40
The boys in Sparta were lashed with whips during the entire day at the altar of Artemis Orthia, frequently to the point of death, and they bravely endured this, cheerful and proud, vying with one another for the supremacy as to which one of them could endure being beaten for the longer time and the greater number of blows. And the one who was victorious was held in especial repute. This competition is called The Flagellation, and it takes place each year.There are many references to this practice, which seems to have been kept up even in Plutarch’s time according to his Life of Lycurgus, chap. xviii. (51 b). Cf. also his Life of Aristeides, chap. xvii. (329 d); Xenophon, Constitution of Sparta, 2. 9; Müller, Frag. Hist. Graec. iii. p. 458 (Nicolaus Damasc., Frag. 114); Lucian, Anacharsis, 38; Philostratus, Apollonius, vi. 20, who explains the custom as originating in earlier human sacrifice, but on this see J. G. Frazer in his commentary on Pausanias, iii. 16. 10. Among Latin writers Cf., for example, Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, ii. 14 (34).
41
One of the noble and blessed privileges which Lycurgus appears to have secured for his fellowcitizens was abundance of leisure. In fact it was not permitted them to take up any menial trade at all; and there was no need whatever of making money, which involves a toilsome accumulation, nor of busy activity, because of his having made wealth wholly unenvied and unhonoured. The Helots tilled the soil for them, paying a return which was regularly settled in advance. There was a ban against letting for a higher price, so that the Helots might make some profit, and thus be glad to do the work for their masters, and so that the masters might not look for any larger return. Cf. Moralia, 214 a, supra, and the note; Xenophon, Constitution of Sparta, 7. 1-6; Isocrates, Busiris, 20; Müller, Frag. Hist. Graec. iii. p. 458 (Nicolaus Damasc. Frag. 114); Josephus, Against Apion, ii. 229; Aelian, Varia Historia, vi. 6; Athenaeus, 657 d.
