There is another error, equally great,
into which they have fallen. Although they truly think that the
goods for which men contend are to be acquired by virtue rather than
by vice, they err in supposing that these goods are to be preferred to
the virtue which gains them.
Once more: the revenues of the state are ill-managed; there is no
money in the treasury, although they are obliged to carry on great
wars, and they are unwilling to pay taxes. The greater part of the
land being in the hands of the Spartans, they do not look closely into
one another's contributions. The result which the legislator has
produced is the reverse of beneficial; for he has made his city
poor, and his citizens greedy.
Enough respecting the Spartan constitution, of which these are the
principal defects.
X
The Cretan constitution nearly resembles the Spartan, and in some
few points is quite as good; but for the most part less perfect in
form. The older constitutions are generally less elaborate than the
later, and the Lacedaemonian is said to be, and probably is, in a very
great measure, a copy of the Cretan. According to tradition, Lycurgus,
when he ceased to be the guardian of King Charillus, went abroad and
spent most of his time in Crete. For the two countries are nearly
connected; the Lyctians are a colony of the Lacedaemonians, and the
colonists, when they came to Crete, adopted the constitution which
they found existing among the inhabitants.
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