PLUTARCH –The Lives of the Noble Grecians and
Romans: Lycurgus
9th 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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Plutarch, The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans: Lycurgus, Great Books, Volume 14, pg. 46
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