Sparta

Lycurgus

Dateline: 06/29/99

Athens had its Solon, the law-giver, and Sparta had its Lycurgus -- at least that's what we believe. Like the origins of Lycurgus' reforms, the man himself is wrapped in legend. Herodotus 201.65.4 says the Spartans thought the laws came from Crete. Xenophon (Const. Lac. 201.2) thought Lycurgus made them up, while Plato thought the Delphic Oracle provided them. Regardless of their origin, the Delphic Oracle played an important role in their acceptance. Lycurgus claimed the Oracle had insisted the laws not be written down. According to legend, Lycurgus tricked the Spartans into keeping the laws. He persuaded his countrymen not to change them until he returned from a journey -- at which point Lycurgus disappeared forever.

Online Resources

Lycurgus' Reforms and the Spartan Society*

Before Lycurgus there had been dual kingship, division of the society in Spartiates, Helots, and perioeci, and the ephorate. After his travels to Crete and elsewhere Lycurgus brought to Sparta three innovations: Elders (gerusia), redistribution of land, and common messes. He forbade gold and silver coinage. In all, Lycurgus was trying to suppress greed and luxury.

www.perseus.tufts.edu/cl135/Students/Debra_Taylor/delphproj2.html Delphi and the Law

We don't know whether Lycurgus asked the oracle to simply confirm the law code he already had or asked the oracle to provide the code. Xenophon opts for the former while Plato believes the latter. There's a possibility that the code came from Sparta.

Early Sparta

Notes from Reed College. Raises questions on conflicting accounts and proposes some solutions or clarifications to questions about the oracular nature of the rhetra, Thuydides' suggestion that it was not the kings who declared war, the fact that seven helots attended each Spartan -- an indication the helots' lot may not have so bad.

The Great Rhetra

Passage from Plutarch's Life of Lycurgus on his obtaining an oracle from Delphi about the establishment of his form of government:

When thou has built a temple to Zeus Syllanius and Athena Syllania, divided the people into phylai, and divided them into 'obai', and established a Gerousia of thirty including the Archagetai, then from time to time 'appellazein' between Babyka and Knakion, and there introduce and repeal measures; but the Demos must have the decision and the power.

Xenophon on the Spartans
Nine passages from Herodotus about the famous Spartan lawgiver Lycurgus. Passages include notice that female slaves were to finish clothes while for free women since production of children was the noblest occupation, they were to exercise as much as the men. If the husband was old, he should supply his wife with a younger man to beget children; he made it honorable to satisfy natural cravings by stealing, he forbade free citizens from engaging in business, failing to do one's duty would result in loss of status of the homoioi, (equally privileged citizens).

Map

Map of the Peloponnese

Timeline

Chronology of Early Sparta

* www.amherst.edu/~eakcetin/sparta.html
web.reed.edu/academic/departments/classics/Spartans.html