e public tables, for everyone had an eye
upon those who did not eat and drink like the rest, and reproached them
with being dainty and effeminate.

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 to 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. Lycurgus, so far from being
daunted and discouraged by this accident, stopped short and showed his
disfigured face and eye beat out to his countrymen; they, dismayed and
ashamed at the sight, delivered Alcander into his hands to be punished,
and escorted him home, with expressions 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 severe 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, did without
murmuring as he was commanded; and, being thus admitted to live with
Lycurgus, he had an opportunity to observe in him, beside 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.

In memory of this accident, Lycurgus built a temple to Minerva. Some
authors, however, say that he was wounded, indeed, but did not lose his
eye from the blow; and that he built the temple in gratitude for the
cure. Be this as it will, certain it is, that, after this misadventure,
the Lacedaemonians made it a rule never to carry so much as a staff into
their public assemblies.

But to return to their public repasts. They met by companies of fifteen,
more or less, and each of them stood bound to bring in monthly a bushel
of meal, eight g