![]() ![]() Source: (/academic/departments/classics/Spartans.html) Early Sparta There's a possibility that the code came from Crete. Xenophon opts for the former, while Plato believes the latter. We don't know whether Lycurgus asked the oracle simply to confirm the law code he already had or asked the oracle to provide the code. In all he did Lycurgus was trying to suppress greed and luxury. Men were to live in barracks and women were to undergo physical training. It is also possible that the iron coins were valued, as iron had been in the Iron Age of Homer. Lycurgus forbade gold and silver coinage, replacing it with iron coinage of low value, making trade with other Greek poleis difficult for instance, there were supposedly loaf shaped and sized iron coins. Some think the laws of Sparta were essentially unchanged until the third century B.C., with the exception of a rider to the rhetra quoted by Plutarch. See Sanderson Beck's "Ethics of Greek Culture" for more on this. But then, instead of returning, Lycurgus disappears forever from history, thereby eternally obliging the Spartans to honor their agreement not to change the laws. Because of the authority invoked, the Spartans agreed. He tricked the Spartans into keeping the laws for an ostensibly short period - while Lycurus went on a journey. Lycurgus claimed that the Oracle had insisted the laws not be written down. Regardless of the origin of the laws of Lycurgus, the Delphic Oracle played an important, if legendary, role in their acceptance. Xenophon takes a contrary position, arguing Lycurgus made them up while Plato says the Delphic Oracle provided the laws. Herodotus 1.65.4 says the Spartans thought the laws of Lycurgus came from Crete. Like the origins of Lycurgus' legal reforms, the man himself is wrapped in legend. Athens had its Solon, and Sparta had its Lycurgus the lawgiver. Although the evolution of Greek law codes is complicated and can't really be reduced to the work of a single individual, there is one man who stands out as responsible for Athenian law and one for Spartan law.
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