Lycurgian Model for Success: Might Cost an I

[David Anderson]

How should a politician or better yet a leader conduct himself in today’s government, if he knows that he will not please everybody? Joseph Stalin; the late dictator of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, had an interesting leadership motto of his own. “Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas”, “It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything”. These are quotes from a man who once fought against the might of the Axis powers of World War II who wished to enslave the world by their whims. Stalin seemed to throw caution to the wind and to continue on with his decisions. A contemporary of Stalin, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill had his own feel for leadership. “The empires of the future are the empires of the mind”,” All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope”. Both Stalin and Churchill were both stubborn in the face of opposition. However these quotes can be taken out of context or used improperly at any moment and any time, further more they cannot give a full picture of what a leader should look, smell, and act. the question is who does the perfect leader look like?, Ronald Reagan, Abraham Lincoln, Vladimir Putin, or Margaret Thatcher?

History has given up its model of a great leader, whose past is so great that it took two men to contain it, and his name is Lycurgus of Sparta who is accredited with the laws and reforms of his polis. Movies and books have all been written about the polis Sparta. Without him the movie 300 would be exceedingly more fictitious the military structure which Leonidas exploited was established by the reforms of Lycurgus. Much of what is known about him has been written down by sundry historians through the centuries most notably Plutarch; a Roman general with a passion for history. Then what makes Lycurgus the model for modern leaders to follow? Character and integrity traits cannot be mentioned without some since of romanticism, meaning that qualities cannot be explained without knowing that they are in the world of ideal or in a utopian dream. Now some men have died espousing their ideas such as Sr. Thomas More, but not Lycurgus. Understanding, planning, self-motivation, charisma, and discernment are traits that leaders should have in spade that Lycurgus had in reserve. Now most traits work in quid-pro-quo, there is not a man who is charismatic without understanding, and makes plans without motivation, while practicing discernment.

In one case Plutarch paints a picture of Sparta in a moment of chaos after the reforms and laws are being established the historical text that depictures all of Lycurgus’ traits in movement all at once.

 “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 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”. (Plutarch 61)

The passage makes reference to “last ordinance”, which gives rise to “what did Lycurgus do to put himself on the run if he is such the great leader?”

The first part of Lycurgus reform was an establishment of a thirty man senate which in one fell swoop, gave the public clear figures of authority, while also dis-empowering those who once held power to begin with. This first ordinance was twofold went with an annexation of the polis land into one public domain. “For there was an extreme inequality amongst them, and their state was overloaded with a multitude of indigent and necessitous persons while its whole wealth had centered upon a very few” (Plutarch 59). These lands were then evenly distributed among the citizens of Sparta “that they should live all together on an equal footing; merit to be their only road to eminence” (Plutarch 59). At first glance these first laws or ordinance sound communistic. However it is important to remember and understand that “communism” is a phenomenon of the nineteenth century by way of Karl Marx. As historians or critical thinkers we cannot impose upon the man of antiquity those socio-political ideals that do not exist for them. Lycurgus had a different constitution. The senate voted on and passed the first ordinance, which meant it was acceptable to them. Lycurgus then leaves and allows for the execution of this policy to take place.

After an undisclosed amount of time pass Lycurgus comes back from traveling and put another ordinance before the senate one which would change the economic currency and face of the nation for centuries. Knowing that land was not the only tool people used to declare their wealth or power he went after what Plutarch interprets as “movables” or material wealth. He had already re-zoned Sparta in such a way the probably any twentieth or twenty-first century planner would no longer be concerned with Robert Moses or Jane Jacobs. In any case Lycurgus knew that he should move this next ordinance in a more subtle way to bring more equality before the citizenry of Sparta. “he resolved to make a division of their movables too, that there might be no odious distinction or inequality left among them; but finding that it would be very dangerous to go about it openly, he took another course.. he commanded that all gold and silver coin should be called in, and that only a sort of money made of iron should be current, a great weight and quantity of which was very little of worth” (Plutarch 60). In doing this once again Lycurgus pushed for progress in his society with this plan. Taking away the ability to export or import from other Greek nations was a great feat. This allowed for Sparta to become a self-sustaining region, only depending upon what they could grow and raise for food stuffs. Furthermore since everyone had equal plots of land and places for their families it could be done. Even so this ordinance did not cost Lycurgus his eye, apparently society was ok with the re-zoning and re-distribution of the lands and wealth for the common good of Sparta.

The last ordinance which wages meant an eye for Lycurgus decreed that everyone must eat the same bread, meat, cheeses and they could no longer eat at home. Eating had to be done in the common areas where the people could judge themselves to make sure that fellow citizens were keeping with new policy. This was took much for the wealthy people of Sparta and Lycurgus paid dearly, but this did not stifle his motivation. In fact it only helped push his ideals further along. We must now venture back to the young man named Alcander who has poked out the eye of Lycurgus. How would all this culminate into one of the best leader models of antiquity had to offer? As the narrative dictates:

“Lycurgus, so far from being daunted and discouraged by this accident, stopped short and showed his disfigured face and eye beat out of his countrymen, they dismayed and ashamed at the sight, delivered Alcander into his hands to be punished, and escorted him home with expression of great concern for his ill-usage. Lycurgus, having thanked them for their care of his person, dismissed them all, excepting only Alcander; and, taking him with him into his house, neither did nor said anything severely to him, but, dismissing those whose place it was, bade Alcander to wait upon him at table. The young man, who was of an ingenuous temper, without murmuring did as he was commanded; and being thus admitted to live with Lycurgus, he had an opportunity to observe in him, besides his gentleness and calmness of temper, an extraordinary sobriety and an indefatigable industry, and so, from an enemy, became one of his most zealous admirers, and told his friends and relations that Lycurgus was not that morose and ill-natured man they had formerly taken him for, but the one mild and gentle character of the world. And thus did Lycurgus, for chastisement of his fault, make of a wild and passionate young man one of the discreetest citizens of Sparta.” (Plutarch 61-2)

Lycurgus with understanding, charisma, and discernment understood how to change the tables of this riot to his advantage. Rather than punish his contemporary he granted him a second lease at life, and a clear path to understanding why he made the choices he did for Sparta. There are myths that in the spot where he lost his eye he erected a temple to Minerva which in the Doric vernacular had connotations to link with the eye. This temple was before the eyes of the people even after he was dead and gone leaving a lasting impression of the events which took place.

                Letting his passions carry him all the way to victory Lycurgus used discernment, understanding, charisma, self-motivation, and a plan to further his agenda for the betterment of Sparta. This is just one of many examples of events in the life of Lycurgus which can speak to his model of success that should be followed. These were not all of his reforms but just some, because the military reforms were not even mentioned which also shifted the balance of power in the region towards Spartan dominance. So let’s plan like Lycurgus for posterity with prosperity to last centuries.

 

Works Cited

Plutarch, John Dryden, and Arthur Hugh Clough. Plutarch's Lives, Volume I: The Dryden Translation, Edited with Preface by Arthur Hugh Clough ; Introduction by James Atlas. New York: Modern Library, 2001. Print.