Key ideas: Tyrany vs. Freedom. The laws of Lycurgus in Sparta were almost the exact opposite of the laws of Solon in Athens. An individual in Sparta existed for the sake of the State; he was reduced to the level of a beast. In Solon's Athens, the State existed to serve the people; an individual was never sacrificed to the State. Sparta produced only rulers and warriors. Athens produced artists, poets, thinkers, philosophers - civilization.
Conditions in Sparta before Lycurgus
- The state wavered between monarchy and democracy.
- The state was weak, torn by internal discord..
- No clear distinction between the authority of the kings and the people..
- Unequal distribution of earthly goods among the citizens..
- Lack of public spirit and concord.
First, Lycurgus founded a Senate. It had 28 senators and 2 kings.
To [make everyone equal], he distributed all land of the country in equal parts among the citizens. "All Laconia," he proclaimed, "is a farm brotherly divided among its brothers."
He outlowed all gold and silver coins and introduced iron ones instead.
He assigned a very low value to the large and heavy pieces of iron, so that a large space was needed to store even a small sum of money, and many horses to transport it.
To [further devalue the money], he had the glowing-hot iron, which was used for the coins, quenched and tempered in vinegar, which made the iron unfit for any use.
Lycurgus then deprived his citizens of the means of luxury. Sparta's iron coins were of no use to a foreign merchant, so foreign ships stopped coming to its ports. Artists who made luxury products also left Laconia.
Lycurgus decreed, that all citizens eat together in a public place, and that they all eat the same prescribed meals. It was not allowed to indulge in delicacies at home, nor to eat luxurious foods prepared by one's own cook. Once a month, everyone was required to contribute a certain sum of money for the food at the common meals.
Among the Spartan meals, the black soup became famous—a meal in praise of which it is said, that the Spartans had to be courageous, for dying was hardly a worse fate than eating their black soup. Gluttony was halted completely; healthy and strong bodies were the result of this moderation and order.
The bodies of virgins were hardened by exercise, to enable them to bear strong and healthy children. The groom had to kidnap his wife, and was allowed to visit her only at night, and only if he had kidnapped her.
As soon as the child was born, it belonged to the state.
The child was examined by the eldest; if he was strong and well formed, he was given over to a nurse; if the child was weak and malformed, he was thrown into an abyss at the Taygetus mountain.
When a boy had reached his seventh year, he was taken from his nurse, and educated, fed, and cared for in common with other children of his age. He was trained to endure all hardships, and to achieve mastery of his limbs through physical training.
In war, Lycurgus relaxed the strict discipline, the lifestyle became freer, and offenses were less severely punished. Thus the war alone was a form of recreation to the Spartans, and they took joy in war as if in a festive occasion.
Everything which captivates the human soul and enflames passions, everything except political interests, was banned by law. Wealth and desires, science and art, had no access to the emotions of the Spartans.
All industry was banned, all science neglected, all trade with foreign peoples forbidden, everything foreign was excluded. The business of all its citizens together was to maintain what they possessed, and to remain as they were, not to obtain anything new, not to rise to a higher level.
The condition of the Athenian people at that time was lamentable in the extreme. One class of people possessed everything, the other, nothing at all; the rich mercilessly repressed and exploited the poor.
[As a result] three factions had emerged among the people.
The poor demanded a democracy, an equal distribution of farmland, as Lycurgus had introduced in Sparta;
The rich citizens, argued for aristocracy.
The third faction wanted to see the two forms of state combined, and opposed the other two factions, so that no one faction won out.
There was no hope of settling this strife calmly, as long as no one was found to whom all three parties would submit.
Fortunately, such a man was found. This man was Solon
Solon's first act was the famous edict, called Seisachtheia or the release, whereby all debts were annulled, and it was forbidden at the same time, for anyone to borrow on his own person.
He undertook the great work of giving the republic a new constitution.
All Athenians were divided into four classes or guilds based on their income.
The first three classes could assume public offices; those from the last class were excluded from public office, but had one vote in the national assembly as all the others, and, for that reason alone, had a large share in the government.
The constitution of Athens was transformed into a complete democracy. The people were sovereign and ruled not merely through representatives but in its own person and by itself.
One of Solon's laws decrees, that every citizen consider an insult against another person to be directed at himself and that he shall not rest until the insult has been avenged.
His intent was to imbue the citizen with a warm sympathy for all others and to accustom everyone to look upon each other as members of a cohesive whole.
Another law declared a person without honor if he remained neutral in an insurrection. Solon's concern was to instill in the citizens the most ardent interest in the state. To him, indifference toward the fatherland was the most hateful quality of his citizens.
One will not find a Socrates, a Thucydides, a Sophocles or a Plato in Sparta. Sparta was not capable of producing poets, thinkers, artists, or world-citizens--only rulers and warriers. Both, Solon and Lycurgus were great men, both were righteous men, but they achieved different results by following diametrically opposite principles.