LYCURGUS, the celebrated legislator of the
Spartans, was the son of Eunomes king of Sparta.
—He travelled to Greece, to the isle of Crete,
to Egypt, and even to the Indies, to converse with
the sages and learned men of those countries, and to
learn their manners, their customs, and their laws.
After the death of his brother Polydectes, who was
king of Sparta, his widow offered the crown to Ly-
curgus, promising that she would make herself mis-
carry of the child of which she was pregnant, provided
he would marry her; but Lycurgus nobly refused
these advantageous offers, and afterwards contented
himself with being tutor to his nephew Charillus, and
restored to him the government when he came of age;
but notwithstanding this regular and generous con-
duct, he was accused of a design to usurp the crown.
This calumny obliged him to retire to the island of
Crete, where he applied himself to the study of the
laws and customs of nations. At his return to Laced-
demon, he reformed the government; and, to prevent
the disorders occasioned by luxury and the love of
riches, he prohibited the use of gold and silver; placed
all the citizens in a state of equality; and introduced the
strictest temperance, the most exact discipline, and
those admirable laws which (a few excepted) have
been celebrated by all historians. It is said, that, to
engage the Lacedemonians to observe them inviola-
bly, he made them promise with an oath not to change
any part of them till his return; and that he after-
wards went to the island of Crete, where he killed
himself, after having ordered that his ashes should be
thrown into the sea, for fear lest if his body should be
carried to Sparta the Lacedemonians would think
themselves absolved from their oath. He flourished
about 870 B. C.