Stories from the History of Greece, from the Earliest Period to Its Final Conquest by the Romans (Volume 1); Adapted to the Capacities of Children

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1830. Excerpt: ... CHAP. II. fcACEDEMON-THE 1AWS OF LVCURGUS--THE MESSENIAN WAR. The most remarkable cities in Greece after the time of the Trojan war, were Lacedemon and Athens; Lacedemon, called also Sparta, Was the capital of a district named Laconia, situate in the south of Peloponnesus; Athens was the capital of Attica, a state in another part of Greece. The history of both these states is extremely curious and entertaining. We shall begin with the first mentioned, because it was the older of the two. Few of the states of Greece had kings at this time. They were mostly governed by rulers, chosen by the people, sometimes for a year, sometimes for a longer time. Countries which are governed in this manner are called republics. Lacedemon, however, was one of the few HISTORY OF LYCURGUS. 11 states which had a kingly government. But what is very extraordinary, instead of one king, as is the case in most countries we read of, the Lacedemonians always had two. The reason of this was as follows: --One of their kings, when lie died, left two sons after him, twins, so like, that even their mother could not tell which was the elder. It was therefore settled, in order to prevent disputes, that they should both be kings together. This manner of settling the question did not answer. The kings were but too apt to quarrel with each other; and, as some of the people took part with one, and some with the other, disputes became very frequent. To put an end to such a state of things it was at length resolved that new laws should be made, which would oblige every body to conduct himself with propriety, and Lycurgus was chosen to prepare these laws, about 884 years before Christ. Lycurgus was a man of great wisdom and honesty, and respected by all. His laws, of whicli we are about to give so..