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Lycurgus, Legendary Law-Gfver of 800 B.C. Sparta: Cultural Engineer A 48 Behavior Analysisand Social Action- Volume 71 Numbers 1 & 21 1989 Lycurgus, Legendary Law-gfver of 800 B.C. Sparta: Cultural Engineer A. Ph. Paschalis University of Patras, Greece Jerome D. Ulman Ball State University The historian E.H. Carr (1961) argues that lithe func­ students of ancient Greek history, we will accept that Ly­ tion of the historian is neither to love the pastnor to emanci­ curgus lived around 800 B.C., long before the Greek alpha­ pate himself from the past, but to master and understand it bet was fully developed. Our purpose, however, is not to as the key to the understanding of the present" (p. 35). How argueaboutthe accuracyof hisbiographybutto examine800 well we understand the present will of course determine B.C. Sparta as a remarkable feat of cultural engineering in how effective we canbe in planning ourfuture. Presumably, B.F. Skinner's (1971) sense of the term (i.e., the establish­ then, behavioristsconcerned with progressive social change ment of practices which induce members to work for the sur­ may benefit from the study of history. Yet historical facts vival of their culture). belong to the past, irretrievably; time machines exist only in Spartansocietywas rigidly dividedinto three classes: a fiction. Consequently, the selection, interpretation, and ruling class of citizens - hoplites or Spartans proper - con­ synthesis of such facts (or assumed facts) are unavoidably, stituting5 to 10 percent of the population; an oppressed and in part, a function of the historian's reinforcement history exploited class of helots, outnumbering the citizen by about and current circumstances, both personal and cultural. 10 to 1; and a small peripheral group call perioikoi, mostly Hence, behaviorists concerned with understanding the past farmers, miners, and small merchants. Neither the perioikoi face a challengingtask: to renderinterpretations of historical nor the helots had any political rights. They were denied writings consistent with our best guess as to the controlling admission to the ranks of the Spartans and prohibited from variables operating at the levels of behavior and culture at intermarrying with them. thetime. As a caseinpoint, we offerthe following exercise in These social class divisions were the result of Sparta's interpretation drawn from the the extraordinarily remote history. Spartans were descendants of the Dorian con­ culture of ancient Sparta - specifically, the accomplish­ querors who had invaded southern Peloponnesus and occu­ ments attributed to Lycurgus, one of the most controversial pied one of the most fertile valleys in Greece, the plain of and interesting figures of the ancient world. Laconia. The conquered population was promptly reduced We must first qualify our title. Not only is Lycurgus to the status of helots. During the subsequent period of colo­ considered the legendary law-giver of Sparta; as often, he is nization the problem of overpopulation arose in Laconia. viewedas a semimythicalhistorical figure. Even the ancients The Spartans met this problem, not by encouraging emigra­ were in doubt about what he actually did or even when he tion abroad as did other Greek city-states, but mostly by an­ lived, with estimates ranging from the 10th to the 8th cen­ nexing adjacent territories, thus initially making it an expan­ tury B.C. Moreover, while Lycurgus is credited with the es­ sionistic culture until it's population became stabilized and tablishment of the Spartan constitution, contemporary Sparta became a unified state. "The luckier descendants of scholars argue that the institutions and reforms attributed to Spartas'sonce independentneighbors becameperioikoi; the him probably developed over centuries. However, there is rest became helots" (Brinton, et aI., 1960, p. 60). general agreement among modem scholars that there was a By the time of Lycurgus the class system was firmly Spartan constitution and that it has been preserved in the entrenched. The Spartan citizens - numbering about 8,000­ works ascribed to the Greek historian Xenophon (B.C. 434?­ 9,000 (Anderson, 1974, p. 35) - had reduced the great 355?). As Moore (1975)notes, this document isn't so much a masses of helots to a condition of serfdom and treated them constitution as it is a discussion of the way of life of the Spar­ harshly, occasionally executing a few to discourage recalci­ tans. trance. The helots revolted unsuccessfully a number of In short, "although Lycurgus may have been a wholly times. Sparta was also threatened by the danger of foreign mythical personage, the [Spartan] constitution reflects the invasion. Under these precarious circumstances, as legend realities of Sparta's history and social system" (Brinton, has it, Lycurgus began the task of designing a culture that Christopher, & Wolff, 1960, p. 60). In accordance with most would change the Spartan people and tum them into an in- Reprints may be obtained from Jerome D. Ulman, Department of Special Education, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana 47306. LYCURGUS: 800B.C. CULTURALENGINEERI A. Ph. Paschalis andJerome D. UlmanI 49 vincible force. As a result, Spartan culture proved to be mili­ cient supply of oil and wine. The awarding of citizenship tarily unequalled in the whole of Greece for a period of well wentalongwiththe awardingof anestate andeverythingon over 500 years. These, then, were the social circumstances it, including livestock and slaves. By law, Spartans did not under which Lycurgus presumably engineered Spartan cul­ produce their means of subsistence; they lived off the labor ture - not an aesthetically refined culture like that of of the helots. At the same time, luxuries were discouraged; Athens, but a warrior culture well suited for survival within the only distinction allowed among Spartans was one of rec­ the surrounding hostile social environment: in the immedi­ ognition of merit and virtue through the performance of ate area, a large population of oppressed and exploited peo­ worthy acts. Of course, what the state gave, the state could ple struggling for liberation and, at a farther distance, the take away. Thus, the state "was capable also of suspending very real danger of invading armies. the civic rights of a Spartiate [Spartan], orof rescindingthem According to the Greekbiographer Plutarch (46?-120?) altogether for specified offences, of which the most flagrant (1864), during the reign of Lycurgus' father there was "anar­ was that of cowardice in the face of the enemy" (Hooker, chy and confusion in Sparta" (p. 50). Determined to put an 1980, p. 118). Such were the reinforcement and response­ end to it, Lycurgus resolved to construct a constitution for cost contingencies of ancient Spartan culture. "The upshot Sparta. About which, Plutarch writes: of this system was to create an intense collective unity among the Spartiates, who proudly designated themselves [Lycurgus] applied himself without loss of time, to a hoihomoioi - the 'Equals" (Anderson, 1974, p. 34). thorough reformation, and resolved to change the Other ancient law-givers attempted to preserve equal­ whole face of the commonwealth; for whatcoulda few ity among their people but to no avail. For example, Solon, particular laws and a partial alteration avail? He must law-giver of Athens, tried to limit the amount of land one . act as wise physicians do, in the case of one who la­ could possess. The Locrians forbade the sale of property ex­ bours under a complication of diseases, by force of cept in extreme circumstances (Aristotle, 1939, p. 51). None­ medicines ... change his whole temperament and theless, both land and wealth eventually passed into the then sethim upon a regimen of diet. (Plutarch, 1864, P: hands of the few. To prevent such from happening in 52). Sparta, Lycurgus is believed to have instituted one of the Among the many changes that Lycurgus made, the most unusual monetary policies in history. Silver and gold first and the most important was the establishment of a were abolished as the medium of exchange and replaced council of elders having equal power with the two kings (a with money in the form of heavy iron rods. Because of its quirkof Spartanhistory), ata time wheneverywhereelse the great unit weight and supply relative to the precious metals, word of a king was law. "The Spartan "kings' were merely this new money was worth very little. Hence, as a medium members of the aristocracy, participants without special of exchange, the reinforcing value of this new money was privileges in the thirty-man council of elders ... which origi­ offset by the aversive effects of having to lug it around. As nally ruled the city" (Anderson, 1974, p. 34). The proceed­ one result, the rate of such antisocial behavior as stealing, ings of the council were held in the open and the public and robbing, bribing, and whoring was probably reduced sub­ all citizens could attend and be kept informed of state affairs. stantially if not totally (Conttrell, 1977). Citizens could notvote orspeak, butthey could criticize and Anotherplannedoutcomeof Lycurgus' newmonetary comment, and show approval or disapproval of major deci­ policy was to ensure that Sparta would never end with its sions of the council and kings (e.g., declarations of war). economy suffocating under the burden of a foreign ex­ Like Marx's analysis some 2700 years later, Lycurgus change trade-deficit (i.e., debt peonage, a problem common contended that political democracy was a worthless gift un­ to many poor countries in today's world). "Merchants sent less it was accompanied by economic equality (for Lycurgus, no shiploads into Spartan port ... and no itinerate fortune­ however, only insofar as it affected the Spartan warrior teller, no harlot-mongers set foot in a country where there class). Plutarch noted that "the most hazardous task he [Ly­ was no money (Plutarch, 1864, p. 56). To further isolate curgus] ever undertook was making a new division of their Spartans from the potentially corrupting influence of the [the citizens'] lands.
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