Alexander : a history of the origin and growth of the art of war from ...

share ofLAWS OF LYCURGUS. 35plunder, promotion, gifts of weapons and marks ofhonor, and in civil advancement or public support.The Greek soldier was a curious mixture of virtues andvices. He possessed courage, discipline and self-abnegatingpatriotism in the highest measure, but was prejudiced, superstitiousand monstrously cruel. The Greek states werecharacterized by similar tendencies. The individual merelyreflected the state in petto.Sparta. — Among aU the Greek states, Sparta in the ninthcentury b. c, and Athens in the sixth, were distinguished forthe perfection of their military organization. The main objectof the laws of Lycurgus (820 b. c.) was to form a militarypower out of a mass of free citizens, and to impress onthe individual soldier those qualities of courage, endurance,obedience and skill which would make him irresistible. Thisthey did by banishing arts and sciences, — civilizationalmost, — and by reducing life downto its lowest limits of simplicity and seKdenial.Tliis method fully accomplished itsaim ; soldiers have rarely, perhaps never, beenanimated by so single a martial spirit as theSpartans. Love of country, and willingnessto sacrifice to it self and all which lends lifeworth, has never been more fully exemplifiedthan in the Pass of Thermopylae. But whatwas gained in one sense was lost in another.A state cannot become great in its best senseby its soldierly qualities and achievementsalone.Greek Hoplite.The Spartan youth belonged, not to the parent, but to thestate. They were educated in common, and drilled in gymnasticsand the use of arms from earliest childhood. They