[1167] See Plutarch’s account of the legislation of Lycurgus. A king of Sparta was fined by the Ephors for marrying a wife of poor physique for money, instead of choosing a strapping young lady with a view to having a vigorous family; ibid., Agesilaus; Athenaeus, xiii, 20. The Spartans applauded the adulterous union of Acrotatus and Chelidonis, because they seemed to be physically well matched for the production of offspring; Plutarch, Pyrrhus. In fact Lycurgus thought that wives might properly be lent to suitable mates for breeding purposes. As an example of noble character in the female, the conduct of Chelonis is recorded: also the resolution and bravery of the female relatives of Cleomenes when they all met their death at Alexandria; ibid., Agis; Cleomenes.
[1168] On the Athenian women in general, see Becker-Göll, Charicles, Excurs.
[1169] To a female visitor from another country it seemed that the Lacedaemonian women ruled the men; Plutarch, Lycurgus; cf. Aristotle, Politics, ii, 9. He makes out that things were muddled at Sparta, owing to interference by the women.
[1170] Herodotus, vii, 99; viii, 87, etc. Several of her ruses in war are mentioned by Polyaenus, Stratagems, viii, 53.
[1171] Pliny, Hist. Nat., xxxvi, 5, etc. The fragments of it to a large amount are now in a special room of the British Museum, together with attempted restorations in the solid and on the flat. It was delightfully situated on the Bay of Halicarnassus, a sight in itself, and a point of sight for a splendid prospect of sea, contained in a circuit of rising coast, covered with specimens of Greek architecture. Herodotus himself hailed from this town.
[1172] Polyaenus, Stratagems, viii, 60.
[1173] Athenaeus, xiii, 10.
[1174] Diodorus Sic., xix, 52; 11; 51; Justin, xiv, 5, 6, etc.
[1175] Laodicea in Phrygia (and elsewhere), by Seleucus after his mother Laodice; Thessalonica by Cassander, and Nice (Nicaea) in Bithynia, of ecclesiastical fame, by Lysimachus, from their wives. These were generals and successors of Alexander, c. 320 B.C.
[1176] The most illustrious lady of this age was Phila, wife of Demetrius Poliorcetes (her third marriage). She acted the part of political adviser and ambassadress; and was amiable and pacific as well as intellectual; Plutarch, Demetrius; Diodorus Sic., xx, 93. A flatterer of D. raised a temple to her, and called it the Philaeum; Athenaeus, vi, 65.