Darius and Xerxes tremble; and which even then, perhaps, would have entirely overthrown the Perfian greatness, had the Grecian states been wife enough to have preferved that union and concord among themselves, which afterwards rendered them invincible. This is the scene which I am now to open, and which certainly merits the reader's whole attention.

We fhall fee, in the following volumes, a fmall nation, confined within a country not equal to the fourth part of France, difputing empire with the moft powerful throne then upon the earth; and we shall fee this handful of men, not only making head against the innumerable army of the Perfians, but difperfing, routing, and cutting them to pieces, and fometimes reducing the Perfian pride fo low, as to make them fubmit to conditions of peace, as fhameful to the conquered, as glorious for the conquerors.

Among all the cities of Greece, there were two, that par ticularly diftinguished themselves, and acquired an authority and a kind of fuperiority over thereft by the mere dint of their merit and conduct; these two were Lacedæmon and Athens, As these cities make a confiderable figure, and act an illuftrious part in the enfuing hiftory, before I enter upon particulars, I think I ought firft to give the reader fome idea of the genius, character, manners and government of their refpective inhabitants. Plutarch, in the lives of Lycurgus and Solon, will furnish me with the greateft part of what I have to fay upon this head.

ARTICLE VII.

The SPARTAN government. Larus eftablished by LYCURGUS. Tattered, and at the fame time more incredibly, ter

HERE is perhaps nothing in prophane history better

what relates to the government of Sparta, and their discipline eftablished in it by Lycurgus. (y) This legiflator was the fon of Eunomus, one of the two kings who reigned together in Sparta. It would have been eafy for Lycurgus to have afcended the throne after the death of his eldest brother, who left no fon behind him; and in effect he was king for fome days. But as foon as his fifter-in-law was found to be with child, he declared, that the crown belonged to her fon, if she bad one; and from thenceforth he governed the kingdom only, as his guardian. In the mean time, the widow fent to him underhand, that if he would promife to marry her when he was king, he would destroy the fruit of her womb. So de. VOL. II. teftable

(y) Plut. in vit. Lyc. p. 40.

teftable a propofal ftruck Lycurgus with horror; however, he concealed his indignation, and amufing the woman with different pretences, fo managed it, that he went out her full time, and was delivered. As foon as the child was born, he proclaimed him king, and took care to have him brought up and educated in a proper manner. This prince, on account of the joy which the people teft fied at his birth, was named Charilaus.

(x) The ftate was at this time in great diforder; the authority, both of the kings and the laws, being abfolutely defpifed and unregarded. No curb was ftrong enough to restrain the audacioufnefs of the people, which every day increased more and more.

Lycurgus was fo courageous as to form the defign of making a thorough reformation in the Spartan government; and to be the more capable of making wife regulations, he thought fit to travel into feveral countries, in order to acquaint himfelf with the different manners of other nations, and to confult the most able and experienced perfons he could meet with in the art of government. He began with the island of Crete, whose hard and auftere laws were very famous; from thence he passed into Afia, where quite different customs prevailed; and, laft of all, he went into Egypt, which was then the feat of science, wifdom, and good counfels.

(a) His long abfence only made his country the more defirous of his return; and the kings themselves importuned him to that effect, being fenfible how much they stood in need of his authority to keep the people within bounds, and in fome degree of fubjection and order. When he came back to Sparta, he undertook to change the whole form of their government, being perfuaded, that a few particular laws would produce no great effect.

But before he put this defign in execution, he went to Delphos, to confult the oracle of Apollo; where, after having offered his facrifice, he received that famous answer, in which the priestefs called him A friend of the gods, and rather a god than a man. And as for the favour he defired of being able to frame a fet of good laws for his country, fhe told him, the god had heard his prayers, and that the commonwealth he was going to establish, would be the most excellent state in the world.

On his return to Sparta, the firft thing he did, was to bring over to his defigns the leading men of the city, whom he made acquainted with his views; when he was affured of their appro

(x) Plut, in vit. Lyc. p. 41.

(a) Ibid. p. 42.

approbation and concurrence, he went into the publick_market-place, accompanied with a number of armed men, in order to aftonish and intimidate those who might defire to oppose his undertaking.

The new form of government, which he introduced into Sparta, may properly be reduced to three principal institutions.

1. INSTITUTION. The Senate.

(b) Of all the new regulations or inftitutions made by Lycurgus, the greatest and most confiderable was, that of the fenate; which, by tempering and balancing, as Plato obferves, the too abfolute power of the kings by an authority of equal weight and influence with theirs, became the principal fupport and prefervation of that ftate. For whereas before, it was ever unfteady, and tending one while towards tyranny, by the violent proceeding of the kings; at other times towards democracy, by the exceffive power of the people; the fenate ferved as a kind of counterpoife to both, which kept the state in a due equilibrium, and preferved it in a firm and fteady fitua tion; the twenty-eight fenators, of which it confifted, fiding with the king, when the people were grafping at too much power; and on the other hand efpoufing the interefts of the people, whenever the kings attempted to carry their authority

too far.

Lycurgus having thus tempered the government, thofe that came after him thought the power of the thirty, that compofed the fenate, ftill too ftrong and abfolute; and therefore, as a check upon them, they devised the authority of the + Ephori, about an hundred and thirty years after Lycurgus. The Ephori were five in number, and remained but one year in office. They were all chofen out of the people; and in that refpect confiderably resembled the tribunes of the people among the Romans. Their authority extended to the arrefting and imprifoning the perfons of their kings, as it happened in the cafe of Paufanias. The inftitution of the Ephori began in the reign of Theopompus; whofe wife reproached him, that he would leave his children the regal authority in a worfe condition than he had received it: On the contrary, faid he, I fhall leave it them in a much better condition, as it will be more permanent and lafting.

O 2

(b) Plut. in vit. Lycur. p. 42.

The

The word fignifies comptroller, o

* This council confifted of thirty per= | inspector."

fons, including the two kings.

The Spartan government then, was not purely monarchical. The nobility had a great fhare in it, and the people were not excluded. Each part of this body politick, in proportion as it contributed to the publick good, found in it their advan tage; fo that in fpite of the natural reftleffness and inconftancy of man's heart, which is always thirsting after novelty and change, and is never cured of its difguft to uniformity, Lacedæmon perfevered for above feven hundred years in the exac obfervance of her laws.

2. INSTITUTION. The divifion of the lands, and the prohibition of gold and fiver money,

(c) The fecond and the boldeft inftitution of Lycurgus, was the divifion of the lands, which he looked upon as abfolutely neceffary for establishing peace and good order in the commonwealth. The major part of the people were fo poor, that they had not one inch of land of their own, whilft a fmall number of particular perfons were poffeffed of all the lands and wealth of the country; in order therefore to banish infolence, envy, fraud, luxury, and two other diftempers of the fate, ftill greater and more ancient than thofe, I mean extream poverty, and exceffive wealth, he perfuaded the citizens to give up all their lands to the commonwealth, and to make a new divifion of them, that they might all live together in a perfect equality, and that no pre-eminences or honours fhould be given but to virtue and merit alone.

This fcheme, as extraordinary as it was, was immediately executed. Lycurgus divided the lands of Laconia into thirty thousand parts, which he diftributed among the inhabitants of the country; and the territories of Sparta into nine thousand parts, which he diftributed among an equal number of citizens. It is faid, that fome years after, as Lycurgus was returning from a long journey, and paffing through the lands of Laconia, in the time of harveft, and obferving, as he went along, the perfect equality of the reaped corn, he turned towards thofe that were with him, and faid fmiling, Does not Laconia look like the poffeffion of feveral brothers, who have just been dividing their inheritance among ft them?

. After having divided their immoveables, he undertook likewife to make the fame equal divifion of all their moveable goods and chattels, that he might utterly banish from among them all manner of inequality. But perceiving that this would go more against the grain, if he went openly about it, he endeavoured

(c) Plut, in vit, Lyc. p. 44.

deavoured to effect it, by fapping the very foundations of avarice. For firft he cried down all gold and filver money, and I ordained, that no other should be current than that of iron; which he made so very heavy, and fixed at fo low a rate, that a cart and two oxen were neceffary to carry home a fum of ten * minas, and a whole chamber to keep it in.

The next thing he did, was to banish all ufelefs and fuperAuous arts from Sparta. But if he had not done this, most of them would have funk of themselves, and difappeared with the gold and filver money; because the tradefmen and artificers would have found no vent for their commodities; and this iron money had no currency among any other of the Grecian states, who were fo far from efteeming it, that it became the subject of their banter and ridicule.

3. INSTITUTION. Of publick meals.

Lycurgus, being defirous to make a yet more effectual war upon foftnefs and luxury, and utterly to extirpate the love of riches, made a third regulation, which was that of publick meals. (d) That he might entirely fupprefs all the magnificence and extravagance of expenfive tables, he ordained, that all the citizens fhould eat together of the fame common victuals, which the law prefcribed, and exprefly forbad all private eating at their own houfes.

By this fettlement of publick and common meals, and this frugality and fimplicity in eating, it may be faid, that he made riches in fome meafure change their very nature, by putting them out of a † condition of being defired or ftolen, or of enriching their poffeffors: For there was no way left for a man to ufe or enjoy this opulence, or even to make any fhew of it; fince the poor and the rich eat together in the fame place, and none were allowed to appear at the publick eating-rooms, after having taken care to fill themselves with other diet; because every body prefent took particular notice of any one that did. not eat or drink, and the whole company was fure to reproach him with the delicacy and intemperance that made him despise the common food and publick table.

The rich were extremely enraged at this regulation; and it was upon this occafion, that in a tumult of the people a young fellow, named Alexander, ftruck out one of Lycurgus's eyes. The people, provoked at fuch an outrage, delivered the young 0 3

(d) Plut. in vit. Lyc. p. 45.

Five hundred livres French, about

201. English.

man

† Τὸν πλῦτον ἄσυλον, μᾶλλον, δὲ ἄζηλον, καὶ ἄπλετον ἀπειογάσατο, Plut.