Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/417

HYPOTHESIS REGARDING LVKUKUf* 401 modern times, far more favorable to historical accuracy, how much false coloring has been attached by the political feeling of recent days to matters of ancient history, such as the Saxon Witenagemote, the Great Charter, the rise and growth of the English House of Commons, or even the Poor Law of Elizabeth. When we read the division of lands really proposed by king Agis, it is found to be a very close copy of the original division ascribed to Lykurgus. He parcels the lands bounded by the four limits of Pellene, Sellasia, Malea, and Taygetus, into four thousand five hundred lots, one to every Spartan; and the lands beyond these limits into fifteen thousand lots, one to each Peri- oekus ; and he proposes to constitute in Sparta fifteen pheiditia, or public mess-tables, some including four hundred individuals, others two hundred, thus providing a place for each of his four thousand five hundred Spartans. "With respect to the division originally ascribed to Lykurgus, different accounts were given. Some considered it to have set out nine thousand lots for the district of Sparta, and thirty thousand for the rest of Laconia; l others affirmed that six thousand lots had been given by Lykur- gus, and three thousand added afterwards by king Polydorus ; a third tale was, that Lykurgus had assigned four thousand five hundred lots, and king Polydorus as many more. This last scheme is much the same as what was really proposed by Agis. In the preceding argument respecting the redivision of land ascribed to Lykurgus, I have taken that measure as it is described by Plutarch. But there has been a tendency, in some able modern writers, while admitting the general fact of such redivi- sion, to reject the account given by Plutarch in some of its main circumstances. That, for instance, which is the capital feature in Plutarch's narrative, and which gives soul and meaning to his picture of the lawgiver the equality of partition is now re- jected by many as incorrect, and it is supposed that Lykurgus made some new agrarian regulations tending towards a general equality of landed property, but not an entirely new partition ; that he may have resumed from the wealthy men lands which they had unjustly taken from the conquered Achaians, and thus Respecting Sphasrus, see Plutarch, Lycurg. c. 8 ; Ivleomen. c. 2 ; Athcnw v. p. 141 ; Diogen. LaSrt. vii. sect. 137 VOL. ii, 2Goc.