ibly civilised
their hearers and by urging them to the pursuit of honourable objects
led them to lay aside the feelings of party strife so prevalent in
Sparta; so that he may be said in some degree to have educated the
people and prepared them to receive the reforms of Lykurgus.

From Crete Lykurgus sailed to Asia Minor, wishing, it is said, to
contrast the thrifty and austere mode of life of the Cretans with the
extravagance and luxury of the Ionians, as a physician compares healthy
and diseased bodies, and to note the points of difference in the two
states. There, it seems, he first met with the poems of Homer, which
were preserved by the descendants of Kreophylus, and observing that they
were no less useful for politics and education than for relaxation and
pleasure, he eagerly copied and compiled them, with the intention of
bringing them home with him. There was already some dim idea of the
existence of these poems among the Greeks, but few possessed any
portions of them, as they were scattered in fragments, but Lykurgus
first made them known. The Egyptians suppose that Lykurgus visited them
also, and that he especially admired their institution of a separate
caste of warriors. This he transferred to Sparta, and, by excluding
working men and the lower classes from the government, made the city a
city indeed, pure from all admixture. Some Greek writers corroborate the
Egyptians in this, but as to Lykurgus having visited Libya and Iberia,
or his journey to India and meeting with the Gymnosophists, or naked
philosophers, there, no one that we know of tells this except the
Spartan Aristokrates, the son of Hipparchus.

V. During Lykurgus's absence the Lacedaemonians regretted him and sent
many embassies to ask him to return, telling him that their kings had
indeed the royal name and state, but nothing else to distinguish them
from the common people, and that he alone had the spirit of a ruler and
the power to influence men's minds. Even the kings desired his presence,
as they hoped that he would assist in establishing their authority and
would render the masses less insolent. Returning to a people in this
condition, he at once began alterations and reforms on a sweeping scale,
considering that it was useless and unprofitable to do such work by
halves, but that, as in the case of a diseased body, the original cause
of the disorder must be burned out or purged away, and the patient begin
an entirely new life. After reflec