XENOPHON
CONSTITUTION OF THE LACEDAEMONIANS
IN ONE PART
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Translated by Benjamin Jowett (1817-1893)
XENOPHON
Constitution of the Lacedaemonians In One
Part
Translated by Benjamin Jowett (1817-1893)
Xenophon was born in Athens about 431 B.
C. and was a student of Socrates. He was
hired as a mercenary by Cyrus, the younger
brother of the Persian king, Artaxerxes,
against whom he rebelled. When the rebellion
failed at the battle of Cunaxa, Xenophon
led the famous retreat of the Ten Thousand,
all the Greek mercenaries who were trapped
in Mesopotamia. On his return to Greece,
he worked as a mercenary for the Spartans
in their wars in Asia Minor and in Greece
against the Athenians. The Spartans rewarded
him with a country estate where he enjoyed
the life of the landed gentry. Xenophon lost
his estate in a war and settled in Corinth
for the remainder of his life. He died sometime
after 355 B. C. over 80 years old. Writings
on the Persians: His most famous work is
Anabasis, the story of the Ten Thousand.
It contains a lot of information about Cyrus
the Younger, Artaxerxes and the Persian army.
He also wrote this book Cyropaedia, about
the education and life of Cyrus
Constitution of the Lacedaemonians
[1] It occurred to me one day that Sparta,
though among the most thinly populated of
states, was evidently the most powerful and
most celebrated city in Greece; and I fell
to wondering how this could have happened.
But when I considered the institutions of
the Spartans, I wondered no longer.
[2] Lycurgus, who gave them the laws that
they obey, and to which they owe their prosperity,
I do regard with wonder; and I think that
he reached the utmost limit of wisdom. For
it was not by imitating other states, but
by devising a system utterly different from
that of most others, that he made his country
pre-eminently prosperous.
[3] First, to begin at the beginning, I will
take the begetting of children. 1 In other
states the girls who are destined to become
mothers and are brought up in the approved
fashion, live on the very plainest fare,
with a most meagre allowance of delicacies.
Wine is either witheld altogether, or, if
allowed them, is diluted with water. The
rest of the Greeks expect their girls to
imitate the sedentary life that is typical
of handicraftsmen -- to keep quiet and do
wool-work. How, then, is it to be expected
that women so brought up will bear fine children?
[4] But Lycurgus thought the labour of slave
women sufficient to supply clothing. He believed
motherhood to be the most important function
of freeborn woman. Therefore, in the first
place, he insisted on physical training for
the female no less than for the male sex:
moreover, he instituted races and trials
of strength for women competitors as for
men, believing that if both parents are strong
they produce more vigorous offspring.
[5] He noticed, too, that, during the time
immediately succeeding marriage, it was usual
elsewhere for the husband to have unlimited
intercourse with his wife. The rule that
he adopted was the opposite of this: for
he laid it down that the husband should be
ashamed to be seen entering his wife's room
or leaving it. With this restriction on intercourse
the desire of the one for the other must
necessarily be increased, and their offspring
was bound to be more vigorous than if they
were surfeited with one another.
[6] In addition to this, he withdrew from
men the right to take a wife whenever they
chose, and insisted on their marrying in
the prime of their manhood, believing that
this too promoted the production of fine
children.
[7] It might happen, however, that an old
man had a young wife; and he observed that
old men keep a very jealous watch over their
young wives. To meet these cases he instituted
an entirely different system by requiring
the elderly husband to introduce into his
house some man whose physical and moral qualities
he admired, in order to beget children.
[8] On the other hand, in case a man did
not want to cohabit with his wife and nevertheless
desired children of whom he could be proud,
he made it lawful for him to choose a woman
who was the mother of a fine family and of
high birth, and if he obtained her husband's
consent, to make her the mother of his children.
[9] He gave his sanction to many similar
arrangements. For the wives2 want to take
charge of two households, and the husbands
want to get brothers for their sons, brothers
who are members of the family and share in
its influence, but claim no part of the money.
[10] Thus his regulations with regard to
the begetting of children were in sharp contrast
with those of other states. Whether he succeeded
in populating Sparta with a race of men remarkable
for their size and strength anyone who chooses
may judge for himself.
1 The prose Constitution of the Lacedaemonians
by Critias began with the same point. See
Introduction 3.
2 i. e., at Sparta.
You can find More Works
by Xenophon in the Athenaeum Library
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