Herodotus · c. 440–430 BCE (composition of Histories; Volume I corresponds to Book I, “Clio”)
primary
passage 26 of 304 · BOOK I. THE FIRST BOOK OF THE HISTORIES, CALLED CLIO (24/92)
↪ you wandered here via “Sparta and Crete constitutions” — the connecting lines are tinted below
was despot of the Athenians; but of the Athenians some had fallen in the battle, and others of them with the sons of Alcmaion were exiles from their native land.
- Such was the condition of things which Croesus heard was prevailing among the Athenians during this time; but as to the Lacedemonians he heard that they had escaped from great evils and had now got the better of the Tegeans in the war. For when Leon and Hegesicles were kings of
Sparta, the Lacedemonians, who had good success in all their other wars, suffered disaster in that alone which they waged against the men of
Tegea. Moreover in the times before this they had the worst laws of almost all the Hellenes, both in matters which concerned themselves alone and also in that they had no dealings with strangers. And they made their change to a good constitution of laws thus:—Lycurgos, a man of the Spartans who was held in high repute, came to the Oracle at
Delphi, and as he entered the sanctuary of the temple, straightway the
Pythian prophetess said as follows:
"Lo, thou art come, O Lycurgos, to this rich shrine of my temple,
Loved thou by Zeus and by all who possess the abodes of Olympos.
Whether to call thee a god, I doubt, in my voices prophetic,
God or a man, but rather a god I think, O Lycurgos."
- Some say in addition to this that the Pythian prophetess also set forth to him the order of things which is now established for the
Spartans; but the Lacedemonians themselves say that Lycurgos having become guardian of Leobotes his brother's son, who was king of the
Spartans, brought in these things from Crete. For as soon as he became guardian, he changed all the prevailing laws, and took measures that they should not transgress his institutions: and after this Lycurgos established that which appertained to war, namely Enomoties and Triecads and Common Meals, 7701 and in addition to this the Ephors and the
Senate. Having changed thus, the Spartans had good laws; and to Lycurgos after he was dead they erected a temple, and they pay him great worship.
So then, as might be supposed, with a fertile land and with no small number of men dwelling in it, they straightway shot up and became prosperous: and it was no longer sufficient for them to keep still; but presuming that they were superior in strength to the Arcadians, they consulted the Oracle at Delphi respecting conquest of the whole of
Arcadia; and the Pythian prophetess gave answer thus:
"The land of Arcadia thou askest; thou askest me much; I refuse it;
Many there are in Arcadian land, stout men, eating acorns;
These will prevent thee from this: but I am not grudging towards thee;
Tegea beaten with sounding feet I will give thee to dance in,
And a fair plain I will give thee to measure with line and divide it."
When the Lacedemonians heard report of this, they held off from the other Arcadians, and marched against the Tegeans with fetters in their hands, trusting to a deceitful 78 oracle and expecting that they would make slaves of the men of Tegea. But having been worsted in the encounter, those of them who were taken alive worked wearing the fetters which they themselves brought with them and having "measured with line and divided" 79 the plain of the Tegeans. And these fetters with which they had been bound were preserved even to my own time at Tegea, hanging about the temple of Athene Alea. 80
HKB