Reflections on the Rise and Fall of the Ancient Republicks. Edward Wortley Montagu

of their constitution. Epi-[39]tadeus, one of the Ephori, upon a quarrel with his son, carried his resentment so far as to procure a law which permitted everyone to alienate their hereditary lands, either by gift or sale, during their life-time, or by will at their decease. This law produced a fatal alteration in the landed property. For as Leonidas, one of their Kings, who had lived a long time at the court of Seleucus, and married a lady of that country, had introduced the pomp and luxury of the East at his return to Sparta, the old institutions of Lycurgus, which had fallen into disuse, were by his example soon treated with contempt.a Hence the necessity of the luxurious, and the extortion of the avaricious, threw the whole property into so few hands, that out of seven hundred, the number to which the ancient Spartan families were then reduced, about one hundred only were in possession of their respective hereditary lands allotted by Lycurgus.b The rest, as Plutarch observes, lived an idle life in the city, an indigent abject herd, alike destitute of fortune and employment; in their wars abroad, indolent dispirited dastards;33 at home ever ripe for sedition and insurrections, and greedily catching at every opportunity of embroiling [40] affairs, in hopes of such a change as might enable them to retrieve their fortunes. Evils, which the extremes of wealth and indigence are ever productive of in free countries.

      Young Agis, the third of that name, and the most virtuous and accomplished King that ever sat upon the throne of Sparta since the reign of

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      the great Agesilaus, undertook the reform of the state, and attempted to re-establish the old Lycurgic constitution, as the only means of extricating his country out of her distresses, and raising her to her former dignity and lustre. An enterprize attended not only with the greatest difficulties, but, as the times were so corrupt, with the greatest danger.a He began with trying the efficacy of example, and though he had been bred in all the pleasures and delicacy which affluence could procure, or the fondness of his mother and grandmother, who were the wealthiest people in Sparta, could indulge him in, yet he at once changed his way of life as well as his dress, and conformed to the strictest discipline of Lycurgus in every particular. This generous36 victory over his passions,b the most difficult and most glorious of all others, had so great an effect [41] amongst the younger Spartans, that they came into his measures with more alacrity and zeal than he could possibly have hoped for. Encouraged by this success, Agis brought over some of the principal Spartans, amongst whom was his uncle Agesilaus, whose influence he made use of to persuade his mother, who was sister to Agesilaus, to join his party.c For her wealth, and the great number of her friends, dependants, and debtors, made her extremely powerful, and gave her great weight in all public transactions.

      His mother, terrified at first at her son’s rashness, condemned the whole as the visionary scheme of a young man, who was attempting a measure not only prejudicial to the state, but quite impracticable. But when the reasonings of Agesilaus had convinced her that it would not only be of the greatest utility to the publick, but might be effected with great ease and safety, and the King himself intreated her to contribute her wealth and interest to promote an enterprize which would redound so much to

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      his glory and reputation; she and the rest of her fe-[42]male friends at last changed their sentiments.a Fired then with the same glorious emulation, and stimulated to virtue, as it were by some divine impulse, they not only voluntarily spurred on Agis, but summoned and encouraged all their friends, and incited the other ladies to engage in so generous an enterprize. For they were conscious (as Plutarch observes) of the great ascendency which the Spartan women had always over their husbands,b who gave their wives a much greater share in the publick administration, than their wives allowed them in the management [43] of their domestick affairs. A circumstance which at that time had drawn almost all the wealth of Sparta into the hands of the women, and proved a terrible, and almost unsurmountable obstacle to Agis. For the Ladies had violently opposed a scheme of reformation, which not only tended to deprive them of those pleasures and trifling ornaments, which, from their ignorance of what was truly good and laudable, they absurdly looked upon as their supreme happiness, but to rob them of that respect and authority which

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      they derived from their superior wealth. Such of them therefore as were unwilling to give up these advantages, applied to Leonidas, and intreated him, as he was the more respectable man for his age and experience, to check his young hot-headed colleague, and quash whatever attempts he should make to carry his designs into execution. The older Spartans were no less averse to a reformation of that nature. For as they were deeply immersed in corruption, they trembled at the very name of Lycurgus, as much as runaway slaves, when retaken, do at the sight of their masters.

      Leonidas was extremely ready to side with and assist the rich, but durst not openly oppose Agis, for fear of the people, who were eager for such a revolution. He attempted [44] therefore to counteract all his attempts underhand, and insinuated to the magistrates, that Agis aimed at setting up a tyranny, by bribing the poor with the fortunes of the rich; and proposed the partition of lands and the abolition of debts as the means of purchasing guards for himself only, not citizens, as he pretended, for Sparta.

      Agis however pursued his design, and having procured his friend Lysander to be elected one of the Ephori, immediately laid his scheme before the senate. The chief heads of his plan were:

      That all debts should be totally remitted; that the whole land should be divided into a certain number of lots; and that the ancient discipline and customs of Lycurgus should be revived.

      Warm debates were occasioned in the senate by this proposal, which at last was rejected by a majority of one only.a Lysander in the mean time convoked an assembly of the people, where after he had harangued, Mandroclidas and Agesilaus beseeched them not to suffer the majesty of Sparta to be any longer trampled upon for the sake of a few luxurious overgrown citizens, who imposed upon them at pleasure.b They reminded them not only of the responses of ancient [45] oracles, which enjoined them to beware of avarice, as the pest of Sparta, but also of

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      those so lately given by the oracle at Pasiphae, which, as they assured the people, commanded the Spartans to return to that perfect equality of possessions, which was settled by the law first instituted by Lycurgus.a Agis spoke last in this assembly; and, to enforce the whole by example, told them in a very few words,

      That he offered a most ample contribution towards the establishment of that polity, of which he himself was the author. That he now resigned his whole patrimony into the common stock, which consisted not only of rich arable and pasture land, but of 600 talents besides in coined money. He added, that his mother, grandmother, friends and relations, who were the most wealthy of all the citizens of Sparta, were ready to do the same.47

      The people, struck with the magnanimity and generosity of Agis, received his offer with the loudest applause, and extolled him, as the only King who for three hundred years past had been worthy of the throne of Sparta. This provoked Leonidas to fly out [46] into the most open and violent opposition, from the double motive of avarice and envy. For he was sensible, that if this scheme took place, he should not only be compelled to follow their example, but that the surrender of his estate would then come from him with so ill a grace, that the honour of the whole measure would be attributed solely to his colleague. Lysander, finding Leonidas and his party too powerful in the senate, determined to prosecute and expel him for the breach of a very old law, which forbid48 any of the royal family to intermarry with foreigners, or to bring up any children which they might have by such marriage, and inflicted the penalty of death upon any one who should leave Sparta to reside in foreign countries.

      After Lysander had taken care that Leonidas should be informed of the crime laid to his charge, he with the rest of the Ephori, who were

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      of his party, addressed themselves to the ceremony of observing a sign from heaven.a A piece of state-craft most probably introduced formerly by the Ephori [47] to keep the Kings in awe, and perfectly well adapted to the superstition of the people. Lysander affirming that they had seen the usual sign, which declared that Leonidas had sinned against the Gods, summoned him to his trial, and produced evidence sufficient to convict him. At the same time he spirited up