28.5
And therefore in later times, they say, when the Thebans made their expedition into Laconia,Under Epaminondas, 369 B.C. they ordered the Helots whom they captured to sing the songs of Terpander, Alcman, and Spendon the Spartan; but they declined to do so, on the plea that their masters did not allow it, thus proving the correctness of the saying: In Sparta the freeman is more a freeman than anywhere else in the world, and the slave more a slave.
28.6
However, in my opinion, such cruelties were first practised by the Spartans in later times, particularly after the great earthquake,464 B.C. Cf. Plutarch’s Cimon, xvi. when the Helots and Messenians together rose up against them, wrought the widest devastation in their territory, and brought their city into the greatest peril. I certainly cannot ascribe to Lycurgus so abominable a measure as the krupteia, judging of his character from his mildness and justice in all other instances. To this the voice of the god also bore witness.See chapter v. 3.
29.1
When his principal institutions were at last firmly fixed in the customs of the people, and his civil polity had sufficient growth and strength to support and preserve itself, just as Plato says Timaeus, p. 37 c. that Deity was rejoiced to see His universe come into being and make its first motion, so Lycurgus was filled with joyful satisfaction in the magnitude and beauty of his system of laws, now that it was in operation and moving along its pathway. He therefore ardently desired, so far as human forethought could accomplish the task, to make it immortal, and let it go down unchanged to future ages.
