religious part of their histories makes a great distinction
between them. For Romulus's success was due to the great favour of
Heaven, whereas the oracle given to Aegeus, to refrain from all women in
foreign parts, seems to argue that the birth of Theseus took place
contrary to the will of the gods.

LIFE OF LYKURGUS.

I. With regard to Lykurgus the lawgiver there is nothing whatever that
is undisputed; as his birth, his travels, his death, and, besides all
this, his legislation, have all been related in various ways; and also
the dates of his birth do not in any way accord. Some say that he was
contemporary with Iphitus, and with him settled the conditions of the
Olympic truce; and among these is Aristotle the philosopher, who adduces
as a proof of it the quoit which is at Olympia, on which the name of
Lykurgus is still preserved. Others, among them Eratosthenes and
Apollodorus, by computing the reigns of the kings of Sparta,[A] prove
that he must have lived many years before the first Olympiad. Timaeus
conjectures that there were two men of the name of Lykurgus in Sparta at
different times, and that the deeds of both are attributed to one of
them, on account of his celebrity. The elder, he thinks, must have lived
not far off the time of Homer; indeed some say that he came into the
presence of Homer. Xenophon gives an idea of his antiquity when he
speaks of him as living in the time of the Herakleidae. By descent of
course the last kings of Sparta are Herakleidae, but he appears to mean
by Herakleidae the earliest of all, who were next to Herakles himself.

[Footnote A: In the Spartan constitution there were two kings, who were
believed to be descended from two brothers, Eurysthenes and Prokles, the
two sons of Aristodemus. When the descendants of Herakles returned to
Peloponnesus, and divided that country amongst them, Lacedaemon fell to
the lot of Aristodemus, who left his two sons joint heirs to the
monarchy. The kings of Sparta had little real power, and to this no
doubt they owed the fact of their retaining their dignity when every
other Hellenic state adopted a democratic form of government.]

However, in spite of these discrepancies, we will endeavour, by
following the least inconsistent accounts and the best known
authorities, to write the history of his life. Simonides the poet tells
us that the father of Lykurgus was not Eunomus, but Prytanis. But most
writers do not deduce his genealogy thus, but