HUM 2 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Helots, Great Rhetra, Hexameter
Document Summary
The great law, foundational document of spartan constitution. Two sanctuaries which nothing is known about. Council of elders, chief leaders, and assembly. Sparta begins as diarchy (two ruling kings at same time) part of power-sharing. Spartans retain dual monarchy even long after monarchies fade. Assembly consists of all male adult spartiates agreement at beginning of polis. Elsewhere age of majority was 18-2?, here it was 30 to exercise full citizenship. Delivered as prose instead of dactylic hexameter. Final clause is basically gibberish in greek. If it"s a forgery, it has to predate the 7th century to fool tyrtaeus. Council of elders may be new establishment with rhetra. But if the people should adopt a crooked motion, let the elders and chief leaders. Two kings that appended rider to rhetra. Have fuller powers for longer than anywhere else. Probably remnant of power-sharing agreement when original four villages.
