12. I shall equally abstain from collecting the [pg 222] various accounts respecting the finance and trade of other Doric states; since the inland countries, in which many peculiarities may perhaps have existed, are little known; and the commercial cities, such as Ægina, Corinth, Rhodes, and Cyrene, gave up their national customs for the sake of trade. In Peloponnesus, however, the cities on the coast of Argolis were adapted by nature for exchanging the products of the agricultural nations of the interior for foreign commodities;[1002] and thus they established a connexion and intercourse between Laconia and Arcadia, and other countries.[1003] In these cities also there were many commercial establishments, which did not manufacture only for the interior.[1004] In Corinth, the duties from the harbour and market had in the time of Periander become so considerable, that the tyrant limited his receipts to that one branch of revenue;[1005] although, according to a fabulous tradition, the golden colossus of Cypselus at Olympia was consecrated from a tax of a tenth upon all property continued for ten years.[1006]
The strongest proof of the ancient commerce of Peloponnesus, and of its great extent, is the Æginetan money; the standard of which was in early times prevalent in Peloponnesus, in Crete, in Italy,[1007] and even [pg 223] in the north of Greece, since the early Bœotian, Thessalian, and Macedonian coins were before the time of Philip adapted to it.[1008] In Italy the monetary system was arranged in a peculiar manner, for the convenience of intercourse with the natives; and as this subject is of much importance in a historical point of view, we will now examine it briefly, without attempting a complete investigation. If we consider the names of the coins in use among the Dorians of Italy and Sicily, for example, at Syracuse and Tarentum (as they had been collected by Aristotle in his Constitution of the Himeræans from Doric Poets),[1009] viz., λίτρα for an obolus, ἠμίλιτρον for six, πεντόγκίον for five, τετρᾶς for four, τριᾶς for three,[1010] ἑξᾶς for two, [pg 224] ὀγχία for a twelfth; it is at once evident that these Greeks had adopted the Italian and Roman duodenary system, in which the libra, the pound of brass, was the unit;[1011] a system which was originally unknown to the Greeks, and accordingly the word λίτρα has no root in their language. Now, together with these coins in the Greek states, the νόμος,[1012] among the Latins numus, occurs; manifestly, as Varro says, a word belonging to the former people, and signifying a coin current by law; whence it is evident that the Italians, in the regulations of their monetary system, did not merely give to the Greeks of Italy, but that they also received something in return, and that one standard was compounded, partaking in some measure of both methods of computation. If we, then, consider the form and value of these coins, it is plain that the Greek colonies retained the system of money which they brought with them from Peloponnesus; and that they did not till subsequently adapt their coinage to the native standard. They then made the litra equal to the obolus, i.e., to the Æginetan, which was also the Corinthian;[1013] so that a Corinthian stater of ten oboli was called in Syracuse a δεχάλιτρον, or piece of ten litras. At the time, therefore, when this system was [pg 225] formed, the lb. of copper must have really been equal in value to a silver obolus. Now since the former weighed 6048,[1014] the latter nearly 23 French grains,[1015] the ratio of silver to copper must at the time of this arrangement have been as 1 to 263; the commerce of these regions having in early times determined this proportion. But as more silver was gradually introduced by the trade with the west of Europe, and probably at the same time some native copper-mines were exhausted, copper, which was the circulating medium of Italy, rose in comparison with silver, the circulating medium of Greece; and this was the principal cause of the constant diminution in the weight of the as in Etruria and Rome. But a detailed examination of this subject, so important in the history of the commerce of Greece and Italy, does not fall within the plan of the present work.[1016]
What was the value of the νόμος of the Sicilian Greeks we are not informed by any decisive testimony: the name, however, proves that it was a current coin, and not of very inconsiderable value. For this reason I cannot assume that it was equal to a litra;[1017] Aristotle[1018] also states that the impression of the Tarentine coins was Taras sitting upon the dolphin; now, in the first place, this device does not occur on any litras or oboli of Tarentum; and, secondly, the coin would not be of sufficient size to contain it: for which reason the Greeks, whenever they stamped so small a coin of silver, always made use of the simplest devices. If, however, the Tarentine numus [pg 226] had the same ratio to the litra as the Roman numus sestertius to the as,[1019] the former would have been a large coin; and we are also on the same supposition enabled to explain how it came that in Sicily an amount of 24, and afterwards of 12 numi, was called a talent;[1020] for in that case 24 numi would be equal to 60 lbs. of copper, which was the same number of minas that the Æginetan talent of silver contained. It is also confirmed by the fact mentioned by Festus, that this talent in Neapolis amounted to six, and in Syracuse to three denarii, by which he means decalitra.[1021] And therefore, although other circumstances tend to shake the certainty of this supposition,[1022] it will be better to acquiesce in these arguments, on account of the harmony of the different statements.
Chapter XI.
§ 1. Simplicity of the Law of Sparta. § 2. Spartan System of Judicature. § 3. Penal system of Sparta: fine, infamy, § 4. exile, and death. § 5. Origin of the laws respecting the penalty of death in the Doric states. § 6. Connexion of Locri with the Doric race. § 7. Laws of Zaleucus.
1. The law, as well as the economy, of the Dorians, seems to bear a character of very great antiquity, as far as our scanty means of information permit us to judge. It exhibits strong marks of the early time at which it originated, and it is impossible not to recognise in it a certain loftiness and severity of character. For this reason it was ill suited to the circumstances of the more unrestrained and active manners of later times, and only owed its continuance to the isolated situation in which Sparta succeeded in keeping herself. Thus the civil law was less definite and settled here than in any other part of Greece in early times, as property was, according to the Spartan notions, to be looked upon as a matter of indifference; in the decrees and institutions attributed to Lycurgus, no mention was made of this point, and the ephors were permitted to judge according to their own notions of equity. The ancient legislators had an evident repugnance to any strict regulations on this subject; thus Zaleucus, who, however, first made particular enactments concerning the right of property,[1023] expressly interdicted certificates of debt.[1024] The laws of that early period had a much more personal tendency, and rather regulated the actions of every individual by means of the national customs. It was nearly indifferent [pg 228] whether those actions immediately concerned other persons or not; the whole state was considered as injured and attacked when any individual did not comply with the general principles. Hence the ancient courts of justice exercised a superintendence over the manners of the citizens, as, for instance, the Areopagus at Athens, and the Gerusia at Sparta: hence the extensive interference of the law with the most private relations, such, for example, as marriage. But the history of nations is a history of the progress of individual liberty; among the Greeks of later times the laws necessarily lost this binding force, and obtained a negative character, by which they only so far restrained the actions of each individual, as was necessary for the co-existence of other members of the state. In Sparta, however, law and custom retained nearly equal power; it will therefore be impossible to treat of them separately, and we must be satisfied with some observations upon the judicial system in Sparta and other Doric states.
2. The courts of justice in Sparta have already been spoken of in several places.[1025] The Gerusia decided all criminal causes, together with most others which affected the conduct of the citizens; the other jurisdiction was divided among the magistrates according to the branches of their administration.[1026] The ephors decided all disputes concerning money and property, as well as in accusations against responsible officers, provided they were not of a criminal nature; the kings decided in causes of heiresses and adoptions, and the bidiæi in disputes arising at the gymnasia. Public offences, particularly of the kings [pg 229] and other authorities, were decided by a supreme court of judicature.[1027] The popular assembly had probably no judicial functions; disputes concerning the succession to the throne were referred to it only after ineffectual attempts to settle them, and it then passed a decree.[1028] The assembly took the case of those who fled from their ranks at the battle of Leuctra out of the hands of the regular court, by nominating an extraordinary nomothetes for the occasion, and afterwards confirming his proposal.[1029] It does not appear that the practice of ostracism was known in the Doric states before the destruction of the early constitution.[1030] Arbitrators were also employed at Sparta for the decision of private cases, as in the Homeric time;[1031] but whether they were publicly appointed, as in Athens, is not known.
At Sparta, as well as at Athens, the parties interested were, of course, entitled to accuse in private causes; and in criminal cases the next of kin; it cannot however be supposed that in Sparta, as in Athens, every citizen of the state was empowered to institute a public action; as a regulation of this kind [pg 230] appears too inseparably connected with democracy. Private individuals were therefore only permitted to lay an information before a magistrate, which was also allowed to the Helots;[1032] the action being conducted, as we find to have been so frequently the case with the ephors, by some public officer. In the judicial procedure of Sparta, it is probable that much of the ancient Grecian simplicity remained, which Aristotle for example remarks in the criminal proceedings of the Æolic Cume, where in trials for murder witnesses from the family of the murdered person were sufficient to prove the offence.[1033] In the ancient laws of Rhadamanthus, disputes were generally decided in a very summary manner by oath,[1034] and the legislation of Charondas for the Chalcidean colonies was the first that instituted inquiries concerning false testimony.[1035]