232 SPARTA prove or reject measures by acclamation, but not to amend them. The ephors, correspond- ing to the Roman tribunes of the people, and probably of later origin than the age of Ly- curgus, were the representatives of this assem- bly, and during the Peloponnesian war exerted despotic authority, having completely super- soiU-d the kings as directors of affairs. The most important part of the Lycurgan legis- lation related to the discipline and education of the citizens. The individual was held to exist exclusively for the state, to which he should devote all his time, property, and ener- gies ; and every child, therefore, was under pub- lic inspection from his birth, and was trained simply with reference to warlike exercises, since mechanical labor, husbandry, and commerce were despised and neglected. If weak or de- formed, he* was exposed to perish ; otherwise, he was taken at seven years of age from his mother's care, and educated in the public class- es, where he was subjected to the severest bodily discipline, to habits of subordination, dexterity, and a terseness of speech which be- came distinguished as " laconic." At the age of 30 he was allowed to engage in public affairs and to marry, but still continued under public discipline, took his meals at the public mess, slept in the public barracks, and was released from military service only in his 60th year. Both sexes were subjected to nearly the same rigorous gymnastic training, the aim being not domestic enjoyment or refinement, but the pro- duction of a hardy race of citizens. The great men that arose from this discipline were dis- tinguished exclusively for military genius. Under the Lycurgan constitution Sparta began its career of conquest. The first and second Messenian wars (743-723 and 685-668, accord- ing to the common chronology) doubled its population and territory. Before 600 B. 0. it had conquered from the Arcadians the up- per parts of the valley of the Eurotas, and after repeated contests compelled Tegea, the capital of Arcadia, to acknowledge its suprem- acy (about 660). The long struggle between the Spartans and Argives terminated in fa- vor of the former by decisive victories in 547 and 624. Sparta had now acquired the he- gemony of Greece, and Croesus when threat- ened by the Persians had formed an alliance with it as the most powerful Greek state. It twice invaded Attica, and interfered in 'the affairs of the growing Athenian democracy. At the outbreak of the second Persian war, it was by unanimous consent intrusted with the chief command. The battles of Thermopylae and Salamis in 480, and of Platfea in 479, were fought respectively under the Spartan generals Leonidas, Eurybiades, and Pausanias. According to Herodotus, the Lacedemonians were represented at Platroa by 5,000 citizens 6,000 Perioeci, and 35,000 helots. The allies! excepting vEgina and the Peloponnesian states, were alienated by the arrogance of Pausanias, and therefore in 476 offered the supremacy to Athens. The hegemony thus passed from Sparta to Athens, and the rivalry of these states modified all the history of Greece till the Macedonian era. A destructive earthquake occasioned a revolt of the helots and the third Messenian war (464-455). The Spartans dis- trusted and rejected an' auxiliary force sent by the Athenians under Cimon, which was the cause of hostilities (457-452), the prelude to the long Peloponnesian war (431-404). This war, in which the opposed Doric and Ionic races exhausted their energies, terminated with the conquest of Athens and with the restora- tion of the hegemony to Sparta. One of its allies was Cyrus the Younger, and in return it aided him in his attempt to dethrone his brother Artaxerxes. The successes of Agesi- laus in Asia Minor in 396 had led him to form the project of overthrowing the Persian em- pire, when he was recalled by a confederacy of Corinth, Argos, Thebes, and Athens, which Persian gold and Greek jealousy had prompted against Sparta. The victories of Corinth and Coronea were counterbalanced by the naval defeat off Cnidus, and the peace of Antalci- das (387), which left it supreme in Greece, deprived it of its cities in Asia Minor. The Spartans exerted unrivalled authority, notwith- standing the alliance of Thebes and Athens against it in 379, until, in the fatal battle of Leuctra in 371, they were defeated by the Thebans under Epaminondas, and, for the first time in their history, by inferior numbers. Invasion followed, Sparta narrowly escaped capture, its army was again defeated at Man- tinea in 362, and it was stripped of the domin- ions which' it had acquired from the Messe- nians, Arcadians, and Argives ; and from this time it ceased to be a leading state in Greece. Having incurred the enmity of Philip of Mace- don by supporting the Phocians in the sacred war, its losses were confirmed and its power still further reduced by him ; but it refused to join the alliance of Athens and Thebes against him before the battle of Charonea, next to recognize his leadership in the proposed ex- pedition against Persia, and subsequently to join the Achaean league against the Macedo- nian and Roman supremacy. It prompted an anti-Macedonian movement, which was de- feated by the victory of Antipater at Megalo- polis in 831. The kings Agis IV. (244-240) and Cleomenes III. (236-220) attempted to re- vive the ancient virtue by restoring the insti- tutions of Lycurgus, abolishing the ephoralty, cancelling all debts, redistributing the lands, and enlarging the number of citizens by bring- ing back the exiles and bestowing the franchise on many of the Perioeci and on others who were deserving of it ; but the defeat of Sel- lasia (221) by the Achffians and the Macedo- nians under Antigonus Doson followed, and Sparta for the first time fell into the hands of conquerors. From intestine factions sprang the usurpations of Machanidas and Nabis (210- 192), after which it was compelled with the
