LYCURGUS, a celebrated lawgiver of Sparta, who established a constitution for his country which has ever been regarded as one of the most curious specimens of legislation that has been attempted to be imposed upon mankind; yet we have no certain information respecting Lycurgus, and even his very existence has been denied. It has been supposed by some that there were several of the same name, and, as in the case of Hercules, that the proceedings of all of them were ascribed to one individual. Believing in the existence of an individual of this name, we shall proceed to narrate those facts in his history respecting which writers are most fully agreed. He seems to have flourished about 884 B.C., if we follow the chronology of Eratosthenes, who placed him 108 years before the first Olympiad (Eratosth. ap. Clem. Alex. Strom. i., p. 336, ed. Colom.). He was the son of Eunomus, King of Sparta, and was of the race of the Heraclidae. On the death of his father, Polydectes his brother succeeded, and reigned nine years, and on his death the general voice of the people called Lycurgus to the throne. As soon as it appeared that his brother's widow was pregnant, he declared that the kingdom must belong to her issue, provided it were male, and that he should consider himself only as regent till the result was known. The queen made a private offer to him that she would destroy the child if he would consent to marry her. Lycurgus, concealing the horror he felt for her wickedness, and wishing to prevent the execution of her intention, allowed her to imagine that he approved of her scheme. He prevailed on her to send the child to him as soon as it was born that he might see it destroyed, but, instead of acting as the queen had expected, he presented it to the people as their new-born king. Thus the reign of Lycurgus lasted only eight months. Though Lycurgus was much beloved by his fellow-citizens, still there were many who envied him, and more particularly the friends and relations of the queen-mother. He began to feel his position so uncomfortable, that he determined to leave his country till his nephew Charilaus should be of age. During his voluntary exile he visited the island of Crete, where he examined the forms of government established by Minos; he travelled through Asia Minor and Egypt, observing everywhere the peculiar laws of the country, and conversing with the most illustrious personages. It was during one of those journeys through the Ionian cities that he met with Homer's poems, and being charmed with the sound morality which pervaded them, no less than with the beauty of the poetry, he is said to have collected them into one volume, and to have transmitted the work to Sparta. After an absence of eighteen years, his countrymen prevailed on Lycurgus to return home, where he found the city a prey to anarchy, the authority of the magistrates disregarded, and everything tending to a dissolution of all the bonds of society. He had been so charmed with the form of government he had found established in Crete, that he resolved to introduce it into Sparta; but he did not succeed without much opposi-
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tion, and exciting many popular tumults. It seems difficult to imagine how he contrived to obtain their consent, as the laws must have been particularly burdensome to those who had been hitherto accustomed to a different form of life. He violated all the rights of private property, and seizing upon the land, divided it into equal portions among the inhabitants. He at the same time stopped the currency of gold and silver, and allowed nothing but iron moneys. The inhabitants were obliged to eat at a public table, and he took care that their food should be of the most frugal kind. The children were educated together without regard to rank, and the chief object of their education was to make them obedient to command, to endure labour, to fight, and to conquer. After he had instituted these laws, he made the people swear to observe them till he should return, and left his country for ever. (For an account of the legislation of Lycurgus, see SPARTA.)