Indeed, a Spartan who was at Athens while the courts were sitting, and
who learned that some man had been fined for idleness, and was leaving
the court in sorrow accompanied by his grieving friends, asked to be
shown the man who had been punished for gentlemanly behaviour. So
slavish did they deem it to labour at trade and business. In Sparta, as
was natural, lawsuits became extinct, together with money, as the people
had neither excess nor deficiency, but all were equally well off, and
enjoyed abundant leisure by reason of their simple habits. All their
time was spent in dances, feasting, hunting or gymnastic exercises and
conversation, when they were not engaged in war.
XXIV. Those who were less than thirty years old never came into the
market-place at all, but made their necessary purchases through their
friends and relations. And it was thought discreditable to the older men
to be seen there much, and not to spend the greater part of the day in
the gymnasium and the _lesches_ or places for conversation. In these
they used to collect together and pass their leisure time, making no
allusions to business or the affairs of commerce, but their chief study
being to praise what was honourable, and contemn what was base in a
light satiric vein of talk which was instructive and edifying to the
hearers. Nor was Lykurgus himself a man of unmixed austerity: indeed, he
is said by Sosibius to have set up the little statue of the god of
laughter, and introduced merriment at proper times to enliven their
wine-parties and other gatherings.
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