ifice. However, they admire Lycurgus as the principal
lawgiver, and all men celebrate Sparta for having continued in the firm
observance of his laws for a very long time. So far then we have gained,
that it is to be confessed a mark of virtue to submit to laws. [24] But
then let such as admire this in the Lacedemonians compare that duration
of theirs with more than two thousand years which our political
government hath continued; and let them further consider, that though
the Lacedemonians did seem to observe their laws exactly while they
enjoyed their liberty, yet that when they underwent a change of their
fortune, they forgot almost all those laws; while we, having been under
ten thousand changes in our fortune by the changes that happened among
the kings of Asia, have never betrayed our laws under the most pressing
distresses we have been in; nor have we neglected them either out
of sloth or for a livelihood. [25] if any one will consider it, the
difficulties and labors laid upon us have been greater than what appears
to have been borne by the Lacedemonian fortitude, while they neither
ploughed their land, nor exercised any trades, but lived in their own
city, free from all such pains-taking, in the enjoyment of plenty, and
using such exercises as might improve their bodies, while they made use
of other men as their servants for all the necessaries of life, and had
their food prepared for them by the others; and these good and humane
actions they do for no other purpose but this, that by their actions and
their sufferings they may be able to conquer all those against whom they
make war. I need not add this, that they have not been fully able to
observe their laws; for not only a few single persons, but multitudes of
them, have in heaps neglected those laws, and have delivered themselves,
together with their arms, into the hands of their enemies.

33. Now as for ourselves, I venture to say that no one can tell of so
many; nay, not of more than one or two that have betrayed our laws, no,
not out of fear of death itself; I do not mean such an easy death as
happens in battles, but that which comes with bodily torments, and seems
to be the severest kind of death of all others. Now I think those that
have conquered us have put us to such deaths, not out of their hatred to
us when they had subdued us, but rather out of their desire of seeing a
surprising sight, which is this, whether there be such men in the world
who believ