regulation than with any other, and, rising in a body, they loudly
expressed their indignation: nay, they proceeded so far as to assault
Lycurgus with stones, so that he was forced to fly from the assembly and
take refuge in a temple. Unhappily, however, before he reached it, a
young man named Alcander, hasty in his resentments, though not otherwise
ill-tempered, came up with him, and, upon his turning round, struck out
one of his eyes with a stick. Lycurgus then stopped short, and, without
giving way to passion, showed the people his eye beat out, and his face
streaming with blood. They were so struck with shame and sorrow at the
sight, that they surrendered Alcander to him, and conducted him home
with the utmost expressions of regret. Lycurgus thanked them for their
care of his person, and dismissed them all except Alcander. He took him
into his house, but showed no ill treatment either by word or action;
only ordering him to wait upon him, instead of his usual servants and
attendants. The youth, who was of an ingenuous disposition, without
murmuring, did as he was commanded. Living in this manner with Lycurgus,
and having an opportunity to observe the mildness and goodness of his
heart, his strict temperance and indefatigable industry, he told his
friends that Lycurgus was not that proud and severe man he might have
been taken for, but, above all others, gentle and engaging in his
behaviour. This, then, was the chastisement, and this punishment he
suffered, of a wild and headstrong young man to become a very modest and
prudent citizen. In memory of his misfortune, Lycurgus built a temple to
Minerva Optiletis, so called by him from a term which the Dorians use
for the eye. Yet Dioscorides, who wrote a treatise concerning the
Lacedæmonian government, and others, relate that his eye was hurt, but
not put out, and that he built the temple in gratitude to the goddess
for his cure. However, the Spartans never carried staves to their
assemblies afterwards.