And here is another institution attributed to Lycurgus which scarcely
coincides with the customs elsewhere in vogue. A hunting party returns
from the chase, belated. They want provisions--they have nothing
prepared themselves. To meet this contingency he made it a rule that
owners[6] are to leave behind the food that has been dressed; and the
party in need will open the seals, take out what they want, seal up
the remainder, and leave it. Accordingly, by his system of give-and-
take even those with next to nothing[7] have a share in all that the
country can supply, if ever they stand in need of anything.

[6] Reading {pepamenous}, or if {pepasmenous}, "who have already
finished their repasts."

[7] See Aristot. "Pol." ii. 9 (Jowett, i. pp. xlii. and 52); Muller,
"Dorians," iii. 10, 1 (vol. ii. 197, Eng. tr.)



VII

There are yet other customs in Sparta which Lycurgus instituted in
opposition to those of the rest of Hellas, and the following among
them. We all know that in the generality of states every one devotes
his full energy to the business of making money: one man as a tiller
of the soil, another as a mariner, a third as a merchant, whilst
others depend on various arts to earn a living. But at Sparta Lycurgus
forbade his freeborn citizens to have anything whatsoever to do with
the concerns of money-making. As freemen, he enjoined upon them to
regard as their concern exclusively those activities upon which the