supply fuel to private cupidity. Plutarch does not attempt to point out any connection between these two measures, which indeed are directly opposite in their tendency; the first checking popular licence by an aristocratical institution, while the second levels all advantages of rank and property. Accordingly in carrying the former Lycurgus, it is said, was seconded by the leading men; while in the latter he was opposed by the wealthy class with a fury which threatened his life. There is still greater difficulty in reconciling this account with Aristotle's remark, that the tyranny of Charilaus was followed by an aristocratical government. This indeed reminds us of what Plutarch relates; that the first tumult occasioned by the measures of Lycurgus alarmed Charilaus so much, that, fancying a conspiracy formed against himself, he took refuge in the sanctuary of the Brazen House, where Lycurgus himself was afterwards forced to take shelter.1 We read however that his fears were quieted, and that he even actively joined in promoting the new reform.

If we admit the fact, that a revolution of some kind was really effected by Lycurgus, it seems necessary, in order to understand the various descriptions given of it, to suppose that its objects were not precisely such as the language of the ancient writers at first sight suggests. So long as we confine our view to the Dorians of Sparta, we are at a loss to explain the growing ascendancy of a commonalty, which finally tramples on the royal prerogatives, and which it is found necessary to balance by an aristocratical institution ; while, in the same state, a small class preponderates over the rest by its overgrown possessions, to a degree which drives the legislator to the democratical expedient of a general repartition. It is true that such extremes may often be found combined in a stage of society immediately preceding a great political convulsion; but if such a convulsion ensues, and the wealthy class is forced to yield, the result will surely not be a rigid and steady aris

Plut. Ap. Lac. 7.

tocratical government: and it would be attributing, not wisdom, but magic, to Lycurgus, to suppose that he extracted such a constitution out of such elements. It seems impossible to comprehend the nature of his reform, unless we may be allowed to think that it determined not merely the relations of the Dorians among one another, or to their kings, but that in which they stood to their subjects, the provincials of Laconia: and that this is not a wholly unauthorised conjecture, appears from the tradition, that Lycurgus extended his agrarian regulation over the whole country. Those authors indeed who represent the conquest of Laconia as completed some generations sooner, would lead us to conclude that the relation between the conquerors and their subjects had been long before fixed on its ultimate footing. But as we have seen reason to suspect that the conquest itself was much more gradual, so it seems not improbable that it was reserved for Lycurgus finally to settle the relative position of the several classes. And it must be remembered, that among them, beside the conquered Achæans, were other foreigners, who had aided the Dorians in their enterprise, and might therefore seem to have stronger claims to an equality of political rights. It would be natural, and in accordance with the policy which we find actually pursued by the Dorian kings of Messenia, if these claims had been favoured by one of the royal houses at Sparta; and it would be no uncommon mistake or perversion of language, if this was the fact indicated by Eurypon's ambition of popularity, by the death of Eunomus, and by the tyranny of Charilaus. Eurypon would be a demagogue, and Charilaus a tyrant, in the same sense in which Cresphontes might have been called so by his Dorians, whom he wished to reduce to the same level with his other subjects; and it may have been in a like struggle that Eunomus also lost his life.

The gradual progress of the conquest may perhaps also serve to explain the inequality of property among the Dorians; which must be considered, not as an effect

of the original distribution, nor of successive casual transfers, but of encroachment and usurpation; and which therefore though tolerated for a time, would excite discontent and division among the conquerors. Though at the first irruption a division of land probably took place in that part of the territory which was immediately occupied by the Dorian arms- - and, if so, may have been conducted on principles of equality- the subjugation of the several towns and districts which subsequently submitted to Sparta may have afforded some of the leading men opportunities of enriching themselves at the expence of the ancient land-owners, and to the exclusion of their less fortunate brethren, who might thus be disposed to favour the pretensions of the Laconian provincials.

If this supposition at all corresponds to the state of things which Lycurgus found existing, it will not be difficult to understand the double aspect which his legislation presents. He must have had two main objects in view one, to maintain the sovereignty of Sparta over the rest of Laconia; the other-a necessary condition of the former-to unite the Spartans by the closest ties among themselves. The manner in which he accomplished this twofold purpose may not have been the less admirable, because he found all the instruments he required ready to his hand, and was seconded by the general wishes of the people. Nothing more indeed seems to have been necessary for securing the harmony and the internal strength of Sparta, than that she should return into the ancient track, from which she appears for a time to have been drawn partially aside: that her citizens, where they had cast off the habits of their forefathers, should resume them; and, sacrificing all artificial distinctions, and newly acquired inclinations, should live together after the old fashion, as brothers in arms, under the rigid, but equal, discipline of a camp. This mode of life was undoubtedly not only familiar to the Spartans before the time of Lycurgus, but can never have sunk into very general disuse it had probably

been most neglected by those whose possessions raised them above the common level; and when this inequality was removed, came again almost spontaneously into force. The occasion however required, that what had hitherto been no more than lax and undefined usage, should henceforth be made to assume the character of strict law, solemnly enacted, and consecrated by the sanction of religion. If Lycurgus did no more than this, after having surmounted the obstacles which interest and passion threw in his way, he will indeed lose the glory of a marvellous triumph over nature; he will retain the honour of having judiciously and successfully applied the simplest and most efficacious means which nature afforded, to a great and arduous end.

but

While therefore we do not wish the reader to forget that this is no more than a hypothesis, which must give way as soon as another more probable shall have been proposed, we believe that we come nearest to the truth, in supposing, that the occasion which called forth the legislation of Lycurgus was the danger which threatened the Spartan Dorians, while divided among themselves, of losing the privileges which raised them above their subjects, the common freemen of Laconia: that consequently the basis of all his regulations was a new distribution of property, which removed the principal causes of discord, and facilitated the correction of other abuses; that this was accompanied by a more precise determination of political rights; and finally that this same opportunity was taken to enforce and to widen all those distinctions of education and habits, which, while they separated the citizens from the subjects, bound the higher class more firmly together. Such at least appears to have been the aim and tendency of the Spartan institutions, whatever may be thought as to their origin and author; and we shall therefore follow this order in proceeding to describe their principal features.

According to one of the accounts transmitted to us

by Plutarch, Lycurgus divided the whole of Laconia into 39,000 parcels; of which 9000 were assigned to as many Spartan families, 30,000 to their free subjects. Plutarch seems to have supposed that these parcels were all equal, so that the Spartan had no advantage over the Laconian, any more than over his fellow citizens; for he relates that Lycurgus, having once returned from abroad toward the end of harvest, gazed with delight on the uniform aspect of the corn-fields, and observed that all Laconia looked like a heritage newly shared among many brothers. It must however be remem bered, in the first place, that in the time of Lycurgus, several districts of Laconia were probably still independent of Sparta ; and next, that even if this had been otherwise, and with regard to the part then subject to the conquerors, the nature of the ground must have rendered a nicely equal partition for such an age and people utterly impracticable. Nor does it appear what motive could have induced the legislator to aim at establishing such an equality among the Laconians, in whose case the physical difficulty would be the greatest. On the other hand, we find that it was a question among the ancients, whether the 9000 Spartan parcels were all contained in Laconia itself, or included those which were acquired after the age of Lycurgus in Messenia. Plutarch mentions two opinions on this subject. According to one, 6000 parcels were assigned by Lycurgus himself, and 3000 were added by king Polydorus at the end of the first Messenian war; according to the other, the original number, 4500, was doubled by Polydorus. The latter opinion seems to be strongly confirmed by the plan of the unfortunate Agis, who proposed to divide the Spartan territory into 4500 allotments, at the same time that he assigned 15,000 to the Laconian provincials. And Aristotle, who wrote after Messenia had been wrested from the dominion of Sparta, speaking of the Spartan land in Laconia, appears to say that it is capable of maintaining 3000 infantry and 1500