The Spartan senate as reconstructed by Lycurgus was composed of thirty members including the two kings or military leaders.[183] These chiefs were the heads of the several gentes. The Ecclesia, or assembly of the people, “contained originally all the free males who dwelt within the city were of a legal age.”[184] Hence may be observed the fact that the constitution of the state was the same as that in the Upper Status of barbarism; yet the spectacle of a double monarchy (notwithstanding the fact that it has been designated as a kind of irresponsible generalship)[185] shows that the power attached to the office of basileus had become a menace to the liberties of the people; hence this equal division of responsibility and authority.
The Spartan men were warriors who had subjugated the country, making serfs of the original inhabitants. In the time of Lycurgus these gentlemen soldiers constituted an aristocratic class who spent their lives in the performance of public duties, leaving the cultivation of the soil to the serfs. Helots, the name given to the serfs, signifies “captives.” They were the slave population of Laconia.[186] The manufacturers and tradespeople of the towns and country districts around Sparta were free, but had been deprived of their political rights. It is evident from these facts that although the constitution of the state had not been changed, the division of the people into classes, a division which since the latter part of the Second Status of barbarism had been threatened, had through spoliation and conquest already taken place. Add to this the fact that property had passed into the hands of private individuals, and we shall observe that the conditions had already become favourable for the development of that thirst for wealth and power which characterizes monarchial institutions.
If we carefully note the early condition of Spartan society, and studiously observe the processes involved in the growth of human institutions, we shall be enabled to perceive the nature of the “load” under which the Spartans “groaned” in the time of Lycurgus. The fact has been noted that, throughout an entire ethnical period, human ingenuity had been taxed to the utmost to subdue or keep in check the growing tendency toward usurpation and tyranny, and the spectacle of a double monarchy, or of two military chieftains as they appeared in ancient Sparta, indicates an attempt on the part of the people to divide the power which had become attached to this office, and which was doubtless already menacing the popular rights.
In addition to the turmoil and strife engendered by the thirst for power were the turbulence and frequent insurrections of the serfs, who, it will be remembered, had previously been free, and who were therefore restless and impatient under the tyranny of their Spartan masters.
Although wealth had greatly increased in Sparta during the ages immediately preceding the Lycurgan system, yet that the disorders which prevailed were in no wise attributable to luxury and enervation is shown in the fact as given by Aristotle, that the men during their frequent campaigns had become inured to the rigours and hardships of a soldier’s life. He says:
For, during the wars of the Lacedæmons, first against the Argives, and afterwards against the Arcadians and Messenians, the men were long away from home, and on the return of peace, they gave themselves into the legislator’s hands, already prepared by the discipline of a soldier’s life (in which there were many elements of virtue), to receive his enactments.[187]
It is indeed plain that the state of disorder which prevailed at Sparta in the time of Lycurgus can be accounted for in no other way than that the people were no longer able to keep in check the constantly increasing egoism and selfishness developed within the governing classes.
The extent to which all wise regulations are attributed to the governing head is plainly apparent in the view taken of the management of Sparta which Herodotus and Plutarch ascribe to Lycurgus, but which in the very nature of the case must have originated from other sources.
It is in no wise probable that Lycurgus instituted any such radical changes in the constitution of the state as have been ascribed to him by the above writers, for, as we have seen, prior to his appearance as lawgiver the government was administered by a military chieftain or basileus, a senate, and an assembly of the people. In order to strengthen their authority, the kings had made common cause with the assembly of the people, and through this means had drawn to themselves nearly all the powers originally vested in that body; while the senate, destitute of support, had gradually yielded up its functions to them.
Before accepting the statements of these writers, attributing to Lycurgus that almost unparalleled degree of genius by means of which was originated an entirely new set of institutions, all the accessible facts relative to these institutions should without prejudice be closely scrutinized, especially as they involve principles and actions which could scarcely have been forced upon a people through an arbitrary stretch of power in the hands of a single individual.