ting on this, he made a journey to
Delphi. Here he sacrificed to the god, and, on consulting the oracle,
received that celebrated answer in which the Pythia speaks of him as
beloved by the gods, and a god rather than a man, and when he asked for
a good system of laws, answered that the god gives him what will prove
by far the best of all constitutions. Elated by this he collected the
leading men and begged them to help him, first by talking privately to
his own friends, and thus little by little obtaining a hold over more
men and banding them together for the work. When the time was ripe for
the attempt, he bade thirty of the nobles go into the market-place early
in the morning completely armed, in order to overawe the opposition. The
names of twenty of the most distinguished of these men have been
preserved by Hermippus, but the man who took the greatest part in all
Lykurgus's works, and who helped him in establishing his laws, was
Arthmiades. At first King Charilaus was terrified at the confusion,
imagining that a revolt had broken out against himself, and fled for
refuge to the temple of Minerva of the Brazen House; but, afterward
reassured and having received solemn pledges for his safety, returned
and took part in their proceedings. He was of a gentle nature, as is
proved by the words of his colleague, King Archelaus, who, when some
were praising the youth, said, "How can Charilaus be a good man, if he
is not harsh even to wicked men?"

Of Lykurgus's many reforms, the first and most important was the
establishment of the Council of Elders, which Plato says by its
admixture cooled the high fever of royalty, and, having an equal vote
with the kings on vital points, gave caution and sobriety to their
deliberations. For the state, which had hitherto been wildly oscillating
between despotism on the one hand and democracy on the other, now, by
the establishment of the Council of the Elders, found a firm footing
between these extremes, and was able to preserve a most equable balance,
as the eight-and-twenty elders would lend the kings their support in the
suppression of democracy, but would use the people to suppress any
tendency to despotism. Twenty-eight is the number of Elders mentioned by
Aristotle, because of the thirty leading men who took the part of
Lykurgus two deserted their post through fear. But Sphairus says that
those who shared his opinions were twenty-eight originally. A reason may
be found in twenty-eight