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LYCURGUS (Gr. AvKofpyor)
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See also:LYCURGUS (Gr. AvKofpyor) , in See also:Greek See also:history, the reputed founder of the Spartan constitution. See also:Plutarch opens his
See also:biography of Lycurgus with these words: " About Lycurgus the lawgiver it is not possible to make a single statement that is not called in question. His See also:genealogy, his travels, his See also:death, above all, his legislative and constitutional activity have been variously recorded, and there is the greatest difference of See also:opinion as to his date." Nor has See also:modern See also:historical See also:criticism arrived at any certain results. Many scholars, indeed, suppose him to be in reality a See also:god or See also:hero, appealing to the existence of a See also:temple and cult of Lycurgus at See also:Sparta as See also:early as the See also:time of See also:Herodotus, (i. 66), and to the words of the Delphic See also:oracle (See also:Herod. i. 65)
51rw o'E MP iiavreuooµai .i &vOpwtrov
gTL Kal tLa).AoV See also:IMP uro/ial, W AvsOopyE.
If this be so, he is probably to be connected with the cult of See also:Apollo Lycius or with that of See also:Zeus See also:Lycaeus. But the See also:majority of modern historians agree in accepting Lycurgus as an historical See also:person, however widely they_may differ about his See also:work.
According to the Spartan tradition preserved by Herodotus, Lycurgus was a member of the Agiad See also:house, son of See also:Agis I. and See also:brother of Echestratus. On the death of the latter he became See also:regent and See also:guardian of his See also:nephew Labotas (Leobotes), who was still a See also:minor. See also:Simonides, on the other See also:hand, spoke of him as a Eurypontid, son of Prytanis and brother of Eunomus, and later the tradition prevailed which made him the son of Eunomus and Dionassa, and See also:half-brother of the See also: According to Herodotus he introduced his reforms immediately on becoming regent, but the See also:story which afterwards became generally accepted and is elaborated by Plutarch represented him as occupying for some time the position of regent, then spending several years in travels, and on his return to Sparta carrying through his legislation when Charillus was king. This latter version helped to emphasize the disinterestedness of the lawgiver, and also supplied a See also:motive for his travels—the See also:jealousy of those who accused him of trying to supplant his nephew on the See also:throne. He is said to have visited See also:Crete, See also:Egypt and See also:Ionia, and some versions even took him to See also:Spain, See also:Libya and See also:India. ' Various beliefs were held as to the source from which Lycurgus derived his ideas of reform. Herodotus found the tradition current among the Spartans that they were suggested to Lycurgus by the similar Cretan institutions, but even in the 5th See also:century there was a See also:rival theory that he derived them from the Delphic oracle. These two versions are See also:united by See also:Ephorus, who argued that, though Lycurgus had really derived his See also:system from Crete, yet to give it a religious See also:sanction he had persuaded the Delphic priestess to See also:express his views in oracular See also:form. The Reforms.—Herodotus says that Lycurgus changed " all the customs," that he created the military organization of Evcoporlac (enomoties), rpimcabes (triecades) and uvoartrea (syssitia), and that he instituted the ephorate and the See also:council of elders. To him, further, are attributed the See also:foundation of the See also:apella (the See also:citizen See also:assembly), the See also:prohibition of See also:gold and See also:silver currency, the See also:partition of the See also:land (yilr avaSavµos) into equal lots, and, in See also:general, the characteristic Spartan training (&y ryi ). Some of these statements are certainly false. The council of elders and the assembly are not in any sense See also:peculiar to Sparta, but are See also:present in the heroic See also:government of See also:Greece as depicted in the Homeric poems. The ephors, again, are almost universally held to be either an immemorial heritage of the Dorian stock or —and this seems more probable—an addition to the Spartan constitution made at a later date than can be assigned to Lycurgus. Further, the tradition of the Lycurgan partition of the land is open to See also:grave objections. See also:Grote pointed out (History of Greece, pt. ii. ch. 6) that even from the earliest historical times we find glaring inequalities of See also:property at Sparta, and that the tradition was apparently unknown to all the earlier Greek historians and philosophers down to See also:Plato and See also:Aristotle: Isocrates (xii. 259) expressly denied that a partition of land had ever taken See also:place in the Spartan See also:state. Again, the tradition presupposes the See also:conquest by the Spartans of the whole, or at least the greater See also:part, of See also:Laconia, yet Lycurgus must fall in the See also:period when the Spartans had not yet subjugated even the See also:middle Eurotas See also:plain, in which their See also:city See also:lay. Finally, we can point to an adequateexplanation of the See also:genesis of the tradition in the ideals of the reformers of the latter part of the 3rd century, led by the See also:kings Agis IV. and Cleomenes III. (q.v.). To them the cause of Sparta's decline lay in the marked inequalities of See also:wealth, and they looked upon a redistribution of the land as the reform most urgently needed. But it was characteristic of the Greeks to represent the ideals of the present as the facts of the past, and so such a story as that of the Lycurgan •y Cis avabaaµos may well have arisen at this time. It is at least noteworthy that the See also:plan of Agis to give 4500 lots to Spartans and 15,000 to See also:perioeci suspiciously resembles that of Lycurgus, in whose See also:case the See also:numbers are said to have been 9000 and 30,000 respectively. Lastly, the prohibition of gold and silver See also:money cannot be attributed to Lycurgus, for at so early a period coinage was yet unknown in Greece. Lycurgus, then, did not create any of the See also:main elements of the Spartan constitution, though he may have regulated their See also:powers and defined their position. But tradition represented him as finding Sparta the See also:prey of disunion, weakness and lawlessness, and leaving her united, strong and subject to the most See also:stable government which the Greek See also:world had ever seen. Probably Grote comes near to the truth when he says that Lycurgus " is the founder of a warlike brotherhood rather than the See also:law-giver of a See also:political community." To him we may attribute the unification of the several component parts of the state, the strict military organization and training which soon made the Spartan hoplite the best soldier in Greece, and above all the elaborate and rigid system of See also:education which rested upon, and in turn proved the strongest support of, that subordination of the individual to the state which perhaps has had no parallel in the history of the world. Lycurgus's legislation is very variously dated, and it is not possible either to harmonize the traditions or to decide with confidence between them. B.Niese (See also:Hermes, xlii. 440 sqq.) assigns him to the first half of the' 7th century B.C. Aristotle read Lycurgus's name, together with that of Iphitus, on the See also:discus at See also:Olympia which See also:bore the terms of the sacred truce, but even if the genuineness of the document and the identity of this Lycurgus with the Spartan reformer be granted, it is uncertain whether the discus belongs to the so-called first See also:Olympiad, 776 B.C., or to an earlier date. Most traditions place Lycurgus in the 9th century: See also:Thucydides, whom Grote follows, See also:dates his reforms shortly before 804, Isocrates and Ephorus go back to 86g, and the chronographers are divided between 821, 828 and 834 B.C. Finally, according to a tradition recorded by See also:Xenophon (See also:Resp. Laced. x. 8), he was contemporary with the See also:Heraclidae, in which case he would belong to the loth century B.C. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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