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CHAP.
VIII.

which were those of the whole Hellenic nation. They considered the possession of arms as the highest priB. C. 884. vilege of a freeman, the exercise of them as the only employment that became him. According to the rules of the heroic equity, he who excelled in this noblest of arts was born to command; the race that showed itself inferior in warlike virtues, was destined to obey and to serve the most perfect order of things was that in which the higher class was occupied by no care or labour that did not contribute to the species of excellence which was the supreme end of its being, and where the subject ranks were mere instruments, only needed to relieve the higher from necessary but degrading toil: a view of society, not peculiar to any race of mankind, though among the nations in which the same maxims have not been hallowed by superstition, none appears to have been governed by them more uniformly than the ancient Hellenes, and no Hellenic tribe applied them so steadily and consistently as the Dorians.1 The predominance of this military spirit in the early period of a nation's history, though accompanied by an aversion and contempt for the arts of peace, which however are not to be ascribed without much qualification even to the Spartans, especially before the Persian wars2, — ought not certainly to lower any race in our esteem. It has appeared most signally in the noblest portions of our species; and is in itself no more inauspicious sign for the future growth of intelligence and humanity, than the overflow of animal spirits, the impatience of mental application, and the petulance of superior strength and activity, in a vigorous boy. But a neglected or vicious education, or untoward circumstances, may disappoint the intention of nature, check the growth

1 Herod. ii. 167.

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See C. F. Hermann, u. s. ii., Disputatio de novis Lacedæmoniorum post Lycur gum institutis.

VIII.

of the higher faculties, or confine them to a single CHAP. direction and a narrow compass; and may thus detain nations and individuals in a state of intellectual in- B. C. 884. fancy, ripe and robust only in its passions and physical powers. Such a misfortune, which has sometimes been celebrated as a singular advantage, or as the noblest fruit of legislative wisdom, befel the Dorians in Crete and Sparta.

circum

which

formed the

character.

In the Dorian race, the primitive Hellenic character Peculiar had been moulded, by the circumstances under which stances the people was formed and trained, into a peculiar form. Before the invasion of Peloponnesus, the con- Dorian querors had passed through a severe school. In the mountain tracts where they had wandered or settled, they had maintained a long struggle with danger and hardship; and they undoubtedly brought the habits and feelings which grow out of such a discipline, along with them, into the happier seats, in which they finally established their dominion. Many of the Spartan virtues and vices seem to have flowed from this source. A people inured to poverty and toil, learns to pride itself in the fortitude with which it meets privation and suffering: it places its point of honour in disdaining all superfluous enjoyment, and shrinks from whatever serves merely to grace and refine life, as unmanly and pernicious luxury. This austere simplicity, though not inconsistent with kindly affections, is almost inseparable from a proportionate coarseness and harshness of sentiments, which is careless of the more delicate observances of social intercourse, and is too apt to degenerate into ferocity and cruelty. A strong tendency to superstition, which several causes contribute to cherish in the mountaineer, distinguished the Spartans, even among the Greeks, down to a late period of their history: a habit of mind closely allied, or it may be said sub

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CHAP.

VIII.

stantially one, with the attachment to ancient usages, the veneration for established rights, privileges, and B. C. 884. authority, which generally prevails in mountain tribes, and which was a conspicuous feature in the character of the Spartan Dorians; tempered however by a natural love of freedom, and by the feeling of independence produced by the need of constant ex

Peculiar position of the Spartans.

ertion.

Considered from this point of view, the comparison drawn by some of the ancients between the Spartans and the Sabines, though connected with an idle fancy of a real kindred between the two nations, was by no means inappropriate. But what has been here said, is equally applicable to all the Dorian conquerors of Peloponnesus, and would not suffice to explain the singular rigour of the Spartan discipline, and the minute exactness with which the Spartan system regulated details, which in most communities are considered beyond or below the attention of the state. Those who attribute the whole system to Lycurgus, can give no better general view of his legislation, than by saying that he transformed Sparta into a camp. But it seems nearer the truth, to say that Sparta was a camp from the beginning of the conquest. For no description can better suit an unwalled city, occupied by an invading army, in the midst of a hostile and half-subdued people: and hence, to the latest times, the Spartan, throughout the military age, was said to be on guard. A community which had taken up this position, and, as seems to have been the case with Sparta, was compelled to retain it until it became habitual and agreeable, was also constrained to adapt its institutions to its situation. A rigid discipline, a vigilant superintendence, which allowed the least possible room for the discretion of

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CHAP.

VIII.

individuals in the employment of their time, uniform rules for all the stages and transactions of life; this artificial state of society was a necessary consequence B. C. 884. of its forced posture, and required no extraordinary genius to prescribe the form which it should as

sume.

CHAP.
IX.

B. C. 776.

CHAPTER IX.

Wars of

Argos and

Arcadia.

THE MESSENIAN WARS AND AFFAIRS OF SPARTA DOWN
TO THE SIXTH CENTURY B. C.

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Wars of Sparta with Argos and Arcadia. - State of Messenia.
Policy of the Messenian Kings. First quarrel between
Sparta and Messenia. - Story of Polychares. - Beginning
of the first Messenian War.-Authorities for the his-
tory of the Messenian Wars. - The Messenians fortify
Ithomé. Aristodemus. - End of the first Messenian War.
Consequences arising to Sparta from the conquest of
Messenia. Admission of new citizens to Sparta. — Rise of
a new distinction among the citizens of Sparta. — Enlarge-
ment of the power of the Ephors. - Comparison between the
Ephors and the Roman Tribunes. - Mode of election and
authority of the Ephors. Pheidon, King of Argos. -
Beginning of the second Messenian War. Aristomenes and
Tyrtæus. Victories of Aristomenes. The Messenians
fortify Eira. - Wonderful exploits and escape of Aristo-
Surprise of Eira. End of the second Messenian
War. Messenian Exiles; Death of Aristomenes.
between Sparta and Tegea; Conquest of Cynuria; Othry-
ades. Growing power and reputation of Sparta.

menes.

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War

TOWARD the first olympiad (B. c. 776), Laconia was Sparta with subdued and tranquil; the Spartans were united by the institutions of Lycurgus, and their warlike youth ready, and perhaps impatient, for new enterprises. Until the fall of Amycle, and the other conquests of Teleclus, had secured the submission of Laconia, they were probably too much occupied at home to enter into any wars with their neighbours, which might require a long-continued exertion of their strength. We find them indeed very early engaged in contests on the side of Arcadia and Argos: but these were not

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