Lycurgus ( Plutarch continues) "did accustom his citizens so, that they neither would nor could
live alone, but were in manner as men incorporated one with another, and were always in
company together, as the bees be about their master bee."
Spartans were not allowed to travel, nor were foreigners admitted to Sparta, except on business;
for it was feared that alien customs would corrupt Lacedaemonian virtue.
Plutarch relates the law that allowed Spartans to kill helots whenever they felt so disposed, but
refuses to believe that anything so abominable can have been due to Lycurgus. "For I cannot be
persuaded, that ever Lycurgus invented, or instituted, so wicked and mischievous an act, as that
kind of ordinance was: because I imagine his nature was gentle and merciful, by the clemency and
justice we see he used in all his other doings." Except in this matter, Plutarch has nothing but
praise for the constitution of Sparta.
The effect of Sparta on Plato, with whom, at the moment, we shall be specially concerned, will be
evident from the account of his Utopia, which will occupy the next chapter.
CHAPTER XIII The Sources of Plato's OpinionsPLATO and Aristotle were the most influential of all philosophers, ancient, medieval, or modern;
and of the two, it was Plato who had the greater effect upon subsequent ages. I say this for two
reasons: first, that Aristotle himself is an outcome of Plato; second, that Christian theology and
philosophy, at any rate until the thirteenth century, was much more Platonic than Aristotelian. It is
necessary, therefore, in a history of philosophic thought, to treat Plato, and to a lesser degree
Aristotle, more fully than any of their predecessors or successors.
The most important matters in Plato's philosophy are: first, his Utopia, which was the earliest of a
long series second, his theory of