verlook. It is clear that the lawgiver
set himself deliberately to provide all the blessings of heaven for the
good man, and a sorry and ill-starred existence for the coward.

In other states the man who shows himself base and cowardly wins to
himself an evil reputation and the nickname of a coward, but that is
all. For the rest he buys and sells in the same market-place as the
good man; he sits beside him at play; he exercises with him in the same
gymnasium, and all as suits his humour. But at Lacedaemon there is not
one man who would not feel ashamed to welcome the coward at the common
mess-tabe, or to try conclusions with such an antagonist in a wrestling
bout. Consider the day's round of his existence. The sides are being
picked up in a football match, (2) but he is left out as the odd man:
there is no place for him. During the choric dance (3) he is driven away
into ignominious quarters. Nay, in the very streets it is he who must
step aside for others to pass, or, being seated, he must rise and make
room, even for a younger man. At home he will have his maiden relatives
to support in isolation (and they will hold him to blame for their
unwedded lives). (4) A hearth with no wife to bless it--that is a
condition he must face, (5) and yet he will have to pay damages to the
last farthing for incurring it. Let him not roam abroad with a smooth
and smiling countenance; (6) let him not imitate men whose fame is
irreproachable, or he shall feel on his back the blows of his superiors.
Such being the weight of infamy which is laid upon all cowards, I, for
my part, am not surprised if in Sparta they deem death preferable to a
life so steeped in dishonour and reproach.

(2) See Lucian, "Anacharsis," 38; Muller, "Dorians," (vol. ii. 309,
Eng. tr.)

(3) The {khoroi}, e.g. of the Gymnopaedia. See Muller, op. cit. iv. 6,
4 (vol. ii. 334, Eng. tr.)

(4) {tes anandrias}, cf. Plut. "Ages." 30; or, {tes anandreias}, "they
must bear the reproach of his cowardice."

(5) Omitting {ou}, or translate, "that is an evil not to be
disregarded." See Dindorf, ad loc.; Sturz, "Lex. Xen." {Estia}.

(6) See Plut. "Ages." 30 (Clough, iv. 36); "Hell." VI. iv. 16.

X

That too was a happy enactment, in my opinion, by which Lycurgus
provided for the continual cultivation of virtue, even to old age. By
fixing (1) the election to the council of elders (2) as a last ordeal at
the goal of life, he made it impossible for a