Lycurgus   

a disposition he was, to which Archelaus, his brother-king, alluded,
when, hearing him extolled for his goodness, he said, "Who can say
he is anything but good? he is so even to the bad."
Amongst the many changes and alterations which Lycurgus made, the
first and of greatest importance was the establishment of the senate,
which having a power equal to the king's in matters of great consequence,
and, as Plato expresses it, allaying and qualifying the fiery genius
of the royal office, gave steadiness and safety to the commonwealth.
For the state, which before had no firm basis to stand upon, but leaned
one while towards an absolute monarchy, when the kings had the upper
hand, and another while towards a pure democracy, when the people
had the better, found in this establishment of the senate a central
weight, like ballast in a ship, which always kept things in a just
equilibrium; the twenty-eight always adhering to the kings so far
as to resist democracy, and on the other hand, supporting the people
against the establishment of absolute monarchy. As for the determinate
number of twenty-eight, Aristotle states, that it so fell out because
two of the original associates, for want of courage, fell off from
the enterprise; but Sphaerus assures us that there were but twenty-eight
of the confederates at first; perhaps there is some mystery in the
number, which consists of seven multiplied by four, and is the first
of perfect numbers after six, being, as that is, equal to all its
parts. For my part, I believe Lycurgus fixed upon the number of twenty-eight,
that, the two kings being reckoned amongst them, they might be thirty
in all. So eagerly set was he upon this establishment, that he took
the trouble to obtain an oracle about it from Delphi, the Rhetra,
which runs thus: "After that you have built a temple to Jupiter Helianius,
and to Minerva Hellania, and after that you have phyle'd the people
into phyles, and obe'd them into obes, you shall establish a council
of thirty elders, the leaders included, and shall, from time to time,
apellazein the people betwixt Babyca and Cnacion, there propound and
put to the vote. The commons have the final voice and decision." By
phyles and obes are meant the divisions of the people; by the leaders,
the two kings; apellazein, referring to the Pythian Apollo, signifies
to assemble; Babyca and Cnacion they now call Oenus; Aristotle says
Cnacion is a river, and Babyca a bridge. Betwixt this Babyca and Cnacion,
their assemblies were held, for they had no council-house or building
to meet in. Lycurgus was of opinion that ornaments were so far from
advantaging them in their counsels, that they were rather an hindrance,
by diverting their attention from the business before them to statues
and pictures, and roofs curiously fretted, the usual embellishments
of such places amongst the other Greeks. The people then being thus
assembled in the open air, it was not allowed to any one of their
order to give his advice, but only either to ratify or reject what
should be propounded to them by the king or senate. But because it
fell out afterwards that the people, by adding or omitting words,
distorted and perverted the sense of propositions, Kings Polydorus
and Theopompus inserted into the Rhetra, or grand covenant, the following
clause: "That if the people decide crookedly it should be lawful for
the elders and leaders to dissolve;" that is to say, refuse ratification,
and dismiss the people as depravers and perverters of their counsel.
It passed among the people, by their management, as being equally
authentic with the rest of the Rhetra, as appears by these verses
of Tyrtaeus,-
"These oracles they from Apollo heard,
And brought from Pytho home the perfect word:
The heaven-appointed kings, who love the land,
Shall foremost in the nation's council stand;
The elders next to them; the commons last;
Let a straight Rhetra among all be passed."
Although Lycurgus had, in this manner, used all the qualifications
possible in the constitution of his commonwealth, yet those who succeeded
him found the oligarchical element still too strong and dominant,
and to check its high temper and its violence, put, as Plato says,