Lycurgus   

the minds of the listeners, that they were insensibly softened and
civilized, insomuch that they renounced their private feuds and animosities,
and were reunited in a common admiration of virtue. So that it may
truly be said that Thales prepared the way for the discipline introduced
by Lycurgus.
From Crete he sailed to Asia, with design, as is said, to examine
the difference betwixt the manners and rules of life of the Cretans,
which were very sober and temperate, and those of the Ionians, a people
of sumptuous and delicate habits, and so to form a judgment; just
as physicians do by comparing healthy and diseased bodies. Here he
had the first sight of Homer's works, in the hands, we may suppose,
of the posterity of Creophylus; and, having observed that the few
loose expressions and actions of ill example which are to be found
in his poems were much outweighed by serious lessons of state and
rules of morality, he set himself eagerly to transcribe and digest
them into order, as thinking they would be of good use in his own
country. They had, indeed, already obtained some slight repute among
the Greeks, and scattered portions, as chance conveyed them, were
in the hands of individuals; but Lycurgus first made them really known.
The Egyptians say that he took a voyage into Egypt, and that, being
much taken with their way of separating the soldiery from the rest
of the nation, he transferred it from them to Sparta, a removal from
contact with those employed in low and mechanical occupations giving
high refinement and beauty to the state. Some Greek writers also record
this. But as for his voyages into Spain, Africa and the Indies, and
his conferences there with the Gymnosophists, the whole relation,
as far as I can find, rests on the single credit of the Spartan Aristocrates,
the son of Hipparchus.
Lycurgus was much missed at Sparta, and often sent for, "for kings
indeed we have," they said, "who wear the marks and assume the titles
of royalty, but as for the qualities of their minds, they have nothing
by which they are to be distinguished from their subjects; adding,
that in him alone was the true foundation of sovereignty to be seen,
a nature made to rule, and a genius to gain obedience. Nor were the
kings themselves averse to see him back, for they looked upon his
presence as a bulwark against the insolence of the people.
Things being in this posture at his return, he applied himself, without
loss of time, to a thorough reformation, and resolved to change the
whole face of the commonwealth; for what could a few particular laws
and a partial alteration avail? He must act as wise physicians do,
in the case of one who labours under a complication of diseases, by
force of medicines reduce and exhaust him, change his whole temperament,
and then set him upon a totally new regimen of diet. Having thus projected
things, away he goes to Delphi to consult Apollo there; which having
done, and offered his sacrifice, he returned with that renowned oracle,
in which he is called beloved of God, and rather God than man; that
his prayers were heard, that his laws should be the best, and the
commonwealth which observed them the most famous in the world. Encouraged
by these things he set himself to bring over to his side the leading
men of Sparta, exhorting them to give him a helping hand in his great
undertaking; he broke it first to his particular friends, and then
by degrees, gained others, and animated them all to put his design
in execution. When things were ripe for action, he gave orders to
thirty of the principal men of Sparta to be ready armed at the market-place
by break of day, to the end that he might strike a terror into the
opposite party. Hermippus hath set down the names of twenty of the
most eminent of them; but the name of him whom Lycurgus most confided
in, and who was of most use to him, both in making his laws and putting
them in execution was Arthmiadas. Things growing to a tumult, King
Charilaus, apprehending that it was a conspiracy against his person,
took sanctuary in the temple of Minerva of the Brazen House; but,
being soon after undeceived, and having taken an oath of them that
they had no designs against him, he quitted his refuge, and himself
also entered into the confederacy with them; of so gentle and flexible