of advantage; but, as in the case
of a body diseased and full of bad humours, whose temperament is to be
corrected and new formed by medicines, it was necessary to begin a new
regimen. With these sentiments he went to Delphi, and when he had
offered and consulted the god, he returned with that celebrated oracle,
in which the priestess called him "Beloved of the gods, and rather a god
than a man." As to his request that he might enact good laws, she told
him, Apollo had heard his request, and promised that the constitution he
should establish would be the most excellent in the world. Thus
encouraged, he applied to the nobility, and desired them to put their
hands to the work; addressing himself privately at first to his friends,
and afterwards by degrees, trying the disposition of others, and
preparing them to concur in the business. When matters were ripe, he
ordered thirty of the principal citizens to appear armed in the
market-place by break of day, to strike terror into such as might desire
to oppose him. Hermippus has given us the names of twenty of the most
eminent of them; but he that had the greatest share in the whole
enterprise, and gave Lycurgus the best assistance in the establishing of
his laws, was called Arithmiades. Upon the first alarm, king Charilaus,
apprehending it to be a design against his person, took refuge in the
Chalcioicos. But he was soon satisfied, and accepted of their oath. Nay,
so far from being obstinate, he joined in the undertaking. Indeed, he
was so remarkable for the gentleness of his disposition, that Archelaus,
his partner in the throne, is reported to have said to some that were
praising the young king, "Yes, Charilaus is a good man to be sure, who
cannot find in his heart to punish the bad." Among the many new
institutions of Lycurgus, the first and most important was that of a
senate; which sharing, as Plato says, in the power of the kings, too
imperious and unrestrained before, and having equal authority with them,
was the means of keeping them within the bounds of moderation, and
highly contributed to the preservation of the state. For before it had
been veering and unsettled, sometimes inclining to arbitrary power, and
sometimes towards a pure democracy; but this establishment of a senate,
an intermediate body, like ballast, kept it in a just equilibrium, and
put it in a safe posture: the twenty-eight senators adhering to the
kings, whenever they saw the people too encroaching,