Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

Lycurgus, the Spartan, introduced the custom among his citizens of wearing their hair long, saying that it made the beautiful more comely and the ugly more frightful. [*](Cf. Moralia, 228 F, infra, Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus, chap. xxii. (53 D) and Life of Lysander, chap. i. (434 A). The Spartan custom of wearing the hair long is often referred to; for example Moralia, 189 F and 230 B, infra, Xenophon, Constitution of Sparta, xi. 3.)

To the man who urged him to create a democracy in the State his answer was, Do you first create a democracy in your own house. [*](Repeated in Moralia, 155 D, 22 D, and Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus, chap. xix. (52 A).)

He ordered that the people build their houses with saw and axe only; for he knew that men are ashamed to bring into simple houses costly vessels, rugs, and tables. [*](Cf. Moralia, 227 B, infra, and Life of Lycurgus, chap. xiii. (47 B).)

He prohibited boxing and prize-fighting so that the people might not even in sport get the habit of crying off. [*](See Moralia, 228 D, infra, and cf. Life of Lycurgus, chap. xix. (52 A), and Seneca, De Beneficiis, v. 3.)

He prohibited making war upon the same people many times, so that they should not make their opponents too belligerent. And it is a fact that years later, when Agesilaus was wounded, Antalcidas said of him that he was getting a beautiful return from the Thebans for the lessons he had taught them in habituating and teaching them to make war against their will. [*](Cf. Moralia, 213 F, 217 E, 227 C, infra; Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus, chap. xiii. (47 D); Life of Pelopidas, chap. xv. (285 D); Life of Agesilaus, chap. xxvi. (610 D); Polyaenus, Strategemata, i. 16. 2.)