Lacedæmon

LACEDÆMON, otherwise called Sparta, a celebrated City in the Peloponnesus. It is very ancient, and said to have been called at first Lelegia, from Lelex, its first King, who was, they say, Contemporary with Creon and Erichthonius. It afterwards took the Name of Lacedæmon from Lacedæmon the Son of Jupiter and Semele: Lastly, it went likewise by the Name of Sparta, from Queen Sparta, Wife to Lacedæmon.

We know of three Dynasties of Kings who reigned formerly at Lacedæmon. The first began with Lelex, first King of this City, and continued as far as Tizamenes, the Son of Orestes, thirteenth and last King of the first Dynasty, who was driven out by the Heraclidæ. The Dynasty of the Heraclidæ was divided into two Families, that of the Eurysthenidæ or the Agidæ, of whom there were one and thirty Kings of Lacedæmon, and that of the Proclidæ, or Euripontidæ; of whom there were four and twenty.

The Lacedæmonians were always distinguished by their Valour. Lycurgus formed their Government and gave them Laws. He settled a Council composed of two and thirty, of whom the King was the first. This Council could conclude nothing without the Consent of the People. Many of Lycurgus’s Laws have some Resemblance with those of Moses; for Example, the Equality observed in the Partition of Lands, the Respect required to old Men and Magistrates, Frugality, Abhorrence of Drunkenness, and Intemperance; they brought up their Sons and even their Daughters in the laborious Exercises of War; they inspired them with an infinite Love of Liberty and Independency, they spoke little, and said much in few Words. The Laconick Style grew into a Proverb.

The Hebrews did not begin to have a Knowledge of the Lacedæmonians, and carry on any Commerce with them, till after the Maccabees. We said in the first Edition of this Dictionary, that Arius King of Lacedæmon, wrote to the High-Priest Onias III. in the Year of the World 3821, before J. C. 179, before the Vulgar Æra 183.¹ that having been informed how nearly the Jews and Lacedæmonians were related, as being both of the Race of Abraham, he desired them to send him an Account of the State of their Affairs. Onias received Arius’s Envoys very well, and wrote back to the Lacedæmonians, acknowledging with Pleasure the Relation between the two Nations.

Many Years after °, Jonathan Maccabæus having sent Deputies to Rome, in Order to renew the Alliance between the Jews and Romans, gave Orders to his People to return by the Way of Lacedæmon, and carry a Letter to the Lacedæmonians, wherein he declares all that we have been speaking of, and says, that although the Jews do not want the Testimony of Arius, to be convinced of the Relation which was between them, since they had sacred Books which informed them of it; and although in the present Situation of their Commonwealth they were under no Necessity to have Recourse to them for any Assistance; they however would not neglect an Opportunity of sending Ambassadors to them, to renew their Union and Friendship, and to give them some Account of the Posture wherein the Affairs of their Nation stood, telling them they were exposed to many Persecutions, but the Lord in a very miraculous Manner had delivered them out of all. We have not the Answer of the Lacedæmonians.

Some Time before Jason, the pretended High-Priest of the Jews, and Brother to Onias III. having been obliged to fly from his Countrey, by Reason of his Crimes, retired to the Lacedæmonians², hoping to find 2 Mac. v. 7.a Sanctuary among them; but the Lacedæmonians understanding the Reason of his Flight, deserted him, and he died without receiving from them the Honour of a Burial.

We at first supposed with Josephus³ and Ussher⁴, that it was the High-Priest Onias III. to whom the King of Lacedæmon had written; there are Difficulties notwithstanding against this Supposition, which ought not to be concealed. It is said⁵; that there was no King at Lacedæmon in the Time of Onias III. of the Name of Arius; for as to him who is mentioned in the History of Onias’s Time, he had neither the Title nor Quality of King; no Author ever gave it him. The two Royal Families of Lacedæmon were extinct before this Arius came into the World, and the Government of this City had taken another Form, after having passed through the Hands of certain Tyrants. Besides this, the High-Priest Jonathan in his Letter to the Macc. xii. 10.Lacedæmonians, taking Notice of that of Arius, says, that it had been written long before: Now he never would have spoke thus, if Arius’s Letters had been written to Onias III. Since from the Death of Onias III. which happened in the Year of the World 3834, to the Beginning of Jonathan in 3843, there were but nine Years.

It were therefore more advisable to say, that it was Areus, or Arius I. King of Lacedæmon, who wrote to Onias I. High-Priest of the Jews. This Prince was certainly Contemporary with Onias, and all History agrees very well in this Opinion. The Beginning of Onias I. we fix in the Year of the World 3682, and his Death in 3702.

As to the Relation between the Jews and Lacedæmonians, we shall offer the principal Conjectures which are brought to give some Colour to this Opinion. It may be proper to remark first, that according to the Greek Text they were the Lacedæmonians who first wrote to the Jews, and certified to them, that they had found in some old Books, that they were Relations, and had the Patriarch Abraham for their common Father. The Jews, who have been always proud of their noble Original, did not reject this Pretension of the Lacedæmonians. Both the one and the other believed very seriously, that they were related. We have Arius’s Letter to Onias, but we do not find Onias’s Answer to Arius; it appears however by the Sequel of the History, that the Matter was very well received in Judæa, and that both People maintained sincerely their Alliance and Relation.

The High-Priest Jason being obliged to quit Judæa his Countrey, and Arabia whither he had retired, went to Lacedæmon, v. 9.and there desired Protection. The High-Priest 2 Macc.⁶ Jonathan, Brother to Judas Maccabæus, wrote to the People and Senate of Lacedæmon2 Macc. xii 6., to renew their ancient Alliance; their Relation was an Article not contested. It must be nevertheless confessed, that if this were founded only upon the Monuments remaining with us in the holy Scriptures, or in prophane Authors, their Belief was ill enough grounded. But they might at that Time have Proofs and Monuments in their Possession which are unknown to us.

Let this be as it will, the Conjectures which are offered to give Light to this Relation are such as here follow. Some⁷ have advanced, Gen. x. 28.that Ebal the Son of Joktan, was the same with Ebalus, the Father of Tyndarus, and Grandfather of Castor, Pollux, and Helena; but Chronology cannot be reconciled with this Opinion; and besides, this would not prove that the Lacedæmonians and Jews had Abraham for their common Father, since Ebal is six or seven Generations older than Abraham.

D. Thom. seu alius in Libb. Mac.Others believed, that the Lacedæmonians were sprung from one of the two Wives of Abraham, Hagar, or Keturah; but this is too uncertain, and gives us no Light beyond a Conjecture, which is not supported by the least Proof. Grotius imagines, that the Relation between the Jews and Lacedæmonians is founded upon the Lacedæmonians being descended from the Dorians, and the Dorians from the Pelasgians; and as these last were originally of the Countries adjacent to Syria or Arabia, it has been said at Random, that the Lacedæmonians and Jews were of the same Race; this is one of those agreeable Opinions which will not allow of an accurate and rigid Examination.

Eutychius Patriarch of Alexandria, deduces this Relation from Esau’s Side: He believes, that Esau married not only Women of Canaan, but likewise Greek Women; and that from thence proceeded the Alliance betweeen the Jews and Greeks. It were to be wished, that this supposed Marriage between Esau and these Grecian Women were so much as probable.

Some derive it from Cadmus, who being a Phœnician, and coming into Greece with some Arabians, gave Room for this Report of the Lacedæmonians descending from Abraham. The Foundation of the City of Lacedæmon is attributed to Cadmus, and the Etymology of the Name Sparta, which signifies sown, is borrowed from Cadmus’s having sown the Serpent’s Teeth, out of which sprung Men.⁸ Apollodorus adds, that Cadmus being frightened to see Men compleatly Diodor. Sicul.armed rising out of the Earth, threw Stones at them: That they gathering up the Stones, began to combat and to kill one another; so that but five of them remained, at the Head of whom was Udæus. Would not any one have taken this Udæus for Judæus, in Order to derive from him the Original of the Jewish Lacedæmonians?

Diodorus Siculus relates, that a Multitude of Strangers settling in Egypt, and beginning to alter the Laws and Customs of it, the Natives of the Country drove them out, and obliged them to retire where they could: Part of them withdrew into Greece under the Conduct of Danaus and Cadmus; the others having Moses at their Head, made themselves Masters of Judæa, which at that Time was intirely desolate. Here again is Matter whereupon to found a Conjecture concerning the common Original of the Lacedæmonians and Jews.

Tacit. Hist. l. v. initio.The Foundation of Sparta is by some Authors attributed to a Jew whose Name was Sparton, and who accompanied Bacchus in his Wars and Travels; others attribute it to Spartus the Son of Phoroneus. Some will have it, that this Sparton, Bacchus’s Companion, was a Jew; if this were well proved, there would be no other Foundation wanting to affirm, that the Jews and Lacedæmonians were derived from the same Father. But Pausanias remarks, that the Lacedæmonians knew of no Pausan. Corinth. P. 58.such Man, and did not acknowledge him to be the Founder of their City.

Joseph. Antiq. l. xii. c v. 1 Macc. xii. 9.The Ancients believed, that the Jews were originally of the Isle of Crete. This Opinion was still common in the Time of Tacitus: Judæos Creta insula profugos novissime Lybiæ insedisse, &c. Mount Ida, not very different from that of Juda; the Idæi not much unlike Judæi; the River Jarden having the same Name as Jordan in Palestine; the Laws of the Cretans given by Minos, those of the Lacedæmonians by Lycurgus, those of the Jews by Moses: All this in the most remote Antiquity. The Cretan People sent Colonies into Palestine: The Philistines were originally Cretans. Lycurgus the Lacedæmonian Legislator dwelt a long Time in Crete, and borrowed his Laws from thence; which he established among his Countrymen. All this might have given Room for Belief, that the Jews and Lacedæmonians were of the same Original⁹.

Josephus took the Passage of Jonathan’s Letter to the Senate of Lacedæmon in a Sense different from what we read in the Books of Maccabees. These Books import, that although the Jews had no Want of the Assistance of the Lacedæmonians, nor of an Alliance with them, did notwithstanding send proper Persons to renew it with them: Albeit we need none of these Things, for that we have the holy Books of Scripture to comfort us. Josephus makes Jonathan say, that for the Jews, they wanted not the Testimony of Strangers to be persuaded, that the Jews and Spartans were Brethren, having the sacred Writings in their Hands which furnished them with Proofs of it, &c. This Explanation of Josephus is followed by many Interpreters, but where are these Passages of Scripture which demonstrate the Relation between these two People? This is what no one hitherto could shew, any otherwise than by supposing what is very uncertain, that the Lacedæmonians came from the Edomites or Ishmaelites.

The Result of all that has been said is this, that the Relation of these two People is a very dubious Point, and that probably the Jews and Spartans were willing in this Particular to be agreeably mistaken. The Scripture does not oblige us to believe what Arius and Jonathan believed; if it be an Error, it is one for which they are responsible. The Books which we believe to be inspired and indubitable, do sometimes relate the Errors and vain Opinions of Men, without approving or authorizing them.

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