grantees of the soil of Sparta from the gods - the occupation of the Dorians being only sanctified and blest by Zeus for the purpose of establishing the children of Heracles, in the valley of the Eurotas." Referring to the succession of Cleomenes to the throne of Sparta, Herodotus (v, 39) observes: "Anaxandrides, son of Leon, no longer survived and reigned over Sparta, but was already dead; Cleomenes, son of Anaxandrides, held the soverignty, not having acquired it by his virtues, but by his birth.”

This ancestral pride and glory in Achæan blood is further illustrated in the account given by Herodotus (v, 72) of Cleomenes, the Spartan king, who reigned jointly with Demaratus, when he sought shelter with Isagoras, in the temple of Athene on the Acropolis. The incident occurred when the followers of Clisthenes refused to dissolve the Senate, even at the behest of Isagoras, supported by Cleomenes, with a contingent of Spartan soldiers. The Lacedamonian sovereign approached the sanctuary of the goddess to consult her, but the priestess, rising from her seat before he had passed the door said: “Lacedamonian stranger, retire, nor enter within this precinct, for it is not lawful for Dorians to enter here." He answered, "Woman, I am not a Dorian, but an Achæan."

This incident justifies the presumption that there were two houses representing the royal families in Sparta, the sovereigns ruling jointly, representing both the Achæan and Dorian line of succession. This explanation of the diarchy is most plausible, and is based upon the fact that the invasion of the Peloponnesus was accomplished by the united efforts of Achæans and Dorians, who were accompanied by Etolians also. In the division of power, therefore, both were represented, and for centuries shared jointly the honors of royalty.

The conquest of the Peloponnesus, after the first impact of the Dorian invasion, covered a period of cen

THE STRUGGLE FOR SPARTA

83

turies. The fact that the Heraclidæ and their Dorian associates won a substantial victory, after they had crossed the gulf of Corinth from Naupactus, possibly in Elis, on the west coast, and then cast lots for the territory which they had invaded, does not justify the conclusion that this initial victory gave them control of the peninsula, or any part of it. The route taken by the invaders is wholly a subject of conjecture. The opinion entertained by Canon Rawlinson is that they came south through Elis to the banks of the Alpheus, which flows northwest through Arcadia and Elis into the Ionian Sea, and thence proceeded eastward through the valley of the Alpheus into Messenia, and thence east through the mountain passes into Laconia and the valley of the Eurotas. They then fought for the possession of the cluster of villages in Laconia, called Sparta. The struggle was long and tedious. It was a struggle by Achæan aided by Dorian against Achæan. In view of the character of the combatants, it is not strange that the contest lasted for centuries. After Sparta was occupied, the Achæan city of Amyclæ, two miles south, renowned in the Iliad, retained its independence against the invaders for nearly three hundred years, having held out till about B. C. 826, within 50 years of the first recorded Olympiad, B. C. 776. The struggle then continued against the Messenians and Helots for centuries.

Thus, when Lycurgus was born, his countrymen were in a state of perpetual war, seeking to establish themselves and complete the conquest of Messenia and Laconia, which embraced the southern half of the peninsula. These intestine and bloody struggles continued until long after the death of the great Spartan lawgiver, and justifies the statement of Plutarch that when Lycurgus planned a cure for the evils which disturbed the peace and tranquillity of his country," anarchy and confusion had long prevailed in Sparta," and sedition

and misgovernment disturbed the repose and quiet of the neighboring states and bordering nations "to whom they were as near related in blood as situation."

Such was the environment in which Lycurgus found himself and the conditions which prevailed when he established the Rhretra, or code of laws and ordinances, which, in a measure restored order and harmony among the Lacedamonians, and converted Sparta into a military oligarchy and disciplined camp.

CHAPTER VI

SPARTA - LAWS AND

T

INSTITUTIONS—THE RHRE

TRA OF LYCURGUS

HE best modern definition of law is that given by Sir William Blackstone, the eminent English commentator. He defines it as a rule of civil conduct, prescribed by the supreme

power in the state. The Israelites, the only early monotheistic race, and the most archaic civilized people of whom we have any record, who became a nation after their flight from Egypt, more than three centuries before the Trojan War, and prior to the heroic age of Greece, regarded law as the commands given by Jehovah, the invisible ruler of the universe, the only living and true God, directly to the people, through the mouth of his prophet and priest, ordained as such, to be the medium through which the divine will should be revealed to man. Among the Hellenes who were polytheists, or rather pantheists, the idea of law was similar to that entertained by the Israelites, in that they believed that all law for the government of the state should bear the sanction and approval of the gods, as revealed through the medium of the Pythian priestess of the temple of Apollo, at Delphi.1 Lycurgus consulted the Oracle to secure the divine sanction and approval to the Code of Laws which he afterwards established for Sparta.

Thus the devout Israelite, and the intellectual Greek,

1 Prophecies were also delivered in the temple at Dodona, in Epirus.

each according to his best light and understanding, regarded law as of divine origin, and recognized the ruler or rulers of the universe as the source and fountain of justice.

Lord Bacon speaks of law as streams proceeding from the fountain of justice, "but as streams and like as waters do take tincture and taste from the soils through which they run, so do civil laws vary according to the regions and governments where they are planted, though they proceed from the same fountain." Laws for the government of society are designed to be of universal application, because the public and private conduct of every member of the state is supposed to be governed by law. Without law society cannot exist. Law is the antithesis of anarchy. It springs from necessity and is coeval with man. The law of nature has no direct application to human conduct. Where men are reduced to a state of nature, without government or law of any sort, they are swayed by their whims and passions, uncontrolled in the exercise of their tastes and inclinations, and do not respect their obligations to society, or the moral or political rights of their neighbors. In a state of nature, which is a state of anarchy, the weak are ruled and oppressed by the strong, and where moral obligations are not recognized, life is not sacred, no one in the community is safe, and instead of law, liberty and order, rapine, lust and murder prevail. Writers of distinction sometimes speak of the law of nature and nations. This must be for the sake of the alliteration. The expression is incorrect, because the law of nature governs the physical universe, and the complete and delicate organism of the human body. These obey the law of their being, prescribed by their creator. Municipal law governs the conduct of men in their social and political relations. Constitutional law defines the power of the state, as exercised by its co-ordinate branches of government. The moral