stand in need of long sleep, warm bathing, freedom from work, and,
in a word, of as much care and attendance as if they were
continually sick. It was certainly an extraordinary thing to have
brought about such a result as this, but a greater yet to have
taken away from wealth, as Theophrastus observes, not merely the
property of being coveted, but its very nature of being wealth.
For the rich, being obliged to go to the same table with the poor,
could not make use of or enjoy their abundance, nor so much as
please their vanity by looking at or displaying it. So that the
common proverb, that Plutus, the god of riches, is blind, was
nowhere in all the world literally verified but in Sparta. There,
indeed, he was not only blind, but, like a picture, without either
life or motion. Nor were they allowed to take food at home first,
and then attend the public tables, for everyone had an eye upon
those who did not eat and drink like the rest, and reproached them
with being dainty and effeminate.

This last ordinance in particular exasperated the wealthier men.
They collected in a body against Lycurgus, and from ill words came
to throwing stones, so that at length he was forced to run out of
the market-place, and make to sanctuary to save his life; by good-
hap he outran all excepting one Alcander, a young man otherwise
not ill accomplished, but hasty and violent, who came up so close
to him, that, when he turned to see who was near him, he struck
him upon the face with his stick, and put out one of his eyes.
Lycurgus, so far from being daunted and discouraged by this
accident, stopped short and showed his disfigured face and eye
beat out to his countrymen; they, dismayed and ashamed at the
sight, delivered Alcander into his hands to be punished, and
escorted him home, with expressions of great concern for his ill