue his wanderings until his nephew should come of age and beget a son to succeed him on the throne. 28.1. Now in all this there is no trace of injustice or arrogance, which some attribute to the laws of Lycurgus, declaring them efficacious in producing valour, but defective in producing righteousness. The so-called krupteia, or secret service, of the Spartans, if this be really one of the institutions of Lycurgus, as Aristotle says it was, may have given Plato also Laws, p. 630 d. this opinion of the man and his civil polity. 28.2. This secret service was of the following nature. The magistrates from time to time sent out into the country at large the most discreet of the young warriors, equipped only with daggers and such supplies as were necessary. In the day time they scattered into obscure and out of the way places, where they hid themselves and lay quiet; but in the night they came down into the highways and killed every Helot whom they caught. 28.3. oftentimes, too, they actually traversed the fields where Helots were working and slew the sturdiest and best of them. So, too, Thucydides, in his history of the Peloponnesian war, iv. 80. tells us that the Helots who had been judged by the Spartans to be superior in bravery, set wreaths upon their heads in token of their emancipation, and visited the temples of the gods in procession, but a little while afterwards all disappeared, more than two thousand of them, in such a way that no man was able to say, either then or afterwards, how they came by their deaths. 28.4. And Aristotle in particular says also that the ephors, as soon as they came into office, made formal declaration of war upon the Helots, in order that there might be no impiety in slaying them.And in other ways also they were harsh and cruel to the Helots. For instance, they would force them to drink too much strong wine, and then introduce them into their public messes, to show the young men what a thing drunkenness was. They also ordered them to sing songs and dance dances that were low and ridiculous, but to let the nobler kind alone. 29.3. When they all agreed to this and bade him set out on his journey, he exacted an oath from the kings and the senators, and afterwards from the rest of the citizens, that they would abide by the established polity and observe it until Lycurgus should come back; then he set out for Delphi. On reaching the oracle, he sacrificed to the god, and asked if the laws which he had established were good, and sufficient to promote a city’s prosperity and virtue. 29.4. Apollo answered that the laws which he had established were good, and that the city would continue to be held in highest honour while it kept to the polity of Lycurgus. This oracle Lycurgus wrote down, and sent it to Sparta. But for his own part, he sacrificed again to the god, took affectionate leave of his friends and of his son, and resolved never to release his fellow-citizens from their oath, but of his own accord to put an end to his life where he was. He had reached an age in which life was not yet a burden, and death no longer a terror; when he and his friends, moreover, appeared to be sufficiently prosperous and happy. 29.5. He therefore abstained from food till he died, considering that even the death of a statesman should be of service to the state, and the ending of his life not void of effect, but recognized as a virtuous deed. As for himself, since he had wrought out fully the noblest tasks, the end of life would actually be a consummation of his good fortune and happiness; and as for his fellow-citizens, he would make his death the guardian, as it were, of all the blessings he had secured for them during his life, since they had sworn to observe and maintain his polity until he should return. 31.1. It was not, however, the chief design of Lycurgus then to leave his city in command over a great many others, but he thought that the happiness of an entire city, like that of a single individual, depended on the prevalence of virtue and concord within its own borders. The aim, therefore, of all his arrangements and adjustments was to make his people free-minded, self-sufficing, and moderate in all their ways, and to keep them so as long as possible. 31.2. His design for a civil polity was adopted by Plato, Diogenes, Zeno, and by all those who have won approval for their treatises on this subject, although they left behind them only writings and words. Lycurgus, on the other hand, produced not writings and words, but an actual polity which was beyond imitation, and because he gave, to those who maintain that the much talked of natural disposition to wisdom exists only in theory, an example of an entire city given to the love of wisdom, his fame rightly transcended that of all who ever founded polities among the Greeks. 31.3. Therefore Aristotle says that the honours paid him in Sparta were less than he deserved, although he enjoys the highest honours there. For he has a temple, and sacrifices are offered to him yearly as to a god. It is also said that when his remains were brought home, his tomb was struck by lightning, and that this hardly happened to any other eminent man after him except Euripides, who died and was buried at Arethusa in Macedonia. The lovers of Euripides therefore regard it as a great testimony in his favour that he alone experienced after death what had earlier befallen a man who was most holy and beloved of the gods. 31.4. Some say that Lycurgus died in Cirrha; Apollothemis, that he was brought to Elis and died there; Timaeus and Aristoxenus, that he ended his days in Crete; and Aristoxenus adds that his tomb is shown by the Cretans in the district of Pergamus, near the public highway. It is also said that he left an only son, Antiorus, on whose death without issue, the family became extinct. |
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8. Plutarch, Lysander, 22.3-22.6 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
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9. Pausanias, Description of Greece, 3.8.9, 5.4.5 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
| 5.4.5. After Oxylus the kingdom devolved on Laias, son of Oxylus. His descendants, however, I find did not reign, and so I pass them by, though I know who they were; my narrative must not descend to men of common rank. Later on Iphitus, of the line of Oxylus and contemporary with Lycurgus, who drew up the code of laws for the Lacedaemonians, arranged the games at Olympia and reestablished afresh the Olympic festival and truce, after an interruption of uncertain length. The reason for this interruption I will set forth when my narrative deals with Olympia . See Paus. 5.8 . |
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