those of 464 B.C., followed by 457 B.C., Thuc. i. 102; Plut.
"Cimon," c. 16; and Thuc. i. 108.

I seem to overhear a retort, "No one, of course, is deprived of his
civil rights at Athens unjustly." My answer is, that there are some
who are unjustly deprived of their civil rights, though the cases are
certainly rare. But it will take more than a few to attack the democracy
at Athens, since you may take it as an established fact, it is not the
man who has lost his civil rights justly that takes the matter to heart,
but the victims, if any, of injustice. But how in the world can any one
imagine that many are in a state of civil disability at Athens, where
the People and the holders of office are one and the same? It is from
iniquitous exercise of office, from iniquity exhibited either in speech
or action, and the like circumstances, that citizens are punished with
deprivation of civil rights in Athens. Due reflection on these matters
will serve to dispel the notion that there is any danger at Athens from
persons visited with disenfranchisement.

THE POLITY OF THE LACEDAEMONIANS

I

I recall the astonishment with which I (1) first noted the unique
position (2) of Sparta amongst the states of Hellas, the relatively
sparse population, (3) and at the same time the extraordinary power and
prestige of the community. I was puzzled to account for the fact. It was
only when I came to consider the peculiar institutions of the Spartans
that my wonderment ceased. Or rather, it is transferred to the
legislator who gave them those laws, obedience to which has been the
secret of their prosperity. This legislator, Lycurgus, I must needs
admire, and hold him to have been one of the wisest of mankind.
Certainly he was no servile imitator of other states. It was by a
stroke of invention rather, and on a pattern much in opposition to the
commonly-accepted one, that he brought his fatherland to this pinnacle
of prosperity.

(1) See the opening words of the "Cyrop." and of the "Symp."

(2) Or, "the phenomenal character." See Grote, "H. G." ix. 320 foll.;
Newman, "Pol. Arist." i. 202.

(3) See Herod. vii. 234; Aristot. "Pol." ii. 9, 14 foll.; Muller,
"Dorians," iii. 10 (vol. i. p. 203, Eng. tr.)

Take for example--and it is well to begin at the beginning (4)--the
whole topic of the begetting and rearing of children. Throughout the
rest of the world the young girl, who will one day become a mother (and
I speak