It is the opinion of some writers that although Lycurgus did not inaugurate a new set of institutions, nor materially change the constitution of the state, the great service which he rendered to the Spartans was the remarkable system of discipline which he is supposed to have inaugurated. Of this Mr. Rawlinson says: “It must always remain one of the most astonishing facts in history, that such a system was successfully imposed upon a state which had grown up without it.”[194] Of the fact, however, that the state had not grown up without it there is ample evidence. On this subject Curtius remarks:
It is certain that the Spartan discipline in many respects corresponds to the primitive customs of the Dorians, and that by constant practice, handed down from generation to generation, it grew into the second nature of the members of the community.[195]
From the facts at hand it is quite evident that Lycurgus did not originate that system of discipline through which it is claimed Spartan greatness was achieved. The fact has been noted that when he entered upon the duties of lawgiver he sailed for Crete, and, “having been struck with admiration of some of their laws,” he resolved to make use of them in Sparta.[196] As the discipline of Lycurgus constitutes the principal feature of the government ascribed to him, and as his models were for the most part drawn from the Cretans, it is only reasonable to suppose that this remarkable system was itself, in part at least, copied from them. It appears that among the Cretans, as among all peoples among whom female influence is in the ascendency, the children belonged to the mother, and that women owned, or at least controlled, their own households; they did not, therefore, follow the fathers of their children to their homes. In Crete, “the young Dorians were left in the houses of their mothers till they grew up into youths.”[197] As Cretan mothers had charge of their sons until they were grown up, it is not unlikely that the discipline which Lycurgus attempted to copy was a system inaugurated under matriarchal usages, but which in Sparta in the time of Lycurgus may have become somewhat relaxed. However, that the primitive discipline of the Dorian people was not extinct among the Spartans of this time is observed in the warlike character of the males, and in the express testimony of Aristotle that Spartan men had become inured to hardships by means of their frequent campaigns. To restore, or rather to intensify this discipline, seems to have been the object of Lycurgus; yet that he lacked greatly in judgment is shown by the measures which he put into execution. We are informed that
Spartan boys were as early as their eighth year taken into public training, and assigned their places in their respective divisions, where they had to go through all the exercises introductory to military service, and accustom their bodies to endurance and exercise, in exact obedience to the forms acquired by the state through its officers.[198]
This interference with the natural development of the Spartan youth was not without its effect upon his character; and especially so as the policy adopted was such as to narrow his mental horizon, and confine his ideas within the scope of Spartan possibilities.
From all the evidence to be gathered about the individual whom historians call Lycurgus, it would appear that he was a fanatic, who, doubtless feeling deeply the disorders which had fastened themselves upon society, attempted to manage not only the affairs of the state, but to impose his authority also upon individual conduct.
Of the position occupied by women at the time when Lycurgus is said to have been lawgiver at Sparta, there seems to be much evidence going to show that they were in the possession of a remarkable degree of liberty, and that they were possessed of great power and influence. We have seen that while the men of Sparta were away from their homes engaged in warfare, the country had become wealthy and prosperous. Not only was the land controlled by women, but nearly two-fifths of it was theirs by actual possession.[199] Therefore, when Aristotle informs us that when Lycurgus “wanted to bring the women under his laws, they resisted, and he gave up the attempt,”[200] we are by no means surprised. Indeed, Aristotle himself says that this license of the Lacedæmonian women existed from the earliest times, and was only what might be expected.[201] It is altogether likely that in the time of Lycurgus, Spartan women had not been brought under subjection to male authority.
According to the accounts given by Aristotle and Plutarch, under regulations made by Lycurgus, the men dined on the plainest fare at the public table, or mess, while the women remained within their own homes. That a considerable degree of success crowned this legislator’s efforts to control the conduct and private life of men, from the facts at hand may not be doubted; among the women, however, the case seems to have been altogether different. Of the Spartans, Aristotle says: “In the days of their greatness many things were managed by their women. But what difference does it make whether women rule, or the rulers are ruled by women.”[202] Because, however, the Spartan women preferred to remain within their own homes, and refused to allow their private affairs to be controlled by Lycurgus, Aristotle accuses them “of intemperance and luxury.” He says:
For a husband and a wife, being each a part of every family, the state may be considered as about equally divided into men and women; and, therefore, in those states in which the condition of the women is bad, half the city may be regarded as having no laws. And this is what has actually happened at Sparta, the legislator wanted to make the whole state temperate, and he has carried out his intentions in the case of the men, but he has neglected the women, who live in every sort of intemperance and luxury.[203]
So far, however, from the Spartan women refusing to concur in those movements which were in operation to make the whole state hardy and temperate, we have ample evidence going to prove that it was women themselves who in former times had encouraged the healthful and moderate exercise of body and limb among the youth of both sexes. Indeed, from natural inferences to be drawn from the facts at hand, it is probable that these exercises which had originated among the primitive Dorians, while under the matriarchal system, had not only been encouraged, but practised, by women while their husbands and fathers were absent on their campaigns.