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O ur story goes back again to Greece, the land of Homer and the fairy-tale gods, and to Sparta, where Helen once lived.
About nine hundred years before Christ was born, there lived in Sparta a man named Lycurgus. That is a hard name, and when you hear about this man you may think he was hard, too. Lycurgus wanted his city to be the greatest in the world.
First he had to find out what it was that made a city and a people great.
He started off and traveled for years and years, visiting all the chief countries of the world to see if he could learn what it was that made them great. And this is what he learned.
Wherever the people thought chiefly of fun and pleasure, of amusing themselves and having a good time—he found they were not good for much, not of much account— not great.
Wherever the people thought chiefly of hard work and did what they ought, whether it was pleasant or not, he found they were usually good for something—of some account—great.
So Lycurgus came back to his home Sparta and set to work to make a set of rules that he thought would make his people greater than all other people in the world. These rules were called a Code of Laws, and I think you’ll agree they were very hard, and they made the Spartans hard, too—as hard as nails . We shall see whether they made the Spartans really great, also.
To begin with, babies, as soon as they were born, were examined to see that they were strong and perfect. Whenever one was found who did not seem to be so, he or she was put out on the mountainside and left to die. Lycurgus wanted no weaklings in Sparta.
When boys were seven years old, they were taken from their mothers and put in a school, which was more like a soldiers’ camp than a school, and they never lived anywhere else until they were sixty years old.
In this school they were not taught the things you are, but only the things that trained them to be good soldiers.
There were no such things as schoolbooks then.
There were no spelling books. There were no arithmetics.
There were no geographies. No one knew enough about the world to write a geography.
There were no histories. No one knew much about things that had happened in the world before that time, and of course none of the history since then that you now study had taken place.
At certain times, the Spartan boy was whipped, not because he had done anything wrong, but just to teach him to suffer pain without whimpering. He would have been disgraced forever if he had cried, no matter how badly he was hurt.
He was exercised and drilled and worked until he was ready to drop. Still he was obliged to keep on, no matter how tired or hungry or sleepy or aching he might be, and he must never show by any sign how he felt.
He was made to eat the worst kind of food, to go hungry and thirsty for long periods of time, to go out in the bitter cold with little or no clothing, just to get used to such hardships and able to bear all sorts of discomforts. This kind of training, this kind of hardening, is therefore called Spartan discipline . How do you think you would have liked it?
The Spartans’ food, clothing, and lodging were all furnished them, though it was very poor food and poor clothing and poor lodging. They were not allowed good things to eat, soft beds to lie on, or fine clothing to wear. Such things were called luxuries, and luxuries, Lycurgus thought, would make people soft and weak, and he wanted his people hard and strong.
The Spartans were even taught to speak in a short and blunt manner; they were taught not to waste words; they must say what they had to say in as few words as possible. This manner of speaking we call laconic from the name Laconia, the state in which Sparta was located.
Once a king wrote to the Spartans a threatening letter, saying that they had better do what he told them to, for if he came and took their country, he would destroy their city and make them slaves.
The Spartans sent a messenger back with their answer, and when the letter was opened, it contained only one word:
“IF!”
Even today, we call such an answer, short but to the point, a laconic answer.
Did all this hard training and hard work make the Spartans the greatest people in the world?
Lycurgus did make the Spartans the strongest and best fighters in the world—but—
The Spartans conquered all the peoples around about them, though there were ten times as many—but—
They made these people their slaves, who did all their farming and other work—but—
We shall see later whether Lycurgus’s idea was right.
North of Sparta was another great city of Greece called Athens. There were, of course, many other towns in Greece, but Sparta and Athens were the most important. In Athens the people lived and thought quite differently from those in Sparta.
The Athenians were just as fond of everything beautiful as the Spartans were of discipline and of everything military.
The Athenians loved athletic games of all sorts just as the Spartans did, but they also loved music and poetry and beautiful statues, paintings, vases, buildings, and such things that are known as the arts.
The Athenians believed in training the mind as well as the body. The Spartans believed the training of the body was the all-important thing. Which do you like better, the Athenians’ idea or the Spartans’ idea?
Once at a big game a very old man was looking for a seat on the Athenians’ side. There was no seat empty, and no Athenian offered to give him one. Whereupon the Spartans called to the old man and gave him the best seat on their side. The Athenians cheered the Spartans to show how fine they thought this act. At this the Spartans said:
“The Athenians know what is right but they don’t do it.”