Lycurgus The Lawgiver

Lycurgus the Lawgiver

Biography

• Uncertain whether he was a real person.• If he was, his life must be placed in the 7th century. • He introduced a set of laws called ‘The Great Rhetra’• This was believed to be the constitution of Sparta in

the classical period• In reality, although conservative, the laws of Sparta

were a larger collection accumulated over time, and much of them was unwritten custom, rather than written law in the modern sense.

The text of the Great Rhetra

• When thou has built a temple to Zeus Syllanius and Athena Syllania, divided the people into phylai, and divided them into 'obai', and established a Gerousia of thirty including the Archagetai, then from time to time 'appellazein' between Babyka and Knakion, and there introduce and repeal measures; but the Demos must have the decision and the power.

• (Later addition:) But if the Demos should choose badly, the Gerontes and Kings shall be 'apostateres'

Historical Judgement:

• For its day, the great Rhetra was a radical concept, and a remarkable document, as it established direct democracy for the first time in human history.

• However, its message was eroded later• The political conservatism of Sparta had already

rendered it archaic by the end of the 5th c. when Sparta reached its peak

• It was never applied properly• It was not followed by any other reform in the coming

centuries.

The Messenian Wars

• First Messenian War (743-24)

• The Messenians successfully resist Spartan attacks for years from the heavily fortified position of Mt. Ithome

• After the death of king Aristodemos, Ithome fell and Messenia was enslaved.

The Second Messenian War (685-668)

• The enslaved Messenians revolted under Aristomenes, who was eventually declared king of Messenia. For a long time they successfully resisted Sparta, but in the end they were defeated and became helots, until 370 BC, when the Theban Epameinondas reinstated Messenian Independence.

• Historians have argued that the Spartans were enslaved to the enslaved Messenians.