vi.] and Aristotle [Aristot.
Repub., lib.

ii.] give very unfavourable testimonials of their chastity.

Plutarch, the blind panegyrist of Sparta, observes with amusing composure, that the Spartan husbands were permitted to lend their wives to each other; and Polybius (in a fragment of the 12th book) [Fragm.

Vatican., tom.ii., p.

384.] informs us that it was an old-fashioned and common custom in Sparta for three or four brothers to share one wife.