Note 638 — Chapter VI · LAWS AND DISCIPLINE OF LYKURGUS AT SPARTA.

Dr. Arnold (in his Dissertation on the Spartan Constitution, appended to the first volume of his Thucydidês, p. 643) places greater confidence in the historical value of this narrative of Isokratês than I am inclined to do. On the other hand, Mr. G. C. Lewis, in his Review of Dr. Arnold’s Dissertation (Philological Museum, vol. ii. p. 45), considers the “account of Isokratês as completely inconsistent with that of Ephorus;” which is saying rather more, perhaps, than the tenor of the two strictly warrants. In Mr. Lewis’s excellent article, most of the difficult points respecting the Spartan constitution will be found raised and discussed in a manner highly instructive.

Another point in the statement of Isokratês is, that the Dorians, at the time of the original conquest of Laconia, were only two thousand in number (Or. xii. Panath. p. 286). Mr. Clinton rejects this estimate as too small, and observes, “I suspect that Isokratês, in describing the numbers of the Dorians at the original conquest, has adapted to the description the actual numbers of the Spartans in his own time.” (Fast. Hellen. ii. p. 408.)

This seems to me a probable conjecture, and it illustrates as well the absence of data under which Isokratês or his informants labored, as the method which they took to supply the deficiency.