The beginning of Spartan civilization and polity - Lykugu legislation
Whether it is a state or a city-state, the first thing after its establishment is legislation, and with the law, the state or city-state can get rid of the tribal state that relies on clan blood relations and truly enter the ranks of the state and civilization. The civilization and polity of Sparta, on the other hand, began with the legislation of Lykugu. Laiku was to Sparta as much as the Yellow Emperor was to ancient China.
Lykugu
Laikugu is a legendary figure. According to some ancient records, Lakugu was originally a Spartan nobleman, and he visited Delphi in his early years. Delphi was a place where oracles could be asked, and it is said that the priestess of the temple of Apollo, in delivering the oracles, called Laikugu "a man beloved by the gods, not a mortal, but a god."
Later he returned to Sparta and claimed that he had received an oracle, and the sun god Apollo issued him a set of laws and asked him to implement them. It was by virtue of this oracle that Laikugu was respected by the Spartans. He instituted a series of unwritten "retra" (oracles or laws) for the Spartans and demanded that the Spartans swear to keep these laws forever.
Spartans
Some historical records also mention that when he came to Kugu to legislate, a group of people supported him, and this group of supporters later entered the highest body of power in the state, the Senate, and became senators. This is where the Spartan Senate came from. Of course, if there are supporters, there will inevitably be opponents, especially when legislation shakes the fundamental interests of some people, it will inevitably be opposed and even attacked.
senate
According to legend, at that time, a noble youth directly attacked Lukugu, and he punched Lukugu's eyeballs down. However, Laikugu not only did not punish the noble youth, but also brought him home and let him watch every day how he worked tirelessly for Sparta. That noble young man was deeply moved by the behavior of Laikugu who ignored his personal interests and dedicated himself to the public, and has since supported Laikugu with all his heart.
Come to Kugu
Of course, all of the above has a certain legendary color, which is not believable. But it is undeniable that Laikugu did develop an important legal and political system for Sparta. His legislation is mainly reflected in the following three aspects.
(1) The first reform to be carried out in Kugu - the establishment of the Senate
The first and most important of the many reforms implemented in Laikugu was the establishment of the Senate, the Council of Elders. As the proponent of Plato said: "The effectiveness of the senate, combined with the 'fanatical' governance of the kings, and the equal power of the senate and the kings to decide in the most important matters, finally brought stability and due restraint to the consultation of the affairs of the state." ”
Plato
Until then, the internal affairs of Sparta had been vacillating, with the king and the population pitted against each other. Today, the power of the Senate has become the "ballast stone" on the ship of the state, and the Senate can coordinate the conflict of interests between the king and the people, put the king and the people on a stable boat, and the affairs of the state can be arranged in a reasonable and orderly manner.
The Senate, as the supreme authority of the state, consists of 28 senators and 2 kings. As for why there were 28 senators, one theory is that Sparta may have had 28 clans, and the respected leader of the clan became the earliest senator;
senate
Another version says that these were the first to follow and support the legislation of Leukugu, and eventually they entered the Senate, and the number was exactly 28. Together with the two kings, these 30 men in the Senate together formed the supreme authority of the country, and these 30 men were also called the "thirty oligarchs", therefore, the political system of Sparta was also called the oligarchy.
The Senate is mainly responsible for supervising the administration of the State, formulating bills, and acting as a member of the Supreme Court of Justice, etc., as well as for establishing the citizens' assembly. The duty of the citizens' assembly is to vote on bills introduced by the Senate and to elect all public servants except the king. Despite the adjustment of the state polity by the Lykugu legislation, the oligarchy still prevailed in it.
senate
When the successors of Laikugu saw that this power was still "expanding", they began to detain it, that is, five elected consuls. Therefore, in addition to 2 kings and 28 senators, the highest organ of power in Sparta added 5 more elected consuls. The appointment of the 28 senators of Sparta was for life, and once a senator died, a new senator would be selected from the replacement.
The substitutes are elected by the citizens' assembly, and the method of selection is that the senatorial candidates who have been respected by everyone walk through the citizens' assembly one by one, and each person who walks by, the citizens in the assembly will shout and cheer, and the person who receives the most shouts and cheers can enter the senate, and change from substitute to real senator. Of course, if citizens are reluctant to endorse a candidate, they can silence them.
To a certain extent, this method avoided the arbitrary power of the ruling class and ensured the rights and interests of the senators, nobles, and Spartan citizens. However, such elections were limited to the Spartans, and the Peri Isai and Hilo were not eligible to participate.
(ii) The first reform to be implemented in Lakugu - the periodic redistribution of land
The second unusually bold legislative measure of Laikugu was the regular redistribution of land, so that every Spartan had an equal area of arable land, which to a certain extent prevented class contradictions within Sparta due to the excessive division between the rich and the poor. We have said that the Peloponnese, where the Spartans live, has a vast plain, and the local Hilo people live mainly on agriculture.
Plain of the Peloponnese
After conquering the Peloponnese, the Spartans plundered the land and enslaved all the original inhabitants, the Hilos. As a result, all kinds of inequalities arose in the state: wealth was concentrated in the hands of a few magnates, while the lives of the large number of commoners and slaves were extremely poor, which naturally caused dissatisfaction among commoners and slaves, and class contradictions became increasingly intensified.
In order to change this situation of excessive disparity between the rich and the poor, which was not conducive to the long-term development of the city-state, Laikugu proposed an egalitarian policy of integrating all the land into a single piece and then redistributing it according to the number of Spartan men. Both nobles and commoners, as long as they were Spartans, could be given a piece of land of equal size, fertility, and slaves.
Spartan men
In order to prevent land annexation, Laikugu also stipulates that every 5~7 years, the state re-registers the population and redistributes land according to the head. This made land annexation meaningless, and fundamentally ensured that every Spartan could always own a piece of land of his own, which largely avoided the emergence of class contradictions.
In order to minimize the inequality and inequality that existed in Sparta, Laekugu also began to distribute the mobile property of the Spartans. Of course, there are many people who cannot tolerate the confiscation of personal property, and Laikugu has taken another measure to this end: it is forbidden for the private sector to engage in any form of commercial activity, and all livelihood issues are the responsibility of the state; Cancel all gold and silver coins, use iron to mint coins, and replace gold and silver with iron coins.
Iron coins
After the restructuring, you can no longer buy anything with gold and silver on the market, and you have to buy things with iron coins. And iron coins are worthless, they are everywhere, and they are easy to get, and this move makes the rich Spartans no longer superior to the poor. The implementation of the iron coin policy eventually eliminated the wealthy class in the Spartan city-states, and the historian Plutarch explained this as follows: "Iron coins are heavy and worthless, and it is not convenient to spend or save." ”
Historian Plutarch
"10 minas (equivalent to $200 in the early 20th century) require a storeroom to store and two cattle to carry." In other words, the wealth that was originally a few taels of silver can now be stored in a warehouse. The abolition of gold and silver money directly led to the stagnation of commerce in Sparta, and trade between residents returned to the era of barter, and the socio-economic situation can be imagined.
In this case, the poor are not necessarily poorer, but the rich are certainly not rich. Without the rich, everyone lived the same life, which put an end to the idea of greed and extravagance of the Spartans, and allowed the interior to maintain a primitive state of equality.
barter
At the beginning of the 16th century, there was a modern utopian socialist founder in Europe, Thomas More, who wrote a famous book called "Utopia". In this book, Thomas More describes a beautiful, illusory place called "utopia", where property is publicly owned, citizens have no private property, and everyone eats in public restaurants;
Ideologue Thomas More
Officials are elected by vote of the people, and their positions are not hereditary; Residents can work 6 hours a day to meet social needs, and the rest of the time is used to engage in cultural, philosophical and artistic creation; There was no commodity-money relationship, and gold and silver were all used to make handcuffs, leg irons or toilet buckets, drowning vessels... The ideas in Utopia were heavily influenced by the Spartan system.
In 1492, Thomas More entered Oxford University in England to study classics, where he studied Greek and had the opportunity to read the works of Plato, Aristotle, and others. Among them, Plato's ideas had a particularly profound influence on Thomas More.
Thomas More
Plato's Republic is modeled on Sparta, who believed that a good country should be like Sparta, with no private property, no distinction between rich and poor, and the ultimate goal of the state is to pursue the highest principle of good. As a result, later critics also called Utopia a sequel to Plato's Republic.
(3) Establish a public canteen system
The public canteen system was one of the most elaborate political institutions in Laikougu. Before that, the Spartans, like other Greeks, ate in groups at home. Laikugu believed that this was an important reason for people's misconduct, and in view of this, he established a system of public canteens.
This system stipulated that all Spartans must go to a designated canteen to eat together in order to promote friendship and prevent some people from becoming gluttonous people who focused on eating, drinking, and pleasure, so that people could serve their country wholeheartedly. Don't underestimate the public dining of the Spartans.
The Spartans called the shared meal "Pheidithia", and to cultivate a real Spartan man and warrior, it can be said that it almost began with the shared meal. From the birth of a baby boy, the fate of his life was handed over to Sparta. From their 7th birthday, healthy boys must go to the public cafeteria to eat with everyone.
The Spartan public canteen is completely different from what we have imagined or experienced firsthand. There was always only one type of food, which everyone had to eat in the public canteen from the day he became a citizen.
For Spartans aged 7~18 who are growing, the canteen not only does not provide additional nutritious food, but deliberately reduces the food supply to them. In this way, everyone will not have the opportunity to pick and choose, and will not develop the habit of gluttony. The Spartans emphasized fists, not teeth.
Where does the food come from in the cafeteria? The Spartan public canteen did not distribute benefits equally, and the food in them came from grain or meat that was paid a fixed annual quota of men and women who ate the meal. Some Spartan men would go out to hunt and provide their prey to public canteens, and those who provided more prey would receive special favor.
For example, the Spartan Senate would find the bravest and quickest men and make them form special hunting teams to take out the strong, untamed Hilo.
Hunting party
At the age of 18, Spartan men undergo qualification tests to test their military skills and survivability, and those who fail to pass may not enter the army or even be abandoned by the entire Spartan society; Those with excellent grades will not only be accepted by the public canteen, but may also have the opportunity to accompany the king to the royal canteen.
In short, all the systems and regulations formulated by Laikugu for the Spartan city-state were aimed at reducing the desire and pursuit of wealth of the Spartans, strengthening the cohesion and combat effectiveness of the Spartans, so that every Spartan would only know his country and not his home, so as to grow into a warrior like the heroic ancestor Hercules, who was armed with clubs and wore lion's skins, extremely brave and impressed by the world. When wealth ceased to be something that aroused the desires of the Spartans, they were left with only one desire—the desire for honor.