PLUTARCH –The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans: Lycurgus

PLUTARCH –The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans: Lycurgus

9^th Century BC

QUOTES FOR DISCUSSION

And reign he did, until it was found that the queen, his sister-in-law, was with child; upon which he immediately declared that the kingdom belongs to her issue, provided it were male, and that he himself exercised the regal jurisdiction only as his guardian; the Spartan name for which office is prodicus. Soon after, an overture was made to him by the queen, that she would herself in some way destroy the infant, upon condition that he would marry her when he came to the crown. Abhorring the woman’s wickedness, he nevertheless did not reject her proposal, but, making show of closing with her, despatched the messenger with thanks and expressions of joy, but dissuaded her earnestly from procuring herself to miscarry, which would impair her health, if not endanger her life; he himself, he said would see to it that the child, as soon as born, should be taken out of the way.
Plutarch, The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans: Lycurgus, Great Books, Volume 14, pg. 33

Trouble at this, and not knowing what it might come to, he thought it his wisest course to avoid their envy by a voluntary exile, and to travel from place to place until his nephew came to marriageable years, and by having a son, had secured the succession; setting sail, therefore, with this resolution, he first arrived at Crete, where, having considered their several forms of government, and got an acquaintance with the principal men among them, some of their laws he very much approved of, and resolved to make use of them in his own country; a good part he rejected as useless.
Plutarch, The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans: Lycurgus, Great Books, Volume 14, pg. 33

Lycurgus  was much missed at Sparta, and often sent for, “for kings indeed we  have,” they said, “who wear the marks and assume the titles of royalty, but as for the qualities of their minds, they have nothing by which they are to be distinguished from their subjects”; adding, that in him alone was the true foundation of sovereignty to be seen, a nature made to rule and a genius to gain obedience.
Plutarch, The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans: Lycurgus, Great Books, Volume 14, pg. 34

Among the many changes and alterations which Lycurgus made, the first and of greatest importance was the establishment of the senate, which having a power equal to  the king’s in matter of great consequence, and, as Plato expressed it, allaying and qualifying the fiery genius of the royal office, gave steadiness and safety to the commonwealth.
 Plutarch, The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans: Lycurgus, Great Books, Volume 14, pg. 34

For there was an extreme inequality amongst them, and their state was overloaded with a multitude of indigent and necessitous persons, while its whole wealth had centred upon a very few.
Plutarch, The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans: Lycurgus, Great Books, Volume 14, pg. 36

…he resolved to make a division of their movables too, that there might be no odious distinction in inequality left amongst them; but finding that it would be very dangerous to go about it openly, he took another course, and defeated their avarice by the following stratagem: he commanded that all gold and silver coin should be called in, and that only a sort of money made of iron should be current, a great weight and quantity of which was very little worth; so that to lay up twenty or thirty pounds there was required a pretty large closet, and to remove it, nothing less than a yoke of oxen. With the diffusion of this money, at once a number of vices were banished from Lacedaemon; for who would rob another of such a coin?
Plutarch, The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans: Lycurgus, Great Books, Volume 14, pg. 36

The third and most masterly stroke of this great lawgiver, by which he struck a yet more effectual blow against luxury and the desire of riches, was the ordinance, he made, that they should all eat in common, of the same bread and same meat, and of kinds that were specified, and should not spend their lives at home, laid on costly couches at splendid tables, delivering themselves up into the hands of their trades men and cooks, to fatten them in corners, like greedy brutes, and to ruin not their minds only but their very bodies which, enfeebled by indulgence and excess would stand in need of long sleep, warm bathing, freedom from work, and in a word, of as much care and attendance was if they were continually sick.
Plutarch, The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans: Lycurgus, Great Books, Volume 14, pg. 37

…taking him with him into his house, neither did nor said anything severely to him, but dismissing those whose place it was, bade Alcander to wait upon him at table. The young man, who was of an ingenuous temple, without murmuring did as he was commanded; and being thus admitted to live with Lycurgus, he had an opportunity to observe in him, besides his gentleness and calmness of temper, an extraordinary sobriety and an indefatigable industry, and so, from an enemy, became one of his most zealous admirers, and told his friends and relations that Lycurgus was not that morose and ill-natured man they had formerly taken him for, but the one mild and gentle character of the world. And thus did Lycurgus, for chastisement of his fault, make of a wild and passionate young man one of the discreetest citizens of Sparta.
Plutarch, The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans: Lycurgus, Great Books, Volume 14, pg. 37

It was customary also for the eldest man in the company to sy to each of them, as they came in, “Through this,” (pointing to the door), “no words go out.”
Plutarch, The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans: Lycurgus, Great Books, Volume 14, pg. 38

After drinking moderately, every man went to his home without lights, for the use of them was, on all occasions, forbid to the end that they might accustom themselves to march boldly in the dark.
Plutarch, The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans: Lycurgus, Great Books, Volume 14, pg. 38

…he ordered the maidens to exercise themselves with wrestling, running, throwing the quoit, and casting the dart, to the end that he fruit they conceived might, in strong and healthy bodies, take firmer root and find better growth, and withal that they , with this greater vigour, might be the more able to undergo the pains of child-bearing.
Plutarch, The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans: Lycurgus, Great Books, Volume 14, pg. 39

They taught them, also to speak with a natural and graceful raillery, and to comprehend much matter of thought in few words.
Plutarch, The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans: Lycurgus, Great Books, Volume 14, pg. 42

….children in Sparta, by a bait of long silence, came to give just and sententious answers; for, indeed, as loose and incontinent livers are seldom fathers of many children, so loose and incontinent talkers seldom originate many sensible words.
Plutarch, The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans: Lycurgus, Great Books, Volume 14, pg. 42

Pursuant to a sawing recorded of their lawgiver, that a large head of hair added beauty to a good face, and terror to an ugly one. 
Plutarch, The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans: Lycurgus, Great Books, Volume 14, pg. 44

Withal he banished  from Lacedaemon all strangers who would not give a very good reason for their coming thither; not because he was afraid lest they should inform themselves of and imitate his manner of government (as Thucydides says), or learn anything to their good; but rather lest they should introduce something contrary to good manners. With strange people, strange words must be admitted;
Plutarch, The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans: Lycurgus, Great Books, Volume 14, pg. 46