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Updated: June 19, 2025
Much they appear to have had in common, as, for example, their self-control, their piety, and their political and educational ability; and while the peculiar glory of Numa is his acceptance of the throne, that of Lykurgus is his abdication. Numa received it without having asked for it; Lykurgus when in full possession gave it up.
It is very natural that this should have happened, for the Spartan constitution was an excellent one for promoting courage, good order, and peace within the city itself; but when Sparta became the head of a great empire to be maintained by the sword, which Lykurgus would have thought a totally useless appendage to a well-governed and prosperous city, it utterly failed.
Knowing Agesipolis, like himself, to be prone to form attachments to young men, he always led the conversation to this subject, and encouraged the young king in doing so; for these love affairs among Lacedæmonians have in them nothing disgraceful, but produce much modest emulation and desire for glory, as has been explained in the Life of Lykurgus.
For ample leisure was one of the blessings with which Lykurgus provided his countrymen, seeing that they were utterly forbidden to practise any mechanical art, while money-making and business were unnecessary, because wealth was disregarded and despised. The Helots tilled the ground, and produced the regular crops for them.
On the other hand, it was truly glorious for Numa that he was a stranger and sent for by the Romans to be their king; that he effected all his reforms without violence, and ruled a city composed of discordant elements without any armed force such as Lykurgus had to assist him, winning over all men and reducing them to order by his wisdom and justice.
As for Lykurgus, whose city was clear of strangers, and whose land was "unstinted, and with room for twice the number," as Euripides says, and who above all had all the Helots, throughout Lacedaemon, who were best kept employed, in order to break their spirit by labour and hardship, it was very well that his citizens should disdain laborious handicrafts and devote their whole attention to the art of war.
Indeed, the military power of the Thebans at that time was at its height, having as it were been exercised and practised by the many campaigns undertaken against them by the Lacedæmonians. This was why Lykurgus of old, in his three celebrated rhetras, forbade the Lacedæmonians to fight often with the same people, lest by constant practice they should teach them how to fight.
XII. Lykurgus did not establish any written laws; indeed, this is distinctly forbidden by one of the so-called Rhetras.
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