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Lycurgus of Sparta
Nineteenth-century statue of Lycurgus at the neoclassical Palais de Justice in Brussels, Belgium

Lycurgus (/laɪˈkɜːrɡəs/; Greek: Λυκοῦργος, Lykoûrgos, Greek pronunciation: [lykôrɡos]; fl. c. 820 BC) was the quasi-legendary lawgiver of Sparta who established the military-oriented reformation of Spartan society in accordance with the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi. All his reforms promoted the three Spartan virtues: equality (among citizens), military fitness, and austerity.[1]

He is referred to by ancient historians and philosophers Herodotus, Xenophon, Plato, Polybius, Plutarch, and Epictetus. It is not clear if Lycurgus was an actual historical figure; however, many ancient historians[2] believed that he instituted the communalistic and militaristic reforms - most notably the Great Rhetra - which transformed Spartan society.

Biography

Lycurgus

Early life

Most information about Lycurgus comes from Plutarch's "Life of Lycurgus" (part of Parallel Lives), which is more of an anecdotal collection than a real biography. Plutarch himself remarks that nothing can be known for certain about Lycurgus, since different authors give different accounts of almost everything about him.[3] The actual person Lycurgus may or may not have existed, -- it is possible that "Lycourgos" was an epithet of the god Apollo as he was worshiped in very early Sparta, and that later legend transformed this aspect of the god into a wise human lawgiver[4][5] --but as a symbolic founder of the Spartan state he was looked to as the initiator of many of its social and political institutions; much, therefore, of Plutarch's account is concerned with finding the "origin" of contemporary Spartan practices. The dates of Lycurgus have been given by ancient and modern authorities as being as early as the tenth century BC and as late as the sixth century BC. Some scholars think the most plausible date is indicated by Thucydides, who said that in his time the Spartan constitution was over four hundred years old; this would imply a date for Lycurgus, or at least for the reforms attributed to him, of the last quarter of the ninth century BC.[4][5][6][7]

It is said that Lycurgus had risen to power when his older brother, the king, had died. With his father deceased, he was offered the throne. Lycurgus' brother, however, had died with a pregnant wife. When this child was born, Lycurgus named the child, Charilaus ("joy of the people") and transferred his kingship to the baby. After that, Lycurgus was said to be a man who could lay down the supreme power easily out of respect for justice, so it was easy for Lycurgus to rule the Spartans in his capacity as the guardian of his nephew Charilaus. However, the young king's mother and her relatives envied and hated Lycurgus. Among other slanders, they accused Lycurgus of plotting the death of Charilaus.

Travels

Lycurgus finally decided that the only way that he might avoid blame in case something should happen to the child would be to go travelling until Charilaus had grown up and fathered a son to secure the succession. Therefore, Lycurgus gave up all of his authority set out on a celebrated, though no doubt legendary, journey. His first destination was Crete, like Sparta a Dorian land, where he studied the laws of Minos. Spartan and Cretan institutions did indeed have common characteristics, but, though some direct borrowing may have occurred, such similarities are in general more likely to be because of the common Dorian inheritance of Sparta and Crete rather than because some individual such as Lycurgus imported Cretan customs to Sparta.[8] Traveling after that to Asia Minor, homeland of the Ionian Greeks, he found it instructive to compare the refined and luxurious life style of the Ionians with the stern and disciplined culture of the Dorians. Some say that Lycurgus subsequently traveled as far as Egypt, Spain, and India.[9] In Ionia, Lycurgus discovered the works of Homer. Lycurgus compiled the scattered fragments of Homer and made sure that the lessons of statecraft and morality in Homer's epics became widely known. According to Plutarch, the Egyptians claim that Lycurgus visited them too,[a] and that he got from the Egyptians the idea of separating the military from the menial workers, thus refining later Spartan society, in which Spartans were not allowed to practice manual crafts.[10]

Return to Sparta

After Lycurgus had been absent for a while, the Spartans wrote and begged Lycurgus to come back. As they admitted, only Lycurgus was really a king in their heart, although others wore a crown and claimed the title. He had the true foundation of sovereignty: a nature born to rule, and a talent for inspiring obedience. Even the Spartan kings wanted Lycurgus to return because they saw him as one who could protect them from the people.

Lycurgus had already decided that some fundamental changes would have to be made in Sparta. When he returned, he did not merely tinker with the laws, but instead followed the example of the wisest ephors to implement incremental change.

First, however, Lycurgus went to the Oracle at Delphi to ask for guidance. The Oracle told Lycurgus that his prayers had been heard and that the state which observed the laws of Lycurgus would become the most famous in the world. With such an endorsement, Lycurgus went to the leading men of Sparta and enlisted their support.

He began with his closest friends, then these friends widened the conspiracy by bringing in their own friends. When things were ripe for action, thirty of them appeared at dawn in the marketplace, fully armed for battle. At first, Charilaus thought they meant to kill him, and he ran for sanctuary in a temple, but eventually he joined the conspirators when he found out that all they wanted was to make sure there would be no opposition to the reforms Lycurgus had in mind.

Death

According to the legend found in Plutarch's Lives and other sources, when Lycurgus became confident in his reforms, he announced that he would go to the oracle at Delphi to sacrifice to Apollo. However, before leaving for Delphi he called an assembly of the people of Sparta and made everyone, including the kings and Gerousia, take an oath binding them to observe his laws until he returned. He made the journey to Delphi and consulted the oracle, which told him that his laws were excellent and would make his people famous. He then disappeared from history. One explanation was that being satisfied by this he starved himself to death instead of returning home, forcing the citizens of Sparta by oath to keep his laws indefinitely.[11] He later enjoyed a hero-cult in Sparta.[12][13]

Institutions

Lycurgus is credited with the formation of many Spartan institutions integral to the country's rise to power, but more importantly the complete and undivided allegiance to Sparta from its citizens, which was implemented under his form of government.

Lycurgus is said to have been the originator of the Spartan "Homoioi," the "Equals," citizens who had no wealth differentiation among them, an early example of distributism, insofar as the citizens (not the Helots) were concerned. This radical lifestyle differentiated the Spartans once again from other Greeks of their time.

A new council between the people and the kings

The first reform instituted by Lycurgus involved establishing a Gerousia of twenty-eight men, who would have a power equal to the two royal houses of Sparta. The people had the right to vote on important questions, but the Gerousia decided when a vote would be taken. As Plutarch puts it, a Gerousia "allays and qualifies the fiery genius of the royal office" and gives some stability and safety to the commonwealth, like the ballast in a ship. Before, Sparta had oscillated between the extremes of democracy and tyranny: anarchy and dictatorship. With the addition of the Gerousia, which resisted both extremes, the government became stable and the people and their rulers respected each other.

Land reforms

To accomplish this equality, Plutarch, in his Life of Lycurgus, attributes to Lycurgus a thoroughgoing land reform, a reassignment and equalizing of landholdings and wealth among the population,

For there was an extreme inequality among them, and their state was overloaded with a multitude of indigent and necessitous persons, while its whole wealth had centered upon a very few. To the end, therefore, that he might expel from the state arrogance and envy, luxury and crime, and those yet more inveterate diseases of want and superfluity, he obtained of them to renounce their properties, and to consent to a new division of the land, and that they should all live together on an equal footing; merit to be their only road to eminence...

— Plutarch, Lycurgus[14]

To support this new land division, Lycurgus was said to have divided the country all around Laconia into 30,000 equal shares, and the part attached to the city of Sparta in particular into 9,000; all shares were distributed among the Spartans. Helots (the population of the territories the Spartans had captured in their wars in Laconia) were attached to the land, not to individual owners; hence, all slaves were property of the state.

Currency

To further support equality, Lycurgus, according to Plutarch, forbade the use of gold and silver, using the strategy of introducing money called pelanors[15][16] made of iron which had been weakened by it being cooled in a vinegar bath after being turned red-hot, and calling in all gold and silver, in order to defeat greed and dependence on money.[14] The new money, besides being almost intrinsically worthless, was bulky, and hence hard to transport. This move was seen by Plutarch also as a way of isolating Sparta from outside trade, and developing its internal arts and crafts, so as to prevent foreign influences and the decadence of markets.

Whether Lycurgus in all actuality created iron money is debatable. It is thought by modern scholars that first stamped coins were minted around 650–600 BC,[17] while Lycurgus is thought to have lived circa 800 BC. [citation needed]

Common mess halls

Another way to create equality was the Spartan institution of the sussita/syssitia, the practice that required all Spartan men to eat together in common mess halls.[18] Plutarch describes the institution as consisting of companies ("syssitia", or "eating-together" groups) of about fifteen men, each bound to bring in and contribute each month a bushel of meal, 8 gallons of wine, 5 pounds of cheese, 2 and a half pounds of figs, and a small amount of money to buy meat or fish with. When any member made a personal sacrifice to the gods, he would send some portion to the syssition, and when any member hunted, he sent part of the animal he had killed, to share with his messmates. Personal sacrifices of this sort and hunting were the only excuses that allowed a man to justify eating at his own home, instead of with the mess hall (syssition): otherwise, men were expected to eat daily with their syssition comrades. Even kings were apparently expected to take part in a mess hall, and were not to eat privately at home with their wives. Spartan women apparently ate together with and spent most of their time with each other, and not their husbands or sons older than seven (see below on the "agoge").

Education of children

He was also credited with the development of the agoge. The practice took all seven-year-old boys from the care of their fathers and placed them in a rigorous military regiment.[19]

Other measures

Lycurgus himself was said to be mild, gentle, forgiving, and calm in temper, even when attacked; he was thought to have been extraordinarily sober and an extremely hard worker, all qualities that other Greeks admired in the Spartans; in this sense he was also the "founder" of the admirable qualities displayed by contemporary Spartans of later ages.

Later changes to the institutions

Some further refinements of the Spartan constitution came after Lycurgus. It turned out that sometimes the public speakers would pervert the sense of propositions and thus cause the people to vote foolishly, so the Gerousia reserved the right to dissolve the assembly if they saw this happening.

A hundred and thirty years after the death of Lycurgus, a council of five ephors took executive power from the kings. When King Theopompus, in whose reign the ephors were established, was scolded by his wife for leaving his son less royal power than he had inherited, he replied: "No, it is greater, because it will last longer." With their decision-making power reduced, the Spartan kings were freed of the jealousy of the people. They never went through what happened in nearby Messene and Argos, where the kings held on so tight to every last bit of power that in the end they wound end up losing it all.

Influences

According to Plutarch, Lycurgus traveled to Crete, Asia Minor and possibly to Egypt before he drew up his constitution.[20]

The Cretan constitution was said to have influenced that of Lycurgus for Sparta.[21]

(...) he first arrived at Crete, where, having considered their several forms of government, and got an acquaintance with the principal men among them, some of their laws he very much approved of, and resolved to make use of them in his own country; a good part he rejected as useless.

— Plutarch, Lycurgus[20]

Another inspiration for his constitution was the Ionian way of life, that attached more importance to pleasurable life. [b] Plutarch also gives some credence to the idea Lycurgus visited Egypt and was influenced by their way of separating the soldiers from those who did manual labor. [a]

Depictions

Bas-relief of Lycurgus, one of 23 great lawgivers depicted in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Lycurgus is depicted at the Palais de Justice in Brussels.

He is also depicted in several U.S. government buildings because of his legacy as a lawgiver. Lycurgus is one of the 23 lawgivers depicted in marble bas-reliefs in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives in the United States Capitol. The bas-relief was sculpted by Carl Paul Jennewein.[22] Lycurgus is also depicted on the frieze on the south wall of the U.S. Supreme Court building.[23]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b "The Egyptians say that he took a voyage into Egypt, and that, being much taken with their way of separating the soldiery from the rest of the nation, he transferred it from them to Sparta, a removal from contact with those employed in low and mechanical occupations giving high refinement and beauty to the state. Some Greek writers also record this." Source: Plutarch
  2. ^ "From Crete he sailed to Asia, with design, as is said, to examine the difference betwixt the manners and rules of life of the Cretans, which were very sober and temperate, and those of the Ionians, a people of sumptuous and delicate habits, and so to form a judgment; just as physicians do by comparing healthy and diseased bodies." Source: Plutarch

Citations

  1. ^ Forrest, W.G. A History of Sparta 950-192 B.C Norton. New York. (1963)pg 50
  2. ^ Plutarchus, Mestrius. Parallel Lives. Chs. Lycurgus and Lycurgus and Numa Compared. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |nopp= ignored (|no-pp= suggested) (help) Plutarch lists Eratosthenes, Apollodorus of Athens, Timæus, and Xenophon, among others as sources.
  3. ^ Plutarch, Lycurugus, 1.1
  4. ^ a b Burn, A. R. (1982). The Pelican History of Greece. London: Penguin. pp. 116–117.
  5. ^ a b Bury, J. B.; Meiggs, Russell (1956). A History of Greece to the death of Alexander the Great (3 ed.). London: Macmillan. pp. 135–136.
  6. ^ Thucydides 1.18.1
  7. ^ Hammond, N. G. L. (1967). A history of Greece. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 103.
  8. ^ Grant, Michael (1987). The rise of the Greeks (1st American ed.). New York: Scribners. pp. 96, 195.
  9. ^ Smith, William (1857). A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. Vol. 2. Boston: Little, Brown. p. 850.
  10. ^ Lycurgus, in Plutarch on Sparta, Penguin Classics, 1988, p12
  11. ^ see the biography of Lycurgus in Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans
  12. ^ A commentary on Herodotus books I-IV By David Asheri, Alan B. Lloyd, Aldo Corcella, Oswyn Murray, Alfonso Moreno Page 127 ISBN 0-19-814956-5
  13. ^ Pausanias 3.16.6
  14. ^ a b Plutarch, The Life of Lycurgus (written 75, trans. John Dryden 1683), The Internet Classics Archive
  15. ^ The Spartan Iron Currency Encyclopaedia of Money
  16. ^ Mitchel, Humfrey The Phoenix Classical Association of Canada (1947)
  17. ^ Goldsborough, Reid (2003-10-02). "World's First Coin". rg.ancients.info. Retrieved 2009-04-20.
  18. ^ Forrest, W.G. A History of Sparta 950-192 B.C Norton. New York. (1963) pg 45
  19. ^ Forrest, W.G. A History of Sparta 950-192 B.C Norton. New York. (1963)pg 51
  20. ^ a b Plutarch, Biography of Lycurgus
  21. ^ Pausanias 3. 2, 4.
  22. ^ "Relief Portraits of Lawgivers: Lycurgus." Architect of the Capitol Archived 2006-10-26 at the Wayback Machine
  23. ^ "Courtroom Friezes: North and South Walls: Information Sheet" Supreme Court of the United States

References

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