serted a legal claim to the invaded country ; the invasion in
either case was by sea ; one great battle proved decisive,
but the conquest was gradual, and a portion of the van-
quished people migrated. In the Norman conquest, the
original inhabitants were treated at first with mildness; but
as the power of the victors became consolidated, their use
of the rights of conquest, as they are styled, became more
oppressive and unjust. The same was probably the case in
Laconia, to which we now confine ourselves.
* This, we believe, was first observed by Dr. Arnold. See his
Thucydides, i. 650.
THE SPARTAN CONSTITUTION. 31
According to the historian Ephorus, the Dorians won the
whole land at once, which they divided into six districts,
one of which, Sparta, they kept for themselves ; Amyclae
they gave to the Achaean Philonomus, who had betrayed
the country to them, and over the other four they set
viceroys. This, however, is only the assertion of a histo-
rian not of the highest character for judgment and accu-
racy; and against it is to be observed, that there is very
probable evidence that Amyclae, a strong town, only twenty
stadia from Sparta, maintained its independence, to a certain
extent, till near the time of Lycurgus, and that, in the nar-
ratives of late historians, gradual conquests are frequently
resolved into one decisive victory.*
When we consider the small number of the invading
Dorians, it may appear the most probable supposition that
in Laconia, Argos, and Messene, they contented themselves
at first with a moderate portion of the territory, the prop-
erty, perhaps, of those Achaeans who had retired to ^Egialeia
and elsewhere. Thus we find the Dorians in Argos, in the
plain about that city, which must have been the first they
entered on when coming from Arcadia ; those of Messene
in the Stenyclarian plain, also next to Arcadia; and those
of Laconia at Sparta, and the parts nearest to Arcadia. In
the course of time, as their numbers and strength increased,
they extended their dominion.
The Achaeans of Laconia were called Lacedaemonians t
(as distinguished from the Dorians, who were named Spar-
tans, ^TTccgnrirat) and Perioecians (//eoi'oixot, Dwellers-round,
as Sparta being regarded as the centre, their towns lay
* Sir James Mackintosh is, we believe, the first English historian
who has drawn attention to the fact, that the Norman conquest of
England was gradual. The best account of it will be found in M.
Thierry's Histoire de la ConquHe de VAngleterre par les Normands.
The English conquest of Ireland also presents some strong points
of resemblance to that of the Dorians.
t The historians, however, employ this name for all the free inhabit-
ants of Laconia, the Spartans included.
32 HISTORY OF GREECE.
in the circumference of the territory). They paid the
state a tribute apparently a very moderate one for the
lands which they possessed. All the arts which were exer-
cised in Laconia were in their hands; they wrought the
iron-mines of Taygeton ; the Laconian wares, so celebrated
throughout Greece, such as drinking-vessels, tables, seats,
carriages, shoes, cloaks, swords, helmets, and hardware in
general, were manufactured by them. As they dwelt in
the seaports, all the foreign trade of the state was in their
possession. Though they were a distinct race from the
Dorians, with whom they had not the right of intermarriage,
and had no share in the government or legislative assem-
blies, they were treated by them with consideration, and
their Heavy-armed (troops) or Hoplites (ottXitcu) always
formed a portion of the Lacedaemonian line of battle. They
were not entitled to command in the field ; yet when Sparta
began to be a naval power, the command at sea was open to
them. They were therefore always on good terms with the
ruling Dorians, and we nowhere read of insurrections of the
Laconian Pericecians.
There was another class of the conquered people, whose
lot was a much harder one : these were the Helots (Ei-
Xwieg) or serfs. The common story is, that the people of
the town of Helos, on the coast, having risen in rebellion
against their Dorian lords, were, when overcome, reduced
to serfship, and the name was extended to all who after-
wards came into the same condition. This, however, is
apparently only a bad piece of etymology ; * the Helots
were more probably a portion of the Achacans, who, instead
of making terms like the others, fought for and lost their
liberty; or, supposing that the Achaeans had originally won
* To derive EiXwf from"EXoc, says Mailer, violates all the princi-
ples of the Greek language. The root is most probably ?2co, to take,
of which it is an old perfect participle taken passively. It will thus
correspond with dp&f, which comes from dauuw. On the other hand,
we are to observe, that the Argive Pericecians were named Orncates
from a place Orneae.
THE SPARTAN CONSTITUTION. 33
the land like the Dorians, the Helots may have been the
descendants of the former inhabitants whom they had re-
duced to this state, and who now only made a change of
masters.
The condition of the Helots did not at all resemble that
of the slaves at Athens and Rome, or in the European
colonies in America. They answer much more nearly to
the villains * of the middle ages, and to the peasants of
Russia at the present day. They belong to the state, and
not to individuals, (differing in this from those just men-
tioned ;) and those who had the use of them as servants,
could neither sell them nor give them their freedom. The
Helots dwelt in cottages on the lots (xATjoot) or portions of
land of the Spartans, and from each they yielded the owner
every year eighty-two medimns or bushels of barley, and
wine and oil in proportion : the remaining produce was
their own, and hence they not unfrequently acquired wealth.
It is calculated that there may have been six or seven Helot
families on each lot. Both the public and private servants
were Helots, and large numbers of them served as light
troops in the Spartan armies, and also on board their ships;
they were the tutors f of the Spartan boys, and Helot
women were the nurses of even the royal families. The
way was open to them to freedom, and even to full citizen-
ship. Those who had distinguished themselves in the
service of the state, particularly in war, were, under the
name of Neodamodes, (New-people,) made free, and assigned
a piece of land as their own property ; and their number
soon equalled that of the Spartans. There was another
class of free Helots, named Mothones, (Mdduveg,) or Mo-
thacs, (Modaxeg,) who had become so on account of their
having been reared up with young Spartans. Their de-
* Villani, predial servants or farm-laborers.
t Ilaidayojybg does not answer exactly to our word tutor. The
pedagogue was a servant who had charge of the boys of a family.
X Mo9wv is verna, a house-slave. This proves that the Mothones
were not, as has been erroneously supposed, Pericecians.
E
34 HISTORY OF GREECE.
scendants acquired full citizenship, for some of the most
distinguished Spartan commanders of later times, such as
Lysander, Callicratidas, and Gylippus, were such.*
The lot of the Helots was doubtless not an enviable one ;
and, as in our West Indian colonies, there must have been
individual cases of cruelty and injustice ; but such could
hardly have been the general practice. Late writers, in
their hostility to the Spartans, and their desire to produce
effect, describe their condition with a ludicrous degree of
sensibility. Thus we are told f that they were obliged to
wear dogskin caps and sheepskin jackets, (the ordinary
dress, by the way, of the country-folk in Greece,) and to
perform the meanest offices ; that they were frequently
beaten, to keep them in mind that they were slaves; and
that death was the fate of any Helot who was distinguished
for size and beauty ; nay, his master was punished if he
did not slay him. Another late writer | adds, that as a
warning to the Spartan youth, the Helots were at times
forced by their lords to get drunk and perform unseemly
dances. The gross exaggeration of all this is apparent;
we have surely no reason to suppose that the Spartans
were worse than the nobles of the middle ages, and we find
no charges of this nature brought against these as a body.
There is some difficulty about the celebrated Crypteia,
(xgvrtTsla.) We are told, on the authority of Aristotle, that
the Spartan Ephors, when entering into office, always pro-
claimed war against the Helots, in order that it might be
lawful to murder them ; and that annually the most discreet
of the Spartan youth were sent through the country armed
with daggers ; and that lying in wait they fell on and slew,
by day or by night, such of the Helots as came in their way.
On the other hand, Plato || gives a very different view of the
* .Elian. V. H. xii. 43.
t By Myron, the romantic historian of the Messenian wars. (Athen.
xiv.)
X Plutarch, Lycurgus 28. Ibid.
H Laws, i. 7. vi. 9. (Bekk.)
THE SPARTAN CONSTITUTION. do
Crypteia, as an institution for teaching the youth of Sparta
to bear hardship, and for inspecting the state of the country.
Individual cases of atrocity may have given origin to that
darker view of it among strangers ; but it is hardly possible
to conceive that so numerous a body as the Helots would
not have stood on their defence, instead of letting them-
selves be thus annually butchered. Suppose, for illustra-
tion, the Jamaica planters to have instituted a Crypteia,
must they not have long since become the victims of their
justly irritated slaves?
We now come to the dominant class in Laconia, the
descendants of the conquerors, the Spartans, as they
were named, from Sparta, the town in which they all dwelt:
the camp, perhaps we might call it, for the Dorians have been
justly compared to " an army of occupation in a conquered
country."*
The Dorians were a class of military nobles, owners of
land, forbidden to exercise any trade or art, enjoined to
practise continually military exercises. At some time,
which cannot be assigned with certainty, the Laconian terri-
tory had been divided into 9000 large, and 30,000 smaller
lots ; the former, which were about two thirds of the whole
land, belonged to the Spartans, and, as we have seen, were
cultivated for them by the Helots ; the latter were assigned
to the Perioecians. Freed thus from the necessity of even
overseeing their lands, the Dorians had abundant leisure fox
gymnastic exercises, and for thus acquiring the high mili-
tary attainments which always distinguished them.
A certain fixedness and adherence to ancient manners
and customs was distinctive of the Dorian race. Hence
the manners of the heroic age, as pourtrayed by Homer, may
very frequently be discerned among them. The following
are some of the most remarkable of the institutions of
Sparta.
All the Spartan men ate together at public tables, the
* Arnold, Thucydides i. 642.
36 HISTORY OF GREECE.
kings not excepted. These meals, usually named Syssities,
(owaata,)* i. e. messes, were plain and simple. Each
member contributed monthly a certain quantity of barley-
meal, wine, cheese, and figs, and a small quantity of money
to purchase opson.i Fifteen was the usual number of
persons in each syssity, or mess : the members were ad-
mitted by ballot, in this manner. The attendant, setting a
vessel on his head, went round, and each member of the
mess threw into it a bit of bread, which he squeezed in his
fingers if he wished to vote against the candidate. Should
there be found in the vessel even one such piece, the can-
didate was rejected. The little boys sat on stools at their
fathers' feet, and got their share of the food ; the elder boys
messed in a similar manner to that of the grown men.
A chief part of the opson was the celebrated blacK broth
(fiilag tyfibg,) which by all accounts was a very unpalatable
dish. The office of cook, at Sparta, we may observe, was
hereditary in certain families; and as there was therefore
no competition, there was no improvement in cookery.
The Dorians attached great importance to the rearing
and educating of their youth. When a child was born, it
was brought to the elders of the House (ytvog, gens) to
which its father belonged, by whom it was examined; if
found strong and healthy, it was directed to be reared ; if
puny or deformed, it was sent away and cast into the
caverns of Mount Taygeton, a barbarous practice, no
doubt, but one useful in a military state. Till the age of
seven, the boys were left with their parents; they were then,
those of the royal houses not excepted, placed under public
instructors, and passed through various classes, till they
were old enough to be admitted among the men. Their
chief occupations were gymnastics, and things relating to
the military life, to which every Spartan was destined.
The Spartans, being of opinion that only strong and
* The Spartan term was ipidlria, or ipiXina.
t The opson (oxpov) was flesh-meat and fish, and whatever was eaten
with bread.
THE SPARTAN CONSTITUTION. 37
healthy women could bear healthy children, were equally
solicitous about the rearing of their females. They, too,
practised gymnastics like the youths, and in their presence.
The Spartan women were famous throughout Greece for
their beauty and their virtue. Love was felt more strongly
and purely at Sparta than elsewhere in Greece; breach of,
chastity was nearly unknown ; the married woman was held
in honor by her husband, and addressed by the respectful
title of Mistress, (dlonoivaj)
With respect to the constitution and government of
Sparta, we may regard it in one sense as an oligarchy, in
another as a democracy, fixing our view on the Dorians
alone. It most resembled regal Rome among ancient,
Venice among modern states,* but its chiefs were heredi-
tary, and not elective.
At the head of the Spartan government stood two kings
who claimed descent from Hercules, through Procles and
Eurysthenes, the sons of Aristodemus.f Their rank and
authority were therefore founded in religion, as they de-
rived their lineage from heaven. They alone could offer
certain sacrifices ; they named the persons sent to consult
the Pythian oracle ; when they died, all the people of the
land, Spartans, Pericecians, and Helots, repaired to Sparta to
mourn the monarch, who was interred with magnificence.
In peace the kings presided in the senate, in war they
led the armies, and their power beyond the bounds of La-
conia was unlimited. The Dorian royalty was evidently a
continuation of that of the Heroic ages.
The Gerusia (yegovala) or council of elders, the Dorian
senate, consisted of twenty-eight men of sixty years or up-
* For it was an oligarchy with respect to the Pericecians, a democ-
racy among the Dorians themselves, who resembled the Roman Patri-
cians and the Venetian Nobili.
t The two royal families were named, the one Agids,from Agis, the
son of Eurysthenes ; the other Proclids, from Procles, or Eurypontids,
from his grandson Eurypon. The Agids were regarded as the supe-
rior house. (Herod, vi. 51 .)
4
38 HISTORY OF GREECE.
wards, elected by the popular assembly. They held their
office for life. In conjunction with the kings, they delibe-
rated on all public affairs, and prepared such measures as
were to be laid before the people. They decided as judges
in all criminal matters, and could punish with degrada-
tion (urifila) and death ; as censors, they exercised an over-
sight over the morals of the citizens in general.
The people, that is, the Spartans or Dorians, possessed the
legislative power. As has been already observed, in anti-
quity the different races had favorite political numbers.
The Dorian number was three, and accordingly the Spar-
tans were divided into three tribes, the Hylleans, the
Dymans, and the Pamphylans.* Each of these was again
divided into ten Obes, (w^ai,) or Phratries; and each obe
contained a certain number of Houses, [yifea, gentes,) each
composed of a certain number of families.
All Spartans who had attained the age of thirty years,
and who had not been by law deprived of their rights, were
authorized to appear in the popular assembly, ( e AXla } ) which
was held every full moon in the open air, at a place west-
wards of the town, between the brook named Knakion and
the bridge Babyca. Here they decided on peace and war,
and other questions of foreign policy, on laws, on the suc-
cession to the throne, on changes in the constitution ; elect-
ed magistrates, etc. ; exercising, in fact, the supreme political
and legislative power. But they could only deliberate on
what was laid before them by the government, and the ma-
gistrates alone were permitted to speak. The assembly
might accept or reject a proposed measure, but could make
no alteration in it.
The most remarkable magistracy at Sparta was the
Ephory, an office the institution of which was by some
ascribed to Lycurgus, by others to King Theopompus, but
which seems to have been coeval with the state, though with
different powers at different times. The five Ephors ( Over-
* See the personifications of these tribes above, pp. 19, 20.
THE SPARTAN CONSTITUTION. 39
seers) appear to have been originally the magistrates of the
five villages (x5,at) which composed the town of Sparta,
and appointed to decide in civil matters among their fellow-
citizens. In their enlarged capacity, they were a popular
magistracy chosen annually by the people out of themselves,
without any qualification of wealth or age, bearing some
resemblance to the Tribunes at Rome, and becoming, event-
ually, in power like the formidable Council of Ten at
Venice.
The Ephors sat every day in their court, (&qxbTov } ) in the
market by the temple of Fear. They were censors of
morals, and overseers of education ; all magistrates, (the
senators excepted,) and even the kings, were obliged to
render them an account of their conduct in office, and they
could remove them and punish them even with death ; they
directed the police, and had the management of the treasury;
they chiefly conducted the foreign relations of the state,
and some of them usually accompanied the armies sent out
of the country. In fine, as the representatives of the people,
like our House of Commons, they possessed, in reality, the
supreme power in the state.
Political constitutions, like natural ones, are usually of
gradual growth ; but when in any country there has been,
or is supposed to have been, some eminent legislator, tra-
dition is apt to ascribe to him singly what has been the
work of many persons and of different times. Thus Rome
deduced her institutions from Numa and Servius ; and we
ourselves have collected around the person of Alfred the
most valuable institutions of our Saxon ancestors. The
Servius or Alfred of Sparta was Lycurgus.
When we recollect that it was long before the Greeks,
though acquainted with letters, began to write, and that
Lycurgus, by the testimony of tradition, is placed more than
three centuries before that time, we may see at once that
his history must be purely a traditional, and in some sort a
mythic one. We know how tradition loves to magnify its
heroes, and to invent adventures to give interest to their
40 HISTORY OF GREECE.
story. Premising therefore these cautions, we proceed to
relate the history of the lawgiver of Sparta.*
Lycurgus was the younger son of King Eunomus, {Good-
law,) or Prytanis, [Presiding.) His elder brother Polydectes
dying without children, Lycurgus succeeded; but it ap-
pearing that the widow was pregnant, he declared that the
royalty belonged to the child if it should be a boy, and that
he would only act as guardian. The queen sent secretly
to him, offering to destroy the child if he would marry her.
Lycurgus feigned assent, and required her to let the babe
be born, and he would then dispose of it. When her de-
livery was at hand, he placed trusty persons about her, with
directions, if the child should prove a male, to bring it to him,
wherever he should be. He was sitting at supper with the
magistrates when the new-born babe was brought to him.
He took him, and, saying, " Spartans, a king is born unto
us ! " laid him in the royal seat, and named him Charilaus,
(People' s-joy,) to commemorate the joy that was exhibited'
at his own moderation and justice.
Some time after, finding the queen's family and others
united in opposition to him, Lycurgus resolved to leave
Sparta and visit foreign countries. He first went to Crete,
and there studied the Dorian constitution in its greatest
purity ; and he sent to Sparta the lyric poet Thales, whom
he met there, that his songs might prepare the way for the
legislation he meditated. He thence proceeded to Ionia, to
study other men and other manners. Here he became ac-
quainted with the poems of Homer, of which he took
copies. He is said to have extended his travels to Egypt ;
nay, one Spartan writer sends him to Libya, Iberia, and
India !
Meantime Lycurgus was greatly missed at home, and re-
peated messages were sent desiring his return, for all was
in confusion, the royal power being such only in name. He
came to Sparta determined to re-model the entire state. His
* Herod, i. 65. Plutarch, Lycurgus.
LYCURGUS. 41
first care was to go to Delphi and consult the oracle, where
the Pythia, or inspired priestess, on seeing him, pronounced
him a god rather than a man, and declared the god's ap-
proval of his meditated changes. Returning home, he com-
municated his plans to the principal people, and secured
their aid. He then caused thirty of them to enter the mar-
ket (uyogu) one morning in arms, to check the opposers of
his views. A slight tumult ensued, and King Charilaus in
terror fled to the temple of Athena Chalcioecos (Brass-
house *) for safety : he was, however, easily induced to
come forth and sanction the measures of reform.
Lycurgus's first measure was the institution of the Ge-
rusia, or senate. Then, having observed the excessive dis-
proportion of landed property, and the consequent evils to
the state of the extremes of wealth and poverty, he pre-
vailed on the wealthy to surrender their lands, which he di-
vided into thirty thousand lots for the Perioecians, and nine
thousand for the Spartans. Next he prohibited the use of
gold and silver money, and introduced a heavy coinage of
iron, tempered in vinegar, so as to be of no value. His ob-
ject in this was to banish foreign trade, and all the ministers
and incentives of luxury. Proceeding a step further, he in-
stituted the Syssities, and then established the regulations
regarding marriage, and the rearing and educating of chil-
dren, and the discipline of youth. The Crypteia is also as-
cribed to him.
Having completed the constitution, and seen it for some
time in operation, he meditated to give it the utmost sta-
bility. He therefore assembled the kings, the senate, and
the people, and telling them that he had some measure of
still greater importance to bring forward, but would not do
so till he had consulted the god, he required from them an
oath that they would make no change before his return
from Delphi. They readily took the oath. He then re-
* So named as being lined with brass plates, like the ancient treasu-
ries at Mycense and elsewhere.
4* w
42 HISTORY OF GREECE.
paired to the oracle, and, when he had sacrificed and inquired,
the god replied that his laws were excellent, and Sparta
would be most glorious while she followed them. This re-
sponse he sent home, resolving never to return and release
the Spartans from their oath. He died in Crete, or Elis, or
Cirrha, and in after times the Spartans raised a temple to
him as a god.
CHAPTER VI.
THE MESSENIAN WARS.
The early history of the Dorians in Messene is as obscure
as that of their brethren in Laconia, and for the same rea-
son, the want of letters. It would appear that they coa-
lesced more with the people of the land ; and, to judge by
the names of their kings which have been transmitted to
us, their character was more gentle and rural than that of
the contemporary kings of Sparta.*
The Dorians established themselves chiefly in the plain of
Stenyclaros, bordering on Arcadia, to a daughter of one of
whose princes, named Cypselus, Cresphontes was married.
Cresphontes, it is said, being disposed to favor the people,
(i. e. the Achaeans,) was, with his sons, put to death by his
Dorian subjects ; but iEpytus, his youngest son, happening
to be with his grandfather in Arcadia, escaped, and when he