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96-483: Admirers of the Spartans typically praise their valour and success in war, their " laconic " austerity and self-restraint, their aristocratic and virtuous ways, the stable order of their political life, and their constitution, with its tripartite mixed government . Ancient Laconophilia started to appear as early as the 5th century BC, and even contributed a new verb to Ancient Greek : λακωνίζειν (literally: to act like

192-577: A closed society and the rule of the few . They believed that the Spartan Constitution was superior to their own. Some even went so far as to imitate Spartan manners by going around Athens long-haired and unwashed, like the Spartiates . Plato 's Republic , which is set in the 5th century BC, gives credibility to this claim by having Socrates opine that the Spartan or Cretan type of political regime

288-569: A hoplite ); and the Spartiates let each other evade taxes, so the city is poor and the individual citizens are greedy. Above all, the Spartans know no other arts than war, so in peace they are incompetent and corrupt. The Cretan institutions, he says, are even worse. Even after the collapse, and idealisation, of Sparta, Polybius wrote, "My object, then, in this digression is to make it manifest by actual facts that, for guarding their own country with absolute safety, and for preserving their own freedom,

384-541: A Laconian). Praise of the Spartan city-state persisted within classical literature ever afterward, and surfaced again during the Renaissance . The French classicist François Ollier in his 1933 book Le mirage spartiate (The Spartan Mirage) warned that a major scholarly problem is that all surviving accounts of Sparta were by non-Spartans who often excessively idealized their subject. The term "Spartan Mirage" has come to refer to "idealized distortions and inventions regarding

480-674: A ban also likely emerged in the sixth century, since Spartan citizen sculptors are attested to prior to that time. The inequality of Spartan society also implies that trade must have occurred; the second dinner in the syssitia involved bread, meat, fish, and other produce which were bought or donated by wealthy Spartans. Plutarch, who claims Spartan did not dispute or talk about money, is also internally inconsistent when elsewhere notes Spartan commercial contracts and Sparta's delegation of such matters to expert resolution. Plutarch also claims that Lycurgus imposed sumptuary legislation, prohibiting foreign artisans from residing at Sparta and restricting

576-605: A child". Socrates was known to have admired Spartan laws, as did many other Athenians , but modern scholars have doubted the seriousness of his attribution of a secret love of philosophy to Spartans. Still, the Spartans Myson of Chenae and Chilon of Sparta have traditionally been counted among the Seven Sages of Greece ; both were famous for many laconic sayings. In general, however, Spartans were expected to be men of few words, to hold rhetoric in disdain, and to stick to

672-543: A grave, also c.  600 BC , containing pottery grave goods. Further claims that Lycurgus required the burial of fallen Spartan soldiers abroad are not compatible with archaeological evidence showing that the first certain mass grave for Spartan battlefield losses was at Plataea . The education of Spartan boys in the agoge , less anachronistically the paideia , was also attributed to an initiative of Lycurgus to equalise Spartan citizens socially, by raising them without outside family and clan loyalties. Though

768-470: A pompous speaker. A prominent example of a laconism involving Philip II of Macedon was reported by the historian Plutarch . After invading southern Greece and receiving the submission of other key city-states , Philip turned his attention to Sparta and asked menacingly whether he should come as friend or foe. The reply was "Neither." Losing patience, he sent the message: If I invade Laconia, I shall turn you out. The Spartan ephors again replied with

864-595: A reputation for laconic humor: Icelanders in the sagas , and, in the Anglophone world, Australians ( cf. Australian humor ), American cowboys , New Englanders , and people from Northern England . Spartans paid less attention than other ancient Greeks to the development of education , arts , and literature . Some view this as having contributed to the characteristically blunt Laconian speech. However, Socrates , in Plato 's dialogue Protagoras , appears to reject

960-493: A return to Lycurgus' "true" Spartan traditions, deviations from which explained all problems of latter-day Sparta. Finally, in Plutarch's version, after Lycurgus' recall to Sparta to institute new laws, he has the community swear not to change the laws until he returns from Delphi. Upon reaching Delphi he dies so to enshrine the laws forever. Lycurgus' laws are supposed to have touched the whole of Spartan society. At various times,

1056-400: A single proselyte. The virtuous declaimer will neither persuade himself nor any other person to be content with a double mess of porridge, instead of a reasonable stipend for his services. We might as soon reconcile ourselves to the Spartan community of goods and wives, to their iron coin, their long beards, or their black broth . There is a total dissimulation in the circumstances, as well as

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1152-424: A single word: If. Philip proceeded to invade Laconia, devastate much of it, and eject the Spartans from various parts. The Spartans were especially famous for their dry, understated wit, which is now known as "laconic humor". This can be contrasted with the " Attic salt" or "Attic wit" – the refined, poignant, delicate humour of Sparta's chief rival, Athens . Various groups in more recent history also have

1248-419: A stable polity dedicated to simplicity, unity, and the communal interest – attributing to the Spartans, not necessarily rightly, universal education and equality among citizens – while also noting the cruelty of the agoge and denigration of autonomy, especially in contrast to democratic Athens . Charles Rollin , a French educator, produced an enduring and admiring conception of Lycurgus as having created

1344-417: A temple to Zeus.. and Athena..., forming phylai and creating obai , and instituting a gerousia of thirty including the kings, then hold an apella from time to time. Thus bring in and set aside [proposals]. The people are to have the right to respond, and power ... but if the people speak crookedly, the elders and kings are to be setters-aside. Plutarch states that the provision that

1440-545: A tyranny in Laconia. In later centuries, Greek philosophers, especially Platonists , often described Sparta as an ideal state, strong, brave, and free from the corruptions of commerce and money. These descriptions, of which Plutarch 's is the most complete, vary in many details. Many scholars have attempted to reconstruct which parts of these utopias the classical Spartans actually practised, which parts Cleomenes, and which later classical authors invented. It became fashionable for

1536-414: Is "probably mythical". Others have attempted to glean from the myths that survive some kernel of truth. But most historians "would subscribe to the stark judgement of Antony Andrewes: 'if there was a real Lycurgus, we know nothing of him ' ". There is no consensus as to when a historical Lycurgus lived, neither today or in the ancient world (Plutarch, in his Life of Lycurgus , in fact makes this remark in

1632-417: Is also evident in the graphic novel 300 and the film derived from it . In the modern world, the adjective "spartan" is used to imply simplicity, frugality, or avoidance of luxury and comfort. Because of their reputation for physical prowess, the name "Spartans" has been adopted by teams in several sports. Michigan State University adopted "Spartans" as their collegiate team identity in 1925. In addition to

1728-421: Is also said to have banned lamentations and allowed burials near temples. Burials near temples were common in archaic Greece before being prohibited by most cities; Sparta merely retained the practice. The earliest Spartan art and poems also still mention lamenting mourners, implying that such a ban likely postdates Lycurgus and was introduced c.  600 BC ; moreover, any ban on grave goods must postdate

1824-459: Is also said to have instituted a system of wife sharing as a pronatalist and eugenicist policy; if such wife sharing existed, it is likely a product of Spartan population decline in the fifth century BC. Plutarch also credits Lycurgus with sumptuary laws on burials. Archaeological evidence broadly supports the notion that Spartans practiced uniform burial without grave goods, albeit with exceptions for generals and Olympic victors. However, Lycurgus

1920-635: Is also supposed to have instituted the Spartan practice of staged bride capture where the bride, rather than being processed to the groom's home for a wedding ceremony with feast, was instead ritually seized by the groom, and the marriage consummated without feast. The seventh century Spartan poet Alcman makes no mention of such customs, and composed wedding hymns reflecting the more common Greek wedding processions; Spartan wedding customs therefore also postdate Lycurgus, emerging some time before 500 BC. The further claim in Plutarch's Moralia that Lycurgus prohibited dowries altogether has no basis. Lycurgus

2016-573: Is it clear when the political reforms attributed to him, called the Great Rhetra, occurred. Ancient dates range from – putting aside the implausibly early Xenophonic 11th century BC – the early ninth century ( c.  885 BC ) to as late as early eighth century ( c.  776 BC ). There remains no consensus as to when he lived; some modern scholars deny that he existed at all. The reforms at various times attributed to him touch all aspects of Spartan society. They included

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2112-410: Is named after Laconia , the region of Greece including the city of Sparta , whose ancient inhabitants had a reputation for verbal austerity and were famous for their often pithy remarks. A laconic phrase may be used for efficiency (as during military training and operations), for emphasis, for philosophical reasons (especially among thinkers who believe in minimalism, such as Stoics ), or to deflate

2208-577: Is portrayed as praising the laws of Sparta and Crete. Critias , a companion of Socrates, helped bring about the oligarchic rule of the Thirty Tyrants , who were supported by Sparta. Xenophon , another disciple of Socrates, fought for the Spartans against Athens. Plato also, in his writings, seems to prefer a Spartan-type regime over a democratic one. Aristotle regarded the kind of laws adopted by Crete and Sparta as especially apt to produce virtuous and law-abiding citizens, although he also criticises

2304-586: Is supposed also to have established the Spartan mess halls called syssitia or phiditia . Such halls were public, where all citizen men were required to eat dinner. Citizens were required to contribute to the mess hall's pantries with a substantial amount of food, wine, and money; failure or inability to do so would entail loss of citizenship. A relatively old tradition, predating the Hellenistic Spartan reformers Agis IV and Cleomenes III as well as likely Herodotus, claimed that Lycurgus' imposition of

2400-450: Is that he undertakes the regency until his ward came of age. The second is that he resigns, to protect his ward, amid rumours that he wishes to supplant the ward as king. Plutarch's version of the story includes the ward's mother seeking Lycurgus' hand in marriage to facilitate his accession. In this version, Lycurgus leaves to prevent himself from being used as a pawn in politics against his nephew. The tradition where Lycurgus continues in

2496-622: Is that of Herodotus, who wrote in the latter half of the fifth century BC. His account is likely based on oral accounts from both Spartans and non-Spartans in Greece. The two royal dynasties of Sparta, the Agiads and Eurypontids , both claimed Lycurgus in their ancestries. However, Lycurgus does not feature in the earliest preserved Spartan source – the poet Tyrtaeus  – which has led many historians today to doubt his historicity: for example, Massimo Nafissi in A companion to Sparta writes he

2592-459: Is that this never happened. The seventh century Spartan poet, Tyrtaeus , already opposed land distribution in the poem Eunomia , attesting to land inequality at the earliest times. Lycurgus is also supposed to have ensured the austere lifestyle of the Spartans by banning the use of gold and silver coins, requiring a currency made of iron . Xenophon claimed that this meant acquisition of wealth became too bulky to hide; Plutarch believed that this

2688-544: Is the favorite of "the many". A group of extreme Laconising oligarchs, known as the Thirty Tyrants , seized power in Athens in 404 BC and held it for eleven months, assisted by a Spartan army . Their rule, however, was quickly overthrown, and democracy was reinstated. In 371 BC, the Spartans were defeated in the Battle of Leuctra . As a result of that defeat, Sparta's allies revolted and the helots of Messenia were freed. Afterwards,

2784-510: The Encyclopédie but this was not shared by all authors. Diderot , the main editor of the Encyclopédie , was more pessimistic, saying that Lycurgan laws "created monks bearing arms" while branding the system as a whole "an atrocity" and "incompatible with a large... [or] commercial state". The branding of Lycurguan Sparta as a "dismal monastery" was widely, but not universally, shared among

2880-527: The syssitia ); economic freedom for citizens by their possession of sufficient land and helots to meet their needs; and austere politics for the common good. The republican views of Niccolò Machiavelli trended toward the Lycurgan "mixed constitution" but this was not necessarily a through-line in Renaissance European political thought. Other thinkers of the period hailed Lycurgan politics as building

2976-654: The Dorians , the ethnic sub-group of the Greeks to which the Spartans belonged. While the Greek Laconophiles like Plutarch had praised the Spartans, they did not extend this admiration to the Dorians as a whole. Plutarch argued that the founder of their constitution, Lycurgus , had inherited corrupt Dorian institutions. Argos , the traditional enemy of Sparta, was also a Dorian state; so were Corinth , Rhodes , and Syracuse , three of

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3072-597: The Jacobins ...imagined the republican France as a new Sparta". Early Zionists, and particularly the founders of the Kibbutz movement in Israel, had been influenced by Spartan ideals, and drew on the Spartan model in particular when disparaging the materialistic values they associated with the diaspora communities they had left. Tabenkin , for example, a founding father of the Kibbutz and

3168-542: The Michigan State Spartans , other teams include the San Jose State Spartans , Norfolk State Spartans , and others. Soccer clubs include Sparta Prague ( Czech Republic ), Spartans ( Scotland ), Ħamrun Spartans ( Malta ), Sparta Rotterdam ( Netherlands ). Laconic A laconic phrase or laconism is a concise or terse statement, especially a blunt and elliptical rejoinder. It

3264-455: The Palmach , was greatly influenced by ancient Sparta. He prescribed that "fighters' education should begin from the nursery", that children should from kindergarten age be taken to "spend nights in the mountains and valleys", taught to fight, and educated for war. A new element was introduced into Laconophilia by Karl Otfried Müller , who linked Spartan ideals to the supposed racial superiority of

3360-735: The Persian Wars . Some, like Cimon , son of Miltiades , believed that Athens should ally with Sparta against the Persian Empire . Cimon persuaded the Athenians to send soldiers to aid Sparta, when the helots (serfs of the Spartans) revolted and fortified Mount Ithome . The Spartans sent the Athenians home again with thanks, lest democratic Athenian ideas influence the helots or the Perioeci . Some Athenians, especially those who disliked commerce, preferred

3456-528: The Romans to visit Lacedaemon and see the rites of Artemis Orthia , as a sort of tourist attraction – the nearest Greece had to offer to gladiatorial games. Even in ancient cultures, Laconophilia was a tendency, not an absolute. None of the contemporaries of the Lycurgan Constitution praised Sparta without reservations, except the Spartans themselves. Herodotus of Halicarnassus , consistently portrays

3552-467: The paired lives of Lycurgus and Numa (the early Roman lawgiver and king), for example, judged Lycurgus favourably compared to the Roman by emphasising Lycurgan education and pronatalism. Another argument for Lycurgan superiority was also that Sparta declined as it supposedly deviated from Lycurgus' settlements while Rome flourished as it similarly deviated from Numa's ideals. In the end, for Plutarch, Lycurgus

3648-863: The philosophes . Similar negative views were expressed by the American founder John Adams who saw Lycurgus as having doomed his own people to poverty and futile militarism; however, he also praised the Lycurgan ;– as well as the Polybian  – mixed constitution in Defense of the Constitutions as did James Madison in the Federalist Papers (number 63). Nationalist views of Spartan society, which praised Spartan eugenicism and militarism became common in Germany in

3744-624: The syssitia (the mess halls to which each Spartan belonged). In Xenophon's telling, the legend of Lycurgus expanded even further, ascribing to him not only reforms but also the creation of the Lacedaemonian dual monarchy and state as well. The description of Lycurgus as a regent or guardian who establishes the laws characterises him as a selfless figure who places the good of his king and community before his own. To that end there are two main traditions relating to his regency. The first, in Herodotus,

3840-594: The "Spartan mirage", also drove praise of Lycurgus in other Greek states. The tradition of a timeless legislator with his divinely-inspired (or at least sanctioned) laws gave Sparta's constitution greater legitimacy while also making it inflexible. Even attempts to reform Spartan life during the Hellenistic period, by Spartan monarchs Agis IV and Cleomenes III , were viewed in their time as returning to Lycurgan tradition rather than an innovation. The stories of Lycurgus were constantly reinvented for each Spartan generation;

3936-459: The 5th century BC Greek historian Thucydides ' Archaeology indicates that the reforms were instituted some four hundred years prior to the end of the Peloponnesian war, placing them to 804 or 821 BC. The 4th century BC Greek general Xenophon, on the other hand, claimed that he was also responsible for the creation of the Lacedaemonian dual monarchy, placing him during the reign of

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4032-536: The Arts and Sciences , arguing that its austere constitution was preferable to the more cultured nature of Athenian life. Samuel Adams expressed a disappointment that the American republic was failing to meet his ideal of a "Christian Sparta". Alexander Hamilton mocked the Laconophilia of his era as unrealistic: We may preach till we are tired of the theme, the necessity of disinterestedness in republics, without making

4128-485: The Cretans and Spartans themselves as incompetent and corrupt, and built on a culture of war. Greek philosophy, therefore, inherited a tradition of praising Spartan law. This was only reinforced when Agis IV and Cleomenes III attempted to "restore the ancestral constitution" at Sparta, which no man then living had experienced. This attempt ended with the collapse of the institutions of Lycurgus , and one Nabis established

4224-624: The Heraclid kings Eurysthenes and Procles , dated to c.  1003 BC . Modern scholars generally date the Great Rhetra to before the First Messenian War , placing it prior to 736 BC. Little consensus exists for any more specificity. Nor should Lycurgus necessarily be credited with, and therefore dated to, the rhetra: it may have been a charter created some time in the seventh century to justify and ennoble with antiquity Sparta's institutions, especially after Sparta's emergence as

4320-464: The Lacedaemonians is not unalloyed praise. Aristotle criticises the Spartans in his Politics : the helots keep rebelling; the Spartan women are luxurious; the magistrates (and especially the ephors ) are irresponsible; reaching decisions by the loudest yell in the apella is silly; the wealth of the citizens is unequal (so that too many are losing the resources necessary to be a citizen and

4416-562: The Lycurgan agoge as a form of universal education especially in the way it supported the stability of the Spartan state. Into the Roman period, Sparta received privileged treatment from the Romans as in part a means to preserve Greek traditions to display to tourists: while this touristic Sparta at times veered toward the extreme, it also cultivated its Lycurgan inheritance by means of architecture, theatre, and retention of distinctive political institutions. The Plutarchian comparison between

4512-768: The Slavs should be treated like the helots under the Spartans: "They [the Spartans] came as conquerors, and they took everything", and so should the Germans. A Nazi officer specified that "the Germans would have to assume the position of the Spartiates, while... the Russians were the Helots." Modern Laconophilia has been present in popular culture, particularly with reference to the Battle of Thermopylae , as portrayed in films such as The 300 Spartans . It

4608-565: The Spartan citizens. The economic reforms, which are supposed to have made Spartan citizens equal, never happened and were invented to legitimise redistributive policies in the Hellenistic period. Lycurgus' political reforms were supposedly promulgated in a Great Rhetra that he received from the Pythia . It, however, is not genuine and contains anachronistic contents. Regardless, Plutarch records it as having included provisions related to Sparta's religious and political practices: After dedicating

4704-410: The Spartan economy became less able to support professional soldiers, and inequalities between supposedly equal citizens increased. As a result, the reputation of Sparta, either as a military success or as a guide in domestic affairs, diminished substantially. Laconophiles nevertheless remained among the philosophers. Some of the young men who followed Socrates had been Laconophiles. Socrates himself

4800-418: The Spartans attributed every one of their institutions to him, except the institution of the dual monarchy. Because the Spartans attributed all manner of laws and customs to him, it is impossible to determine which laws (if any) are his in actuality. However, it is clear today, from comparisons with other archaic Greek states, that Spartan institutions such as men's dining halls, organisation of age cohorts, and

4896-459: The Spartans, except when actually facing battle, as rustic, hesitant, uncooperative, corrupt, and naïve. Plato had Socrates argue that a state which really followed the simple life would not need a warrior class; one which was luxurious and aggressive would need a group of philosophers, like Plato himself, to guide and deceive the guardians. Even Xenophon 's encomium of the Constitution of

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4992-465: The Spartans, recommending in 1928 that Germany should imitate them by limiting "the number allowed to live". He added that "The Spartans were once capable of such a wise measure... The subjugation of 350,000 Helots by 6,000 Spartans was only possible because of the racial superiority of the Spartans." The Spartans had created "the first racialist state." Following the invasion of the USSR , Hitler insisted that

5088-436: The accounts of the Great Rhetra, Lycurgus is not credited with a radical reorganisation of Spartan life or with the institution of the ephorate . These early oral traditions – contra the written accounts – are "far from uniform". The earliest surviving written account on Lycurgus is in Herodotus, placing him as the guardian and regent of the early Argiad king Leobotes. Later accounts of Lycurgus' activities associate him with

5184-458: The alleged ban on precious metals to after Lycurgus and to different men. Ancient authors claimed of the Spartans a general aversion to commerce, which was also attributed to Lycurgus, who was supposed to have "forbade free men to touch anything to do with making money". This likely emerged from the fact that Spartan citizens, the spartiates or homoioi , were a leisurely class of land owners who looked down on manual labourers and craftsmen. Such

5280-466: The character of Spartan society in the works of non-Spartan writers," beginning in Greek and Roman antiquity and continuing through the medieval and modern eras. These accounts of Sparta are typically associated with the social or political concerns of the writer. No accounts survive by the Spartans themselves, if such were ever written. In ancient Athens, Laconism began as a current of thought and feeling after

5376-420: The classical syssitia after sumptuary restrictions, compulsory contributions from poorer citizens who previously abstained, and intermixture of rich and poor shortly before 500 BC. The silence of the rhetra, a text meant to describe and legitimise the Spartan political system of the seventh century, with regard to Sparta's ephors suggests that the ephorate was a product of a later reform at Sparta and

5472-492: The creation of the Spartan constitution (in most traditions after the dual monarchy), the imposition of the Spartan mess halls called syssitia , the redistribution of land to each citizen by head, Spartan austerity and frugality, and Sparta's unique wedding and funerary customs. None of these reforms can be concretely attributed to Lycurgus. Most of the reforms likely date to the late sixth century BC (shortly before 500 BC), postdating his supposed life by centuries; some of

5568-610: The decline of Sparta through to Hellenistic times saw Lycurgus' praise extended to praise him for having creating an ideal Sparta, free from the moral and political decay of the real one. Admiration of the customs of Sparta, supposed to be established by Lycurgus, survived – with a break during the second century when Sparta was part of the Achaean League – continuously into the Sparta of the Roman Empire . Aristotle, for example, praised

5664-470: The elders and kings could set aside decisions of the apella, called the " rider ", was a later addition. However, the grammatical construction of preserved rhetra is consistent with it being part of the original text, a view taken by Massimo Nafissi in Companion to archaic Greece , believing that the idea that the set-aside provision was later inserted was itself a fabrication of the fourth century BC. Lycurgus

5760-538: The expensive sport of chariot racing at pan-Hellenic games. While most male Spartan citizens affected a generally consistent and relatively inexpensive form of dress at home, Spartans on campaign showed extreme wealth from the expense of their crimson dyes to the polish of their armour. However, while Xenophon claims this austere dress also came from Lycurgus, art from Laconia implies adoption after 500 BC, consistent with Thucydides claim that Spartans wore complex and luxurious clothing until "not long ago". Lycurgus

5856-440: The gerousia. Xenophon instead has Lycurgus forging an alliance with the most powerful non-royal citizens and forcing the laws through. Plutarch's narrative presented in his own voice instead consolidates prior disparate stories into a general upsurge of support from the kings, the people, and the aristocracy. In Plutarch's narrative, Lycurgus' laws cause backlash among the wealthy, who attempt to have him stoned. After he flees to

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5952-529: The idea that Spartans' economy with words was simply a consequence of poor literary education: "... they conceal their wisdom, and pretend to be blockheads, so that they may seem to be superior only because of their prowess in battle ... This is how you may know that I am speaking the truth and that the Spartans are the best educated in philosophy and speaking : if you talk to any ordinary Spartan, he seems to be stupid, but eventually, like an expert marksman, he shoots in some brief remark that proves you to be only

6048-495: The kings were fined in drachma and talents as well as by Spartan state rewards and ransoms. Plutarch's attempted to reconcile the evidence by depicting the Spartans allowing gold and silver for public use but retaining the allegedly Lycurgan restrictions on private use. Such a depiction, however, is not consistent with actions by Spartan generals during the Peloponnesian War . Other ancient authors were more equivocal, dating

6144-417: The late seventh or early sixth century. It likely emerged from Spartan success in that period and a desire to explain it. His legend was also constantly reworked and expanded through the course of the classical Greek period by securing for Spartans in their times divine sanction and greater legitimacy for actions which they claimed to be a return to Lycurgus' laws. In the earlier legends of Lycurgus, namely in

6240-514: The later nineteenth century through to the Nazi regime . Such views, however, were not unanimous. The German classicist Karl Julius Beloch , for example, was one of the first to take a highly critical view of Sparta, suggesting that Lycurgus was a fiction and his Great Rhetra was a fabrication. In the aftermath of the First World War German nationalism embraced Sparta and Lycurgus, seeing it as

6336-461: The later-more-influential Eurypontid dynasty instead, specifically as regent of Charilaus ; the disputes indicate that the two royal houses by the historical period attempted to associate themselves by blood with the figure. Herodotus provides two accounts for how the laws which Lycurgus enacted came to him: in the first version, Lycurgus receives those laws from Apollo through the Pythia at Delphi; in

6432-440: The legislation of Lycurgus was entirely sufficient; and for those who are content with these objects we must concede that there neither exists nor ever has existed a constitution and civil order preferable to that of Sparta." Admiration of Sparta continued in the Renaissance . Niccolò Machiavelli agreed that Sparta was noteworthy for its long and static existence, but nevertheless asserted that, for virtù and glory, Rome

6528-479: The manners, of society among us; and it is as ridiculous to seek for models in the simple ages of Greece and Rome, as it would be to go in quest of them among the Hottentots and Laplanders . Laconophilia increased in importance during the nineteenth century. Sparta was used as a model of social purity by Revolutionary and Napoleonic France. Slavoj Žižek stated that "all modern egalitarian radicals, from Rousseau to

6624-442: The mess halls created a citizen body of some 9,000 men. Each of these mess halls also played a role in military organisation: each likely had 15 men with three mess halls forming a "sworn band"; but after the perioikoi were merged into the Spartan army, each mess hall likely formed its own band. Such messes were likely preceded in the seventh century BC poet Alcman's time with andreia (private men's eating clubs). They became

6720-539: The most commercial states in Greece. In 1824, however, Müller wrote Die Dorier , a history of the Dorian race. It has been described as a "thousand-page fantasia", which portrays the Dorians as a heroic and noble race who expanded into Greece from the north. He used the new disciplines of comparative linguistics and source-criticism to argue that the Dorians represented a distinct ethno-linguistic group whose original culture could be isolated from later influences. He linked

6816-401: The most powerful state in Greece, Lycurgus was honoured with a hero cult , which may have developed slowly into the Roman imperial period into full godhood. His temple and sanctuary, according to Pausanias , included a grave for his son with the name Eukosmos (referring to good order) with the graves of the Spartan dual monarchy's founders' wives nearby. The idealisation of Sparta, called

6912-557: The most powerful state in Greece. One artefact, the Disc of Iphitos , also allegedly documents Lycurgus' involvement with the formation of the Olympic Games and would therefore place him c.  776 BC , per the philosopher Aristotle . The disc, however, is likely a forgery from the fourth century BC. The ancients had two solutions for this lack of chronological clarity: the historian Timaeus posited two Lycurguses: one who did

7008-445: The opening paragraph). Most attempts to date his life are based on when the Great Rhetra, which promulgated Lycurgus' reforms, occurred. The most accepted date in the ancient world was that based on the genealogy of Ephorus and the chronology of Eratosthenes, which dated the rhetra to 118 years after the reign of one of Sparta's founding kings, Procles , which corresponds to c.  885 BC . Alternatively, an excursus in

7104-490: The origin of the Dorians to the mythic Myrmidons of the Trojan war, and their leader Achilles . Müller's emphasis on the northern origins and racial qualities of the Spartans later fed into the development of Nordicism , the theory of the superiority of a North European Master Race . Later German writers regularly portrayed the Spartans as a model for the modern Prussian state , which also emphasised military self-discipline. It

7200-477: The patriotic sacrifice of the individual to the state characteristic of Nordics everywhere and exemplified in modern Prussia, while Athens exhibited the intellectual brilliancy, the instability, the extreme individualism, the tendency to treason and conspiracy so characteristic of populations having a large Mediterranean element . These arguments were repeated by Nazi race theorists such as Hans F. K. Günther and Alfred Rosenberg . Adolf Hitler particularly praised

7296-477: The point. Loquacity was considered frivolous and unbecoming of sensible, down-to-earth Spartan warriors . A Spartan youth was reportedly liable to have his thumb bitten as punishment for too verbose a response to a teacher's question. [REDACTED] Quotations related to Laconic phrases at Wikiquote (additional examples of laconic phrases) Lycurgus of Sparta Lycurgus ( / l aɪ ˈ k ɜːr ɡ ə s / ; Ancient Greek : Λυκοῦργος Lykourgos )

7392-403: The poorer citizens were, over time, removed from the citizen rolls, for inability to pay dues to the syssitia . Demands for redistribution, heard by the reformist Spartan monarchs Agis IV and Cleomenes III , led to the creation of a myth that Lycurgus redistributed the land of Laconia and Messenia equally among the homoioi with the helots as bound tenants. The consensus among scholars

7488-519: The reformist Spartan monarchs Agis IV and Cleomenes III who sought to redistribute Sparta's land. The reforms attributed to Lycurgus, however, have been praised by ancients and moderns alike, seeing at various times different morals projected on a figure of which so little concrete can be known. A multitude of ancient sources mention Lycurgus; it is, however, troubling inasmuch as those accounts evolved according to then-contemporary political priorities and that they are profoundly inconsistent. The oldest

7584-477: The reforms and a later one with the same name who was present at the first Olympics. Eratosthenes instead posited the disc reflected informal Olympics held before 776 BC. The tradition in Sparta of Lycurgus' existence dates to some time between the archaic age and the fifth century. Inasmuch as no Lycurgus is mentioned in Tyrtaeus, it is likely that the legend dates to shortly after Tyrtaeus' time, and therefore

7680-400: The reforms, such as for the redistribution of land, are fictitious. The extent of the Lycurgan myth emerges from Sparta's self-justification, seeking to endow its customs with timeless and divinely sanctioned antiquity. That antiquity was also malleable, reinvented at various times to justify the new as a return to Lycurgus' ideal society: his land reforms, for example, are attested only after

7776-405: The regency has little difficulty in placing him in a position to promulgate his laws. But the latter tradition where he leaves the city requires him to be recalled. In Aristotle's version, recounted by Plutarch, Lycurgus leads his followers into the city and occupies the agora to impose his laws; backed by Apolline divine approval, he forces the tyrannical Charilaus to accede to them and institutes

7872-445: The rule of law, the mixed constitution, equality, and universal education. The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau , who derived most of his knowledge of Lycurgus from Plutarch's biography, viewed the figure positively as standing for an austere civil morality acting for the collective good . This view of Lycurgus and Sparta saw him associate Lycurgus' reforms with the " general will ". Positive views of Sparta pervaded some articles in

7968-496: The second, based on Sparta's own traditions, Lycurgus bases the reforms off of existing laws in Crete. 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. Some versions of

8064-463: The story is rejected by Plutarch, Lycurgus is also said to have instituted the crypteia , a select group of young men tasked with clandestinely killing helots in the night. Both the agoge and crypteia likely emerged some time during the seventh century alongside the institution of the ephorate. The education of Spartan women, mainly focusing on physical fitness, or, supposedly, physical fitness to produce healthy children for eugenic purposes,

8160-420: The story say that Lycurgus subsequently traveled as far as Egypt, Spain, and India. In the narrative of Lycurgus' reforms in Herodotus, Lycurgus is supposed to have created much of the Spartan constitution, including the gerousia and the ephorate (respectively, the Spartan council of elders and annually-elected overseeing magistrates). He also is supposed to have reorganised Spartan military life and instituted

8256-462: The temple of Athena Chalcioecus and has one of his eyes put out by an adolescent, his opponents back down and he forgives the adolescent. The extent to which this story of revolution and conflict with the wealthy is driven by – or a retrojection from – the experiences of the reformist Spartan kings Agis IV and Cleomenes III is unclear; the two later Spartan kings used the Lycurgan legend to justify their redistributive policies (and violent means) as

8352-448: The tools with which Spartan houses could be built, to encourage simplicity. Archaeological evidence of foreign wares postdates the eighth century, with a decline in imports met by local production by the sixth century. The alleged simplicity of Spartan dwellings evidently did not extend to their interiors; and Spartans were famous across Greece for the jewellery worn by Spartan women, their number of slaves and horses, and their dominance at

8448-589: The use of iron money were not entirely out of the norm and had previously existed in other Greek cities: what made them distinctive was for how long they had been preserved at Sparta. The character of many of the economic and social reforms attributed to Lycurgus was allegedly to ensure that citizens competed with each other only in merit rather than in wealth. However, many of the social reforms which are attributed to Lycurgus postdate him by centuries, occurring between 600–500 BC after various Spartan conquest of Messenia and Cynuria made landholdings available for

8544-530: Was a short step from this to argue that the Prussians and the Spartans were originally of the same race. Frank H. Hankins summarises views of the American Nordicist Madison Grant , writing in 1916: Sparta is pictured as particularly Nordic on account of the purity of its Dorian stock, while Athens is more of a mixture. Sparta thus exhibited the military efficiency, the thorough organization and

8640-400: Was much preferable ( Discourses ). The Elizabethan English constitutionalist John Aylmer compared the mixed government of Tudor England with the Spartan republic, commending "Lacedaemonia [meaning Sparta], the noblest and best city governed that ever was" as a model for England. The Swiss-French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau contrasted Sparta favourably with Athens in his Discourse on

8736-450: Was not Lycurgan – pace Herodotus and Plutarch – in origin. In fact, archaeological discoveries at Sparta – showing the decline of Spartan art expressed on vases as well as a sudden expansion of agricultural labour in the mid-sixth century BC – suggest that much of the communitarian reforms attributed to Lycurgus may date to that time. One of the illusions of the Spartan mirage

8832-420: Was seen as a more important political theorist than Plato and as one of the most famous, moral, and effective legislators of the Greek tradition. The main elements of Lycurgus' legacy are through the laws attributed to him. In the modern world this took on a number of aspects: the stability of the Lacedaemonian state from Lycurgus' balanced constitution; universal male citizen conscription and contribution (via

8928-410: Was similarly attributed to Lycurgus. In Spartan society, Lycurgus and his laws were received as the creator of the Spartan way of life. Xenophon's pro-Spartan Spartan Constitution "unreservedly regard[s Lycurgus] as the Spartan legislator par excellence , who arranged the Spartan way of life once and for all". For these achievements, which they viewed as having facilitated the emergence of Sparta as

9024-420: Was the illusion that Spartan citizens were economically equal: that no citizen owned more land than another. There is, however, no evidence of equal land ownership at Sparta, with exception of Cleomenes' five-year regime . Land inequality increased through Spartan history, mediated by conquests abroad which allowed poorer citizens to retain a reasonable standard of living. When conquests ended after 550 BC,

9120-531: Was the legendary lawgiver of Sparta , credited with the formation of its eunomia ( ' good order ' ), involving political, economic, and social reforms to produce a military-oriented Spartan society in accordance with the Delphic oracle . The Spartans in the historical period honoured him as god. As a historical figure, almost nothing is known for certain about him, including when he lived and what he did in life. The stories of him place him at multiple times. Nor

9216-399: Was to make it impossible, or at least difficult, for Spartans to purchase luxury goods. Coinage came to Greece in the 550s BC; it is not possible that any law mentioning coins dates to the eighth century BC (or earlier), when Lycurgus is supposed to have lived. Nor is any ban on gold and silver mentioned in Herodotus. Usage of gold and silver at Sparta is implied by other reports that

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