The Spartan Regime_ Its Character, Origins, and Grand Strategy - Paul Anthony Rahe

(Dana P.) #1

Notes to Pages 52–60 171


53.Brutus on the virtues of dyarchy: Dion Hal. Ant. Rom. 4.73.4.



  1. Royal rivalry: Hdt. 6.52.8, Arist. Pol. 1271a25–26. See also Plut. Mor. 215f. Foreign cli-
    ents of differing political persuasions in Phlius (Xen. Hell. 5.3.10–17, 20–25; cf. Diod. 15.19.4),
    Mantineia (Xen. Hell. 5.2.1–7, 6.5.4), and Elis (3.2.21–31, Paus. 3.8.3–6, Plut. Mor. 835f, Lys.
    18.10–12). Note also the ties linking Agesilaus with leading figures at Tegea: Xen. Hell. 6.4.18,
    Ages. 2.23. In this connection, see Ernst Baltrusch, “Polis und Gastfreundschaft: Die Grundlagen
    der spartanischen Aussenpolitik,” in FS, 165–91. Factions sometimes grouped about the two thrones:
    e.g., Xen. Hell. 5.4.25.
    55.See Rahe, PC, Chapter 4.

  2. Sthenelaidas vs. Archidamus: Thuc. 1.79–88. Pleistoanax was then in exile (Thuc. 5.16
    with Plut. Pe r. 22.3) and his son Pausanias was a minor (Thuc. 3.26). In light of what we know
    concerning the career of Pleistoanax both before (Plut. Pe r. 22.1–3) and after (Thuc. 5.16) his exile
    and of what we know concerning Pausanias’ subsequent activities (Plut. Lys. 21.1–7, Xen. Hell.
    2.4.29–43, Diod. 14.33.5–7, Paus. 3.5.1–3, Lys. 18.10–12), it seems unlikely that Pleistoanax’
    younger sibling Cleomenes, who served as Pausanias’ regent, was in favor of war or could have
    swung the adherents of his brother and nephew behind a policy that must have been repugnant to
    them. This cannot, however, be ruled out as a possibility. For another view, see W. Robert Connor,
    “Pausanias 3.14.1: A Sidelight on Spartan History, C. 440 B.C.,” TAPhA 109 (1979): 21–27.
    57.Character of regime mix: Plut. Dion 53.4. Master of the many: Dem. 20.10. Power of the
    gérontes: Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 2.14.2.

  3. Membership in gerousía prize allotted to virtue: Dem. 20.107, Arist. Pol. 1270b23–25.
    Highest honor in city: Plut. Lyc. 26. Prestige associated with membership: Mor. 801b–c.

  4. Drawn from aristocracy: consider Hdt. 9.85.2—where all of the manuscripts, in reading
    hıréas and not ırénes, point to the existence at Lacedaemon of a sacerdotal aristocracy—in con-
    junction with Pierre Brulé and Laurent Piolot, “Women’s Way of Death: Fatal Childbirth or Hierai?
    Commemorative Stones at Sparta and Plutarch, Lycurgus, 27.3,” tr. Anton Powell, in SpartSoc,
    151–78; then, note Aristotle’s claim (Pol. 1294b19–29) that the gerousía was, for all intents and
    purposes, reserved for the kaloì kagathoí; consider his employment (1306a18–19) of the word
    dunasteutıkē ́—which was ordinarily used to single out narrow, clan-based aristocracies—to de-
    scribe the process by which the gérontes were selected; and see Rahe, “The Selection of Ephors
    at Sparta,” 386–87 (with notes). Popular acclamation and life tenure: Plut. Lyc. 26.1–5, Ages. 4.3;
    Polyb. 6.45.5. Power to set agenda and annul assembly decisions that go beyond agenda: Plut. Lyc.
    6, Agis 8–9 with Forrest, “Legislation in Sparta,” 11–19. Service with ephors on juries in capital
    cases: Paus. 3.5.3, Plut. Mor. 217b, Arist. Pol. 1275b10. Augurs: Cic. Div. 1.43.95–96.
    60.See Ephraim David, “The Trial of Spartan Kings,” RIDA, 3rd ser., 32 (1985): 131–40.

  5. Candidates canvass for office: Arist. Pol. 1271a10–18. Gérontes preside over disposition
    of all public affairs: Isoc. 12.154. Factions and their election: Nikos Birgalias, “La Gerousía et les
    gérontes de Sparte,” Ktèma 32 (2007): 341–49.

  6. Guardian of the constitution: Just. Epit. 3.3.2, Isoc. 12.154. Comparable role played by
    England’s House of Lords: The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, ed. Max Farrand (New
    Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1911–37), I 288–89, 309–10: 18 June 1787.
    63.Aristotle on the young: Rh. 1389a2–b12.
    64.Aristotle on the old: Rh. 1389b13–1390a22. Cf. Soph. Aj. 1328–67 with 678–83.
    65.Young excluded from political responsibilities: Thuc. 4.132.3. This did not preclude their
    holding subordinate leadership positions within the agōgē ́: see, for example, Xen. Lac. Pol. 2.1–14
    (esp. 2, 5, 8, 11), Plut. Lyc. 16.8, 17.2–18.7 with Ducat, SE, 69–117. War for the young, deliberation
    for the old: Arist. Pol. 1329a2–17. Exaggerated respect paid to age: Hdt. 2.80.1; Xen. Mem. 3.5.15;
    Plut. Lyc. 15.2–3, 20.15, Mor. 227f, 232f, 235c–f, 237d; Just. Epit. 3.3.9 with Ephraim David, Old
    Age in Sparta (Amsterdam: Adolf M. Hakkert, 1991). Cf. Plato’s depiction of Athens: Resp.
    8.562e–563d.

  7. Old well-suited to be censors: Plut. Mor. 795e–796a. Punished for failure to discipline
    wrongdoing on the part of the young: 237c. See also Lyc. 17.1–2.
    67.Hetoimaridas: Diod. 11.50. On rare occasions, the division between young and old could
    even become a ground for civil strife in a city: Polyb. 4.53.3–55.6.

  8. Well-mixed regime: Arist. Pol. 1294b13–41. Egalitarian socioeconomic arrangements:

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