greatest importance, which he thought not fit to impart until he
had consulted the oracle; in the meantime, his desire was that
they would observe the laws without even the least alteration
until his return, and then he would do as the god should direct
him. They all consented readily, and bade him hasten his journey;
but, before he departed, he administered an oath to the two kings,
the senate, and the whole commons, to abide by and maintain the
established form of polity until Lycurgus should come back. This
done, he set out for Delphi, and, having sacrificed to Apollo,
asked him whether the laws he had established were good and
sufficient for a people's happiness and virtue. The oracle
answered that the laws were excellent, and that the people, while
it observed them, should live in the height of renown. Lycurgus
took the oracle in writing, and sent it over to Sparta, and,
having sacrificed a second time to Apollo, and taken leave of his
friends and his son, he resolved that the Spartans should not be
released from the oath they had taken, and that he would, of his
own act, close his life where he was. He was now about that age in
which life was still tolerable, and yet might be quitted without
regret. Everything, moreover, about him was in a sufficiently
prosperous condition. He, therefore, made an end of himself by a
total abstinence from food; thinking it a statesman's duty to make
his very death, if possible, an act of service to the state, and
even in the end of his life to give some example of virtue and
effect some useful purpose. Nor was he deceived in his
expectations, for the city of Lacedaemon continued the chief city
of all Greece for the space of five hundred years, in strict
observance of Lycurgus's laws; in all which time there was no
manner of alteration made, during the reign of fourteen kings,
down to the time of Agis, the son of Archidamus.