This sort of language was used by the
queen-mother also, and he, grieved and alarmed, decided to avoid all
suspicion by leaving the country and travelling until his nephew should
be grown up and have an heir born to succeed him.
IV. With this intention he set sail, and first came to Crete, where he
studied the constitution and mixed with the leading statesmen. Some part
of their laws he approved and made himself master of, with the
intention of adopting them on his return home, while with others he was
dissatisfied. One of the men who had a reputation there for learning and
state-craft he made his friend, and induced him to go to Sparta. This
was Thales, who was thought to be merely a lyric poet, and who used this
art to conceal his graver acquirements, being in reality deeply versed
in legislation. His poems were exhortations to unity and concord in
verse, breathing a spirit of calm and order, which insensibly 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.
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