6 Prologue
Plato, and Aristotle.^25 His biography of Lycurgus is, moreover, an encomium
of sorts, and his description of the lawgiver owes a great deal to legend and
something as well to the imagination, as he readily acknowledges.^26 But with
regard to the actual polıteía of the Lacedaemonians and its genesis, he dis-
played his customary discernment and caution; and it was on the Socratics
and Aristotle, whom he revered, and on Ephorus, the peripatetics, and their
Stoic successors that he principally relied for the details.^27 If not just Plutarch,
but, in fact, all of these figures—critics and eulogists alike—found Sparta fas-
cinating and worthy of study, and if, moreover, they had trouble doing full
justice to the Lacedaemonian polity in all of its complexity, it is perhaps be-
cause the mystery is not itself a mirage.
In the end, the only proper conclusion to reach is that advanced more
than two centuries ago by a man who grew up among the Gaelic-speaking
Highlanders of Scotland—a people not much less warlike than the ancient
Spartans had been. “After all,” Adam Ferguson observed, “we are, perhaps, not
sufficiently instructed in the nature of the Spartan laws and institutions, to
understand in what manner all the ends of this singular state were obtained;
but the admiration paid to its people, and the constant reference of contem-
porary historians to their avowed superiority will not allow us to question the
facts.”^28 It would, then, be presumptuous to assume without extensive discus-
sion and conclusive evidence that we can somehow dramatically improve
upon the efforts of Plato and Aristotle and upon the understanding that they
and the most penetrating of their successors articulated. But it should be pos-
sible to come closer to understanding the delphic remarks of these learned
observers—first, by attending to the Spartan way of life and by carefully sifting
what we know and what we can surmise regarding the day-to-day government
of classical Lacedaemon; then, by exploring the likely origins of this regimen
and regime; and, finally, by tracing the Spartans’ gradual, halting articulation
of a grand strategy suited to insuring the preservation of the Lacedaemonian
way of life. This task has been made easier by the appearance in recent decades
of a host of specialized studies aimed at elucidating the working of particular
institutions and the importance of particular practices.^29 Even where the hy-
perskepticism now fashionable among classicists and ancient historians viti-
ates their conclusions, these studies frequently illuminate the subjects they
address. If it is not within our power to dispel entirely the mystery of the
Spartan regime, it still may be possible to shed some light on the subject.