and supplied Sparta with kings without interruption, and that generally in a regular fucceffion from father to fon, especially in the elder branch of the family.

The Origin and Condition of the Elotæ, or Helots.

When the Lacedæmonians first began to fettle in Peloponnefus, they met with great oppofition from the inhabitants of the country, whom they were obliged to fubdue one after another by force of arms, or receive into their alliance on eafy and equitable terms, as the paying them a small tribute. Strabos fpeaks of a city, called Elos, not far from Sparta, which, after having submitted to the yoke, as others had done, revolted openly, and refused to pay the tribute. Agis, the son of Eurifthenes, newly fettled in the throne, was fenfible of the dangerous tendency of this firft revolt, and therefore immediately marched with an army against them, together with Sous, his colleague. They laid fiege to the city, which, after a pretty long refiftance, was forced to furrender at dif cretion. This prince thought it proper to make fuch an example of them, as fhould intimidate all their neighbours, and deter them from the like attempts, and yet not alienate their minds by too cruel a treatment; for which reafon he put none to death. He fpared the lives of all the inhabitants, but at the fame time deprived them of their liberty, and reduced them all to a state of flavery. From thenceforward they were employed in all mean and fervile offices, and treated with extreme rigour. These were the people who were called Elotæ. The number of them exceedingly increased in procefs of time, the Lacedæmonians giving undoubtedly the fame name to all the people they reduced to the fame condi tion of fervitude. As they themfelves were averfe to la bour, and entirely addicted to war, they left the cultiva tion of their lands to these flaves, affigning every one them a certain portion of ground, of which they were obliged to carry the products every year to their refpec. • Lib. viii, p. 365, Plut, in Lycurg. p. 49.

of

tive mafters, who endeavoured by all forts of ill ufage to make their yoke more grievous and infupportable. This was certainly very bad policy, and could only tend to breed a vaft number of dangerous enemies in the very heart of the state, who were always ready to take arms and revolt on every occafion. The Romans acted more prudently in this refpect; for they incorporated the conquered nations into their state, by affociating them into the freedom of their city, and thereby converted them, from enemies, into brethren and fellow-citizens.

t

Lycurgus, the Lacedæmonian lawgiver.

Eurytion, or Eurypon, as he is named by others, fucceeded Soüs. In order to gain his people's affection, and render his government agreeable, he thought fit to recede in fome points, from the abfolute power exercised by the kings his predeceffors: this rendered his name fo dear to his fubjects, that all his fucceffors were, from him, called Eurytionides. But this relaxation gave birth to horrible confufion, and an unbounded licentiousness in Sparta, and for a long time occafioned infinite mifchiefs. The people became fo infolent, that nothing could reftrain them. If Eurytion's fucceffors attempted to recover their authority by force, they became odious; and if through complaifance or weakness, they chose to diffemble, their mildnefs ferved only to render them contemptible; fo that order was in a manner abolished, and the laws no longer regarded. Thefe confufions haftened the death of Lycurgus's father, whofe name was Eunomus, and who was killed in an infurrection. Polydectes, his eldest son and fucceffor, dying foon after without children, every body expected Lycurgus would have been king. And indeed he was fo in effect, as long as the preg nancy of his brother's wife was uncertain; but as foon as that was manifeft, he declared, that the kingdom belonged to her child, in cafe it proved a fon : and from that moment he administered the government, as guardian

• Plut. in Lycurg. p. 49.

to

to his unborn nephew, under the title of Prodicos, which was the name given by the Lacedæmonians to the guardians of their kings. When the child was born, Lycurgus took him in his arms, and cried out to the company that were prefent, "Behold, my lords of Sparta, this new-born child is your king:" and at the fame time he put the infant into the king's feat, and named him Charilaus, because of the joy the people expreffed upon occafion of his birth. The reader will find, in the fecond volume of this history, all that relates to the history of Lycurgus, the reformation he made, and the excellent laws he established in Sparta. Agefilaus was at this time king in the elder branch of the family.

War between the Argives and the Lacedæmonians. "Some time after this, in the reign of Theopompus, a war broke out between the Argives and Lacedæmo nians, on account of a little country, called Thyrea, that lay upon the confines of the two ftates, and to which each of them pretended a right. When the two armies were ready to engage, it was agreed on both fides, in order to fpare the effufion of blood, that the quarrel fhould be decided by three hundred of the braveft men on both fides; and that the land in question fhould become the property of the victorious party. To leave the combatants more room to engage, the two armies retired to fome distance. Thofe generous champions then, who had all the courage of two mighty armies, boldly advanced towards each other, and fought with fo much refolution and fury, that the whole number, except three men, two on the fide of the Argives, and one on that of the Lacedæmonians, lay dead upon the spot; and only the night parted them. The two Argives looking upon themselves as the conquerors, made what hafte they could to Argos to carry the news: the fingle Lacedæmonian, Othryades by name, instead of retiring ripped the dead bodies of the Argives, and carrying

Herod. 1. i. c, 18.

their arms into the Lacedæmonian camp, continued in his post. The next day the two armies returned to the field of battle. Both fides laid equal claim to the vic tory: the Argives, because they had more of their champions left alive than the enemy had; the Lacedæ monians, because the two Argives that remained alive had fled; whereas their fingle foldier had remained mafter of the field of battle, and had carried off the spoils of the enemy: in fhort, they could not determine the difpute without coming to another engagement. Here fortune declared in favour of the Lacedæmonians, and the little territory of Thyrea was the prize of their victory. But Othryades, not able to bear the thoughts of furviving his brave companions, or of enduring the fight of Sparta after their death, killed himself on the fame field of battle where they had fought, resolving to have one fate and tomb with them.

Wars between the 'Meffenians and Lacedæmonians.

There were no less than three several wars between the Meffenians and the Lacedæmonians, all of them very fierce and bloody. Meflenia was a country in Peloponnefus, not far weftward from Sparta; it was of confiderable ftrength, and had its own particular kings.

The firft Meffenian war.

The firft Meffenian war lafted twenty years, and broke out the fecond year of the ninth Olympiad. The Lacedaemonians pretended to have received feveral confiderable injuries from the Meffenians, and among others, that of having had their daughters ravished by the inhabitants of Meffenia, when they went, according to custom, to a temple, that flood on the borders of the two nations as alfo that of the murder of Telecles, their king, which was a confequence of the former. Pro

A. M. 3261. Ant. J. C. 743. Paufan. I. iv. p. 216-240. Juftin. 1. ii. c. 4.

bably

.

bably a defire of extending their dominion, and of seizing a territory which lay fo convenient for them, might be the true caufe of the war. But be that as it will, the war broke out in the reign of Polydorus and Theopompus, kings of Sparta, at the time when the office of archon at Athens was ftill decennial.

y Euphaes, the thirteenth defcendant from Hercules, was then king of Meffenia. He gave the command of his army to Cleonnis. The Lacedæmonians opened the campaign with the fiege of Amphea, a fmall inconfiderable city, which however, they thought, would be very proper to make a place of arms. The town was taken by form, and all the inhabitants put to the fword. The first blow ferved only to animate the Meffenians, by fhowing them what they were to expect from the enemy, if they did not defend themselves with vigour. The Lacedæmonians, on their part, bound themfelves by an oath, not to lay down their arms, or return to Sparta, till they had made themselves masters of all the cities and lands belonging to the Meffenians; fuch an affurance had they of the fuccefs of their arms, and of their invincible courage.

z Two battles were fought, wherein the lofs was pretty equal on both fides. But after the fecond, the Meffenians fuffered extremely through the want of provifions, which occafioned a great desertion in their troops, and at laft brought the plague among them.

Hereupon they confulted the oracle of Delphos,which directed them, in order to appease the wrath of the gods, to offer up a virgin of the royal blood in facrifice. Ariftomenes, who was of the race of the Epytides, offered his own daughter. The Meffenians then confidering, that if they left garrisons in all their towns, they fhould extremely weaken their army, refolved to abandon all their towns, except Ithoma, a little place feated on the top of a hill of the fame name, about which they encamped and fortified themselves. In this fituation were feven years spent, during which nothing paffed but flight ▾ Paufan. 1. iv. p. 223—226, z Ibid. p. 227-234. fkirmishes