CHAPTER XII The Influence of SpartaTO understand Plato, and indeed many later philosophers, it is necessary to know something of
Sparta. Sparta had a double effect on Greek thought: through the reality, and through the myth.
Each is important. The reality enabled the Spartans to defeat Athens in war; the myth influenced
Plato's political theory, and that of countless subsequent writers. The myth, fully developed, is
to be found in Plutarch Life of Lycurgus; the ideals that it favours have had a great part in
framing the doctrines of Rousseau, Nietzsche, and National Socialism. * The myth is of even
more importance, historically, than the reality; nevertheless, we will begin with the latter. For
the reality was the source of the myth.
Laconia, or Lacedaemon, of which Sparta was the capital, occupied the south-east of the
Peloponnesus. The Spartans, who were the ruling race, had conquered the country at the time of
the Dorian invasion from the north, and had reduced the population that they found there to the
condition of serfs. These serfs were called helots. In historical times, all the land belonged to
the Spartans, who, however, were forbidden by law and custom to cultivate it themselves, both
on the ground that such labour was degrading, and in order that they might always be free for
military service. The serfs were not bought and sold, but remained attached to the land, which
was divided into lots, one or more for each adult male Spartan. These lots, like the helots, could
not be bought or sold, and passed, by law, from father to son. (They could, however, be
bequeathed.) The landowner received from the helot who cultivated the lot seventy medimni
(about 105 bushels) of grain for himself, twelve for his wife, and a stated
* Not to mention Dr. Thomas Arnold and the English public schools.