that in former days alien acts[3] were put in force for this very object. To live abroad was not allowed. And why? Simply in order that the citizens of Sparta might not take the infection of dishonesty and light-living from foreigners; whereas now I am very well aware that those who are reputed to be leading citizens have but one ambition, and that is to live to the end of their days as governors-general on a foreign soil.[4] The days were when their sole anxiety was to fit themselves to lead the rest of Hellas. But nowadays they concern themselves much more to wield command than to be fit themselves to rule. And so it has come to pass that whereas in old days the states of Hellas flocked to Lacedaemon seeking her leadership[5] against the supposed wrongdoer, now numbers are inviting one another to prevent the Lacedaemonians again recovering their empire.[6] Yet, if they have incurred all these reproaches, we need not wonder, seeing that they are so plainly disobedient to the god himself and to the laws of their own lawgiver Lycurgus.
[1] For the relation of this chapter to the rest of the treatise, see
Grote, ix. 325; Ern. Naumann, 'de Xen. libro qui' {LAK. POLITEIA}
inscribitur, p. 18 foll.; Newmann, 'Pol. Aristot.' ii. 326.
[2] Harmosts.
[3] 'Xenelasies,' {xenelasiai} technically called. See Plut. 'Lycurg.'
27; 'Agis,' 10; Thuc. ii. 39, where Pericles contrasts the liberal
spirit of the democracy with Spartan exclusiveness; 'Our city is
thrown open to the world, and we never expel a foreigner or
prevent him from seeing or learning anything of which the secret,
if revealed to an enemy, might profit him.'-Jowett, i. 118.
[4] Lit. 'harmosts'; and for the taste of living abroad, see what is
said of Dercylidas, 'Hell.' IV. iii. 2. The harmosts were not
removed till just before Leuctra (371 B.C.), 'Hell.' VI. iv. 1,
and after, see Paus. VIII. lii. 4; IX. lxiv.
[5] See Plut. 'Lycurg.' 30 (Clough, i. 124).
[6] This passage would seem to fix the date of the chapter xiv. as
about the time of the Athenian confederacy of 378 B.C.; 'Hell.' V.
iv. 34; 'Rev.' v. 6. See also Isocr. 'Panegyr.' 380 B.C.; Grote,
'H. G.' ix. 325. See the text of a treaty between Athens, Chios,
Mytilene, and Byzantium; Kohler, 'Herm.' v. 10; Rangabe, 'Antiq.
Hellen.' ii. 40, 373; Naumann, op. cit. 26.
XV
I wish to explain with sufficient detail the nature of the covenant between king and state as instituted by Lycurgus; for this, I take it, is the sole type of rule[1] which still preserves the original form in which it was first established; whereas other constitutions will be found either to have been already modified or else to be still undergoing modifications at this moment.
[1] Or, 'magistracy'; the word {arkhe} at once signifies rule and
governmental office.
Lycurgus laid it down as law that the king shall offer in behalf of the state all public sacrifices, as being himself of divine descent,[2] and whithersoever the state shall despatch her armies the king shall take the lead. He granted him to receive honorary gifts of the things offered in sacrifice, and he appointed him choice land in many of the provincial cities, enough to satisfy moderate needs without excess of wealth. And in order that the kings also might camp and mess in public he appointed them public quarters; and he honoured them with a double portion[3] each at the evening meal, not in order that they might actually eat twice as much as others, but that the king might have wherewithal to honour whomsoever he desired. He also granted as a gift to each of the two kings to choose two mess-fellows, which same are called Puthioi. He also granted them to receive out of every litter of swine one pig, so that the king might never be at a loss for victims if in aught he wished to consult the gods.
[2] I.e. a Heracleid, in whichever line descended, and, through
Heracles, from Zeus himself. The kings are therefore 'heroes,'
i.e. demigods. See below; and for their privileges, see Herod. vi.
56, 57.
[3] See 'Ages.' v. 1.
Close by the palace a lake affords an unrestricted supply of water; and how useful that is for various purposes they best can tell who lack the luxury.[4] Moreover, all rise from their seats to give place to the king, save only that the ephors rise not from their thrones of office. Monthly they exchange oaths, the ephors in behalf of the state, the king himself in his own behalf. And this is the oath on the king's part: 'I will exercise my kingship in accordance with the established laws of the state.' And on the part of the state the oath runs: 'So long as he[5] (who exercises kingship) shall abide by his oaths we will not suffer his kingdom to be shaken.'[6]
[4] See Hartman, 'An. Xen. N.' p. 274; but cf. 'Cyneget.' v. 34;
'Anab.' V. iii. 8.
[5] Lit. 'he yonder.'
[6] Lit. 'we will keep it for him unshaken.' See L. Dindorf, n. ad
loc. and praef. p. 14 D.
These then are the honours bestowed upon the king during his lifetime [at home][7]-honours by no means much exceeding those of private citizens, since the lawgiver was minded neither to suggest to the kings the pride of the despotic monarch,[8] nor, on the other hand, to engender in the heart of the citizen envy of their power. As to those other honours which are given to the king at his death,[9] the laws of Lycurgus would seem plainly to signify hereby that these kings of Lacedaemon are not mere mortals but heroic beings, and that is why they are preferred in honour.[10]
[7] The words 'at home' look like an insertion.
[8] Lit. 'the tyrant's pride.'
[9] See 'Hell.' III. iii. 1; 'Ages.' xi. 16; Herod. vi. 58.
[10] Intentionally or not on the part of the writer, the concluding
words, in which the intention of the Laws is conveyed, assume a
metrical form:
{oukh os anthropous all os eroas tous Lakedaimonion basileis protetimekasin.}
See Ern. Naumann, op. cit. p. 18.
