A'OTES, BOOK ZZ. 9. 81,,.omen be more powerful in the days of their greatness than in
:ht3jr degeneracy? To which it may be replied that the very
crreatness of the empire made the evil more conspicuous, Ac-
cording to the latter of the two explanations corresponds to
:,,pu in what follo~s.
This use of the genitive is not uncommon : cp. ;si orparr&
Arist. n'asps 557; robs :si r5v spaypdrou, sc. has, Dem. 309. IO.
For the conduct of the Spartan women in the invasion of 0. IO.
E:paminondas : compare Xenophon, himself the eulogist of Sparta,
€1~11. vi. 5. Q 28, ri)v 6i C'K T~S ai piv yuuairrs oiSi TAU wasvbv
:p.jr,i $ucixovTo, arc oC66orc i8oluar aoXcpiovr, and Plutarch, Ages.
31, who has preserved a similar tradition, O;X 1)rrou 62 TO~TWV
;XL~TOVU TAU 'Ayqdaov oi rash riu x6hv &puBoi ra'l xpavyai rai 6ta6popni
i.ju xp~upuripou GuuauauXrrro6vrou rh yrudprua, ra'r r;u yvuarxcb ai Buva-
piuou +mqd[au, dXXh xavrdsaoiu &$~~vou ubu&u sp6s rc T+ rpauyju
4 r6 sip riu nohopiou.
,ypjurpor piv yhp 066iu qua,, ;unsp ;v &;pais suhuiv, Sdpu/3ov Bi Q. IO.
xiipixou shdo riv nohrpiov.
Either I) ' For, unlike the women in other cities, they were
uLterly useless ' ; or 2) ' For, like the women of other cities, they
we utterly useless; and they caused more confusion than the
enemy.'
The employment of the men on military service, which rendered 0. I I.
it more easy for Lycurgus to bring them under his institutions,
is supposed to have caused the disorder of the women which made
it more difficult to control them. Yet we may fairly doubt whether
this notion is anything more than a speculation of Arislotle or
me of his predecessors ($ad pi,), striving to account for a seem-
ingly contradictory phenomenon. For there could have been no
Ir"bt\.oflhy tradition of the time before Lycurgus. It is observable
that Aristotle, if his words are construed strictly, supposes Lycurgus
lo have lived after the time of the Messenian and Argive wars.
Fasti Hellenici, vol. i., p. 143 note w, considers the words
But this assumption
Of interpolation is only due to the exigencies of chronology. The
testimony of Aristotle may be summed up as follows : on the one
Mfu~qvious in $ I I to be an interpolation.YOL. 11. G