valley made it a well-guarded camp, and the Dorian conquerors of
the Peloponnesus, surrounded by enemies and threatened by warlike
neighbors, soon saw that the only hope of holding their conquests and
extending their power lay in the maintenance of a warlike race.

Lycurgus, usually reputed to have lived in the ninth century before
Christ, was the founder of the legislation which constituted the
greatness of Sparta. He was one of the originators of the principle, so
characteristic of antiquity and in such contrast to the spirit of modern
times: "The citizen is born and lives for the State; to it his time, his
strength, and all his powers belong." Nowhere was this maxim so rigidly
enforced as at Sparta. Lycurgus established institutions of a public
nature which gave a centralized administration of the most rigid sort,
and regulations relating to private life which would develop a warlike
type of citizen, the whole system tending to make Sparta supreme in the
Peloponnesus, and her soldiers invincible in war. To accomplish this
end, the daily life of every individual, both male and female, was under
the control of the State. The effect of such a system on the character
has been happily expressed by Rousseau: "He strengthened the citizen by
taking away the human traits from the man."

Lycurgus saw that the salvation of Sparta depended on its citizens being
a nation of warriors. Only by being always ready for war and by
possessing an invincible body of soldiery could the State fulfil its
destiny in the work of the world. He realized further that the natural
antecedent of a nation of men strong physically and intellectually is a
race of healthy, sturdy, able-bodied women. Hence his training of the
daughters of Sparta was the corner-stone of his system. Valuing woman
only for her fruitfulness, his legislation in regard to her had but one
object in view--fitting her to be the mother of a powerful race of men.
Maidens, therefore, as well as youths, were subjected to the most rigid
physical training.

From the moment of birth, the Spartan boy or girl was in the hands of
the State. The infant was exposed in the place of public assembly, and
if the elders considered it frail and unpromising, or for any reason
regarded its existence of no value to the State, the child was thrown
off a cliff of Mount Taygetus,--a usage shocking to modern
sensibilities, but accepted as a necessity by Plato, Aristotle, and
other ancient philosophers.