Montagu, "Reflections on the Rise and Fall of the Ancient Republicks"
When Lycurgus had regulated the government, he undertook a task more arduous than any of the fabled labours of Hercules.
Index
On the Republick of Sparta
The Wisdom, Virtue, And Greatness Of Lycurgus - [A convincing proof how far the influence of one great and good man can new-mould a people and their constitution]
Lycurgus Brought Habitable Order to Chaos - [He undertook a task more arduous than any of the fabled labours of Hercules]
The Purpose of Spartan Education: Making the Meta of Politics Most Relevant - [The love of their Country seemed to be almost innate]
Sparta's Grand Strategy - [Lycurgus’s plan of civil government was evidently designed to preserve his country free and independent]
Lycurgus Binds Sparta To Follow His Laws - [perpetuate its duration down to the latest posterity, as far as human prudence and human means could effect it]
Creation of the Ephori Was Preceded By A Change In Spartan Manners - [The Ephori had totally destroyed the balance of power established by Lycurgus]
The Collapse of Sparta's Grand Strategy - [the same love of glory and of their country which made them great, produced ambition and a lust of domination]
Spartans Like Cleomenes Were Like Lions In the Midst of Sheep - [A light in which a brave man must necessarily appear to a herd of such servile dastards]
The Impact of Lycurgus on Sparta's Grand Strategy - [Focused on creating Kosmos]
Results of Sparta's Grand Strategy - [500 years of glory]
How Sparta's Grand Strategy Failed - [The landed interest dissolved]
Sparta's Verdict - [Corrupt innovations become revered as part of the constitution itself]
Why Education Is Important: Phoenix Mechanism - [Form the minds of the rising generation by the principles of religion and virtue]
On the Republick of Sparta
The Wisdom, Virtue, And Greatness Of Lycurgus
[A convincing proof how far the influence of one great and good man can new-mould a people and their constitution]
Of all the Grecian states, that of Sparta seems to have been the most unhappy, before their government was new-modelled by Lycurgus. The authority of their Kings and their laws (as Plutarch informs us) were alike trampled upon and despised. Nothing could restrain the insolence of the headstrong encroaching populace; and the whole government sunk into Anarchy and confusion. From this deplorable situation the wisdom and virtue of one great man raised his country to that height of power, which was the envy and the terror of her neighbours. A convincing proof how far the influence of one great and good man will operate towards reforming the most bold licentious people, when he has once thoroughly acquired their esteem and confidence! Upon this principle Lycurgus founded his plan of totally altering and new-moulding the constitution of his country. A design, all circumstances considered, the most daring, and the most happily executed, of any yet immortalized in history. (11-12)
Lycurgus Brought Habitable Order to Chaos
[He undertook a task more arduous than any of the fabled labours of Hercules]
When Lycurgus had regulated the government, he undertook a task more arduous than any of the fabled labours of Hercules. This was to new-mould his countrymen, by extirpating all the destructive passions, and raising them above every weakness and infirmity of human nature. A scheme which all the great Philosophers had taught in theory, but none except Lycurgus was ever able to reduce to practice. (13-14)
The Purpose of Spartan Education: Making the Meta of Politics Most Relevant
[The love of their Country seemed to be almost innate]
They carefully instilled into their tender minds the great duties of religion, and the sacred indispensable obligation of an oath, and trained them up in the best of sciences, the principles of wisdom and virtue. The love of their Country seemed to be almost innate; and this leading maxim,
That every Spartan was the property of his country, and had no right over himself,
was by the force of education incorporated into their very nature. (16)
Sparta's Grand Strategy
[Lycurgus’s plan of civil government was evidently designed to preserve his country free and independent]
When they took the field, indeed, the rigor of their discipline with respect to diet and the ornament of their persons was much softened, so that the Spartans were the only people in the universe, to whom the toils of war afforded ease and relaxation. In fact, Lycurgus’s plan of civil government was evidently designed to preserve his country free and independent, and to form the minds of his citizens for the enjoyment of that rational and manly happiness which can find no place in a breast enslaved by the pleasures of the senses, or ruffled by the passions; and the military regulations which he established, were as plainly calculated for the protection of his country from the encroachments of her ambitious neighbours. For he left no alternative to his people but death or victory; and he laid them under a necessity of observing those regulations, by substituting the valour of the inhabitants in the place of walls and fortifications for the defence of their city. (16-17)
Lycurgus Binds Sparta To Follow His Laws
[perpetuate its duration down to the latest posterity, as far as human prudence and human means could effect it]
As soon as Lycurgus had thoroughly settled his new policy, and by his care and assiduity imprinted his laws so deeply in the minds and manners of his countrymen, that he judged the constitution able to support itself, and stand upon its own bottom, his last scheme was, to fix and perpetuate its duration down to the latest posterity, as far as human prudence and human means could effect it.
To bring his scheme to bear, he had again recourse to the same pious artifice which had succeeded so well in the beginning. He told the people in a general assembly, that he could not possibly put the finishing stroke to his new establishment, which was the most essential point, till he had again consulted the oracle. As they all expressed the greatest eagerness for his undertaking the journey, he laid hold of so fair an opportunity to bind the Kings, senate, and people, by the most solemn oaths, to the strict observance of his new form of government, and not to attempt the least alteration in any one particular till his return from Delphos. He had now completed the great design which he had long in view, and bid an eternal adieu to his country.
The question he put to the oracle was, “Whether the laws he had already established, were rightly formed to make and preserve his countrymen virtuous and happy?” The answer he received was just as favourable as he desired. It was, “That his laws were excellently well calculated for that purpose; and that Sparta should continue to be the most renowned city in the world, as long as her citizens persisted in the observance of the laws of Lycurgus.” He transmitted both the question and the answer home to Sparta in writing, and devoted the remainder of his life to voluntary banishment.
The accounts in history of the end of this great man are very uncertain. Plutarch affirms, that as his resolution was never to release his countrymen from the obligation of the oath he had laid them under, he put a voluntary end to his life at Delphos by fasting. Plutarch extols the death of Lycurgus in very pompous terms, as a most unexampled instance of heroic patriotism, since he bequeathed, as he terms it, his death to his country, as the perpetual guardian to that happiness, which he had procured for them during his life-time.
Yet the same historian acknowledges another tradition, that Lycurgus ended his days in the island of Crete, and desired, as his last request, that his body should be burnt, and his ashes thrown into the sea; lest, if his remains should at any time be carried back to Sparta, his countrymen might look upon themselves as released from their oath as much as if he had returned alive, and be induced to alter his form of government. I own, I prefer this latter account, as more agreeable to the genius and policy of that wise and truly disinterested legislator. (19-20)
Creation of the Ephori Was Preceded By A Change In Spartan Manners
[The Ephori had totally destroyed the balance of power established by Lycurgus]
From these remarks of the judicious Aristotle, it is evident that the Ephori had totally destroyed the balance of power established by Lycurgus. From the tyranny therefore of this magistracy proceeded those convulsions which so frequently shook the state of Sparta, and at last gradually brought on its [34] total subversion. But though this fatal alteration in the Spartan constitution must be imputed to the intrigues of the Ephori and their faction, yet it could never, in my opinion, have been effected, without a previous degeneracy in their manners; which must have been the consequence of some deviation from the maxims of Lycurgus. (23)
The Collapse of Sparta's Grand Strategy
[the same love of glory and of their country which made them great, produced ambition and a lust of domination]
It appears evidently from the testimony of Polybius and Plutarch, that the great scheme of the Spartan legislator was, to provide for the lasting security of his country against all foreign invasions, and to perpetuate the blessings of liberty and independency to the people. By the generous plan of discipline which he established, he rendered his countrymen invincible at home. By banishing gold and silver, and prohibiting commerce and the use of shipping, he proposed to confine the Spartans within the limits of their own territories; and by taking away the means, to repress all desires of making conquests upon their neighbours.
But the same love of glory and of their country which made them so terrible in the field, quickly produced ambition and a lust of domination; and ambition as naturally opened the way for avarice and corruption. For Polybius truly observes, that as long as they extended their views no farther than the dominion over their neighbouring states, the produce of their own country was sufficient for what supplies they had occasion for in such short excursions. But when, in direct violation of the laws of Lycurgus, they began to undertake more distant expeditions both by sea and land, they quickly felt the want of a publick fund to defray their extraordinary expences. For they found by experience, that neither their iron money, nor their method of trucking the annual produce of their own lands for such commodities as they wanted (which was the only traffick allowed by the laws of Lycurgus) could possibly answer their demands upon those occasions.
Hence their ambition, as the same historian remarks, laid them under the scandalous necessity of paying servile court to the Persian monarchs for pecuniary supplies and subsidies, to impose heavy tributes upon the conquered islands, and to exact money from the other Grecian states, as occasions required. (23-24)
Spartans Like Cleomenes Were Like Lions In the Midst of Sheep
[A light in which a brave man must necessarily appear to a herd of such servile dastards]
Whenever Cleomenes appeared at court, the general whisper ran, that he came as a lion in the midst of sheep; a light in which a brave man must necessarily appear to a herd of such servile dastards. (41)
The Impact of Lycurgus on Sparta's Grand Strategy
[Focused on creating Kosmos]
Lycurgus found his country in the most terrible of all situations, a state of anarchy and confusion. The rich, insolent and oppressive; the poor groaning under a load of debt, mutinous from despair, and ready to cut the throats of their usurious oppressors. To remedy these evils, did this wise politician encourage navigation, strike out new branches of commerce, and make the most of those excellent harbours and other natural advantages which the maritime situation of his country afforded? Did he introduce and promote arts and sciences, that by acquiring and diffusing new wealth amongst his countrymen, he might make his nation, in the language of our political writers, secure, powerful, and happy?
Just the reverse. After he had new-modelled the constitution, and settled the just balance between the powers of government, he abolished all debts, divided the whole land amongst his countrymen by equal lots, and put an end to all dissentions about property, by introducing a perfect equality. He extirpated luxury and a lust of wealth, which he looked upon as the pests of every free country, by prohibiting the use of gold and silver; and barred up the entrance against their return by interdicting navigation and commerce, and expelling all arts, but what were immediately necessary to their subsistence.
As he was sensible that just and virtuous manners are the best support of the internal peace and happiness of every kingdom, he established a most excellent plan of education for training up his countrymen, from their very infancy, in the strictest observance of their religion and laws, and the habitual practice of those virtues which can alone secure the blessings of liberty, and perpetuate their duration.
To protect his country from external invasions, he formed the whole body of the people, without distinction, into one well armed, well disciplined national militia, whose leading principle was the love of their country, and who esteemed death in its defence, the most exalted height of glory to which a Spartan was capable of attaining.
Nor were these elevated sentiments confined solely to the men; the colder breasts of the women caught fire at the glorious flame, and glowed even with superior ardour. For when their troops marched against an enemy, “to bring back their shields, or to be brought home upon them," was the last command which the Spartan mothers gave their sons at parting. (42-44)
Results of Sparta's Grand Strategy
[500 years of glory]
For I cannot help observing upon the occasion, that from the time of Lycurgus to the introduction of wealth by Lysander in the reign of the first Agis, a space of five hundred years, we meet with no mutiny amongst the people, upon account of the severity of his discipline, but on the contrary the most religious reverence for, and the most willing and chearful obedience to, the laws he established. As on the other hand, the wisdom of his military institutions is evident from this consideration; That the national militia alone of Sparta, a small insignificant country as to extent, situated in a nook only of the Morea, not only gave laws to Greece, but made the Persian monarchs tremble at their very name, though absolute masters of the richest and most extensive empire the world then knew. (44)
How Sparta's Grand Strategy Failed
[The landed interest dissolved]
I observe farther, that the introduction of wealth by Lysander, after the conquest of Athens, brought back all those vices and dissentions which the prohibition of the use of money had formerly banished; and that all historians assign that open violation of the laws of Lycurgus, as the period from which the decadence of Sparta is to be properly dated. I observe too, with Plutarch, that though the manners of the Spartans were greatly corrupted by the introduction of wealth, yet that the landed interest (as I may term it) which subsisted as long as the original allotments of land remained unalienable, still preserved their state; notwithstanding the many abuses which had crept into their constitution.
But that as soon as ever the landed estates became alienable by law, the moneyed interest prevailed, and at last totally swallowed up the landed, which the historians remark as the death’s-wound of their constitution. For the martial virtue of the citizens not only sunk with the loss of their estates, but their number, and consequently the strength of the state, diminished in the same proportion.
Aristotle, who wrote about sixty years after the death of Lysander, in his examine of the Spartan Republick, quite condemns that law which permitted the alienation of their lands. For he affirms, that the same quantity of land, which, whilst equally divided, supplied a militia of fifteen hundred horse, and thirty thousand heavy armed foot, could not in his time furnish one thousand; so that the state was utterly ruined for want of men to defend it.
So true it is, that a landed interest diffused through a whole people is not only the real strength, but the surest bulwark of the liberty and independency, of a free country. (44-45)
Sparta's Verdict
[Corrupt innovations become revered as part of the constitution itself]
From the tragical fate of the third Agis we learn, that when abuses introduced by corruption are suffered by length of time to take root in the constitution, they will be termed by those whose interest it is to support them, essential parts of the constitution itself; and all attempts to remove them will ever be clamoured against by such men as attempt to subvert it: As the example of Cleomenes will teach us, that the publick virtue of one great man may not only save his falling country from ruin, but raise her to her former dignity and lustre, by bringing her back to those principles on which her constitution was originally founded. Though the violent remedies made use of by Cleomenes never ought to be applied, unless the disease is grown too desperate to admit of a cure by milder methods. (45-46)
Why Education Is Important: Phoenix Mechanism
[Form the minds of the rising generation by the principles of religion and virtue]
Nothing could give a more effectual check to the reigning vices and follies of the present age, or contribute so much to a reformation of manners, as to form the minds of the rising generation by the principles of religion and virtue. Where the manners of a people are good, very few laws will be wanting; but when their manners are depraved, all the laws in the world will be insufficient to restrain the excesses of the human passions. For as Horace justly observes—
Quid leges sine moribus
Vanae proficiunt,
Ode 24. lib. 3. (46)(Of what avail are empty laws, if we lack principle?)