Note 1125 — Chapter II · WOMEN OF DORIC STATES.
Reading edition
According to Justin, indeed, the Spartan legislator abolished the usage of dowries: Virgines sine dote nubere jussit, ut uxores eligerentur, non pecuniæ; severiusque matrimonia sua viri coërcerent, cum nullis dotis frœnis tenerentur, iii. 3. But Aristotle, who had deeply studied the polity of Sparta, gives a very different account:—ἔστι δὲ καὶ τῶν γυναικῶν σχεδὸν τῆς πάσης χώρας τῶν πέντε μερῶν τὰ δύο, τῶν τ᾽ ἐπικλήρων πολλῶν γινομένων, καὶ διὰ τὸ προῖκας διδόναι μεγάλας.—Polit. ii. 9.