who, though himself incapable of being corrupted by money, filled his
country with the love of it, and with luxury too. He brought both gold
and silver from the wars, and thereby broke through the laws of
Lycurgus. While these were in force, Sparta was not so much under the
political regulations of a commonwealth, as the strict rules of a
philosophic life; and as the poets feign of Hercules, that only with a
club and lion's skin he travelled over the world, clearing it of lawless
ruffians and cruel tyrants; so the Lacedæmonians with a piece of
parchment and coarse coat kept Greece in a voluntary obedience,
destroyed usurpation and tyranny in the states, put an end to wars, and
laid seditions asleep, very often without either shield or lance, and
only by sending one ambassador; to whose directions all parties
concerned immediately submitted. Thus bees, when their prince appears,
compose their quarrels and unite in one swarm. So much did justice and
good government prevail in that state, that I am surprised at those who
say the Lacedæmonians knew indeed how to obey, but not how to govern:
and on this occasion quote the saying of king Theopompus, who, when one
told him that Sparta was preserved by the good administration of its
kings, replied, "Nay, rather by the obedience of their subjects." It is
certain that people will not continue pliant to those who know not how
to command; but it is the part of a good governor to teach obedience. He
who knows how to lead well, is sure to be well followed: and as it is by
the art of horsemanship that a horse is made gentle and tractable, so it
is by the abilities of him that fills the throne that the people become
ductile and submissive. Such was the conduct of the Lacedæmonians, that
people did not only endure, but even desired to be their subjects. They
asked not of them either ships, money or troops, but only a Spartan
general. When they had received him, they treated him with the greatest
honour and respect; so Gylippus was revered by the Sicilians, Brasidas
by the Chalcidians, Lysander, Callicratidas, and Agesilaus by all the