[138] I pass now to the social system of the Spartans.
VII.

If we consider the situation of the Spartans at the time of Lycurgus, and during a long subsequent period, we see at once that to enable them to live at all, they must be accustomed to the life of a camp;--they were a little colony of soldiers, supporting themselves, hand and foot, in a hostile country, over a population that detested them.

In such a situation certain qualities were not praiseworthy alone--they were necessary.

To be always prepared for a foe--to be constitutionally averse to indolence--to be brave, temperate, and hardy, were the only means by which to escape the sword of the Messenian and to master the hatred of the Helot.

Sentinels they were, and they required the virtues of sentinels: fortunately, these necessary qualities were inherent in the bold mountain tribes that had long roved among the crags of Thessaly, and wrestled for life with the martial Lapithae.