Ideal Commonwealths | Page 9

sacrifice usual on occasion of victory, they set a fine upon him.
Children also were introduced at these public tables, as so many
schools of sobriety. There they heard discourses concerning
government, and were instructed in the most liberal breeding. There
they were allowed to jest without scurrility, and were not to take it ill
when the raillery was returned. For it was reckoned worthy of a
Lacedæmonian to bear a jest: but if any one's patience failed, he had
only to desire them to be quiet, and they left off immediately. When
they first entered, the oldest man present pointed to the door, and said,
"Not a word spoken in this company goes out there." The admitting of
any man to a particular table was under the following regulation. Each
member of that small society took a little ball of soft bread in his hand.
This he was to drop, without saying a word, into a vessel called caddos,
which the waiter carried upon his head. In case he approved of the
candidate, he did it without altering the figure, if not, he first pressed it
flat in his hand; for a flatted ball was considered as a negative. And if

but one such was found, the person was not admitted, as they thought it
proper that the whole company should be satisfied with each other. He
who thus rejected, was said to have no luck in the caddos. The dish that
was in the highest esteem amongst them was the black broth. The old
men were so fond of it that they ranged themselves on one side and eat
it, leaving the meat to the young people. It is related of a king of Pontus,
that he purchased a Lacedæmonian cook, for the sake of this broth. But
when he came to taste it he strongly expressed his dislike; and the cook
made answer, "Sir, to make this broth relish, it is necessary first to
bathe in the Eurotas." After they had drank moderately, they went
home without lights. Indeed, they were forbidden to walk with a light
either on this or any other occasion, that they might accustom
themselves to march in the darkest night boldly and resolutely. Such
was the order of their public repasts.
Lycurgus left none of his laws in writing; it was ordered in one of the
Rhetræ that none should be written. For what he thought most
conducive to the virtue and happiness of a city, was principles
interwoven with the manners and breeding of the people. These would
remain immovable, as founded in inclination, and be the strongest and
most lasting tie; and the habits which education produced in the youth,
would answer in each the purpose of a lawgiver. As for smaller matters,
contracts about property, and whatever occasionally varied, it was
better not to reduce these to a written form and unalterable method, but
to suffer them to change with the times, and to admit of additions or
retrenchments at the pleasure of persons so well educated. For he
resolved the whole business of legislation into the bringing up of youth.
And this, as we have observed, was the reason why one of his
ordinances forbad them to have any written laws.
Another ordinance levelled against magnificence and expense, directed
that the ceilings of houses should be wrought with no tool but the axe
and the doors with nothing but the saw. For, as Epaminondas is
reported to have said afterwards, of his table, "Treason lurks not under
such a dinner," so Lycurgus perceived before him, that such a house
admits of no luxury and needless splendour. Indeed, no man could be
so absurd as to bring into a dwelling so homely and simple, bedsteads

with silver feet, purple coverlets, golden cups, and a train of expense
that follows these: but all would necessarily have the bed suitable to the
room, the coverlet of the bed and the rest of their utensils and furniture
to that. From this plain sort of dwellings, proceeded the question of
Leotychidas the elder to his host, when he supped at Corinth, and saw
the ceiling of the room very splendid and curiously wrought, "Whether
trees grew square in his country."
A third ordinance of Lycurgus was, that they should not often make
war against the same enemy, lest, by being frequently put upon
defending themselves, they too should become able warriors in their
turn. And this they most blamed king Agesilaus for afterwards, that by
frequent and continued incursions into Boeotia, he taught the Thebans
to make head against the Lacedæmonians. This made Antalcidas say,
when he saw him wounded, "The Thebans pay you well for making
them good soldiers who neither were willing nor able to fight you
before." These ordinances he called Rhetræ,