udal chieftain.

(M366) Such an exclusive body of citizens, however, jealous of their
political privileges, constantly declined in numbers, so that, in the time
of Aristotle, there were only one thousand Spartan citizens; and this
decline continued in spite of all the laws by which the citizens were
compelled to marry, and those customs, so abhorrent to our Christian
notions, which permitted the invasion of marital rights for the sake of
healthy children.

(M367) As it was to war that the best energies of the Spartans were
directed, so their armies were the admiration of the ancient world for
discipline and effectiveness. They were the first who reduced war to a
science. The general type of their military organization was the phalanx,
a body of troops in close array, armed with a long spear and short sword.
The strength of an army was in the heavy armed infantry; and this body was
composed almost entirely of citizens, with a small mixture of Perioeci.
From the age of twenty to sixty, every Spartan was liable to military
service; and all the citizens formed an army, whether congregated at
Sparta, or absent on foreign service.

Such, in general, were the social, civil, and military institutions of
Sparta, and not peculiar to her alone, but to all the Dorians, even in
Crete; from which we infer that it was not Lycurgus who shaped them, but
that they existed independent of his authority. He may have re-established
the old regulations, and gave his aid to preserve the State from
corruption and decay. And when we remember that the constitution which he
re-established resisted both the usurpations of tyrants and the advances
of democracy, by which other States were revolutionized, we can not
sufficiently admire the wisdom which so early animated the Dorian
legislators.

(M368) The Spartans became masters of the country after a long struggle,
and it was henceforth called Laconia. The more obstinate Achaeans became
Helots. After the conquest, the first memorable event in Spartan history
was the reduction of Messenia, for which it took two great wars.

(M369) Messenia has already been mentioned as the southwestern part of the
Peloponnesus, and resembling Laconia in its general aspects. The river
Parnisus flows through its entire length, as Eurotas does in Laconia,
forming fertile valleys and plains, and producing various kinds of cereals
and fruits, even as it now produces oil, silk, figs, wheat, maize, cotton,
wine, and hon