The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [257]
17. Lycurgus, having thanked them, dismissed them all, except Alcander;
18. And, taking him with him into his house, neither did nor said anything severely to him, but bade Alcander to wait on him at table.
19. The young man, who was of an ingenuous temper, without murmuring did as he was commanded;
20. And being thus admitted to live with Lycurgus, he had an opportunity to observe in him, besides his gentleness and calmness, an extraordinary sobriety and an indefatigable industry,
21. And so, from an enemy, became one of his most zealous admirers.
Chapter 6
1. The public repast of Sparta had several names in Greek; the Cretans called them ‘andria’, because the men only came to them.
2. The Lacedaemonians called them ‘phiditia’, that is, by changing l into d, the same as ‘philitia’, love feasts, because by eating and drinking together they had opportunity of making friends.
3. Or perhaps from ‘phido’, parsimony, because they were so many schools of sobriety.
4. Or perhaps the first letter is an addition, and the word at first was ‘editia’, from ‘edode’, eating.
5. They met by companies of about fifteen, and each of them stood bound to bring in monthly a bushel of meal, eight gallons of wine, five pounds of cheese, two pounds and a half of figs and a small sum of money for meat or fish.
6. Besides this, when any of them had been hunting, he donated a part of the venison he had killed;
7. For such occasions were the only excuses allowed for supping at home.
8. The custom of eating together was observed strictly for a great while afterwards;
9. Insomuch that King Agis himself, after having vanquished the Athenians, sending for his commons at home, because he desired to eat privately with his queen, was refused by the polemarchs; when he complained they made him pay a fine.
10. The Spartans sent their children to these tables as to schools of temperance;
11. Here they were instructed in state affairs by listening to experienced statesmen;
12. Here they learned to converse with pleasantry, to make jests without scurrility, and to take teasing without ill humour.
13. In this point of good breeding the Lacedaemonians excelled particularly, but if any man were uneasy under it, upon the least hint given, no more was said to him.
14. It was customary also for the eldest in the company to say to each of them, as they came in, ‘Through this’ (pointing to the door) ‘no words go out.’
15. When anyone desired to be admitted into any of these little societies, he was to go through the following probation:
16. Each man in the company took a little ball of soft bread, which they were to throw into a basin carried by a waiter on his head.
17. Those favouring the candidate dropped their ball into the basin without altering its figure;
18. Those who disliked him flattened it between their fingers, and this signified a negative vote.
19. If there were just one of these flattened pieces in the basin, the suitor was rejected, so desirous were they that all the members of the company should be agreeable to each other.
20. The basin was called ‘caddichus’, and the rejected candidate had a name thence derived.
21. The most famous dish of the common table was black broth, which was so much valued that the older men fed only upon that, leaving the meat to the younger men.
22. After drinking moderately, every man went home without lights,
23. For the use of them was forbidden, so that they might accustom themselves to march boldly in the dark.
Chapter 7
1. Lycurgus would never put his laws into writing; there is a Rhetra expressly forbidding it.
2. For he thought that the most material points, being imprinted on the hearts of the youth by a good discipline, would be sure to remain, and would find a stronger security there.
3. It was his design that education should effect every end and object of the law.
4. And as for things of lesser importance, as pecuniary contracts and such like, the forms of which have to be changed as occasion requires,
5. He thought it best to prescribe no positive rules, willing that they