Greek Lawgivers' View on Justice and Equality: Lycurgus and Solon

Greek Lawgivers’ View on Justice and Equality: Lycurgus and Solon
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Greek Lawgivers’ View on Justice and Equality: Lycurgus and Solon
Plutarch’s “The Life if Lycurgus” portrays Lycurgus as a man who loved justice, equality, fairness, modesty, and a close communal living. In his role as a lawgiver in the Spartan society, Lycurgus directed social reforms towards the virtues of equality among all citizens, austerity, and military fitness.
Lycurgus’ sense of justice is first portrayed after the untimely death of his elder brother, who left behind a pregnant wife. Believing in the newborn’s entitlement to the throne, Lycurgus surrendered the kingship to the young Charilaus and acted as his custodian. In this regard, Lycurgus had a strong sense of fairness. This virtue will play a big role in his social reforms in the Spartan society.
The first social reform that portrays Lycurgus’ sense of equality is the creation of a council of elders of twenty eight men, with similar powers to those of Sparta’s two royal houses. He also instituted a law that allowed people to vote on important issues. The introduction of the council of elders and the people’s right to vote helped in creating an accountable form of governance and a society where all citizens had a say in issues that affected them. Plutarch says that “by being blended with the "feverish" government of the kings, and by having an equal vote with them in matters of the highest importance, the Council of Elders brought safety and due moderation into counsels of state” (Plutacrh, 1914, p. 221). This system of government is similar to modern democracies whereby a senate or parliament checks the power of presidents to avoid abuse of their office. In the Spartan society, this approach was useful in ending tyranny and dictatorship among kings. Lycurgus’ idea of justice in this light is the idea that people should have a say on how they are governed, and that leaders should not have excess powers. This helps in avoiding anarchy by creating a stable government with checks and balances in the form of the Council of Elders and the people’s right to vote on important issues. Therefore, it appears that democracy was Lycurgus’ first idea about justice and equality in society. His ideas reflect today’s civil organization with three arms of government with specific functions. The Council of elders is equivalent to the legislature which acts as a counterbalance for the presidency to avoid dictatorship and represent the people in making decisions of national importance.
Lycurgus also instituted a practice of eating together as a way of reinforcing a sense of equality among Spartans. He established a sussita, a practice that required all Spartan men to eat together. This practice was important in discouraging greed and social inequalities since a person will eventually share his acquisitions with his peers through the eat-together practice. Lycurgus used this strategy to make wealth “an object of no desire,” because rich men could not enjoy their wealth alone; they must eat it with the poor man (Plutarch, 1914, p. 235). Considering the extreme gap between the poor and the rich in the world today, Lycurgus’ institution of the sussita shows the importance of enforced equality in a society. Perhaps we could not have so many people dying of starvation and while the privileged few indulge in gluttony.
The redistribution of land and wealth is perhaps the most significant social reform carried out by Lycurgus and the most radical measure in dealing with social and economic inequalities. Lycurgus chose to equalize people’s holdings on land and property by assigning each individual an equal piece of land. Plutarch states:
For there was an extreme inequality amongst them, and their state was overloaded with a multitude of indigent and necessitous persons, while its whole wealth had centered upon a very few (Plutarch 1914, p. 229).
Accordingly, Lycurgus believed in the equal distribution of wealth, and enforced this belief by redistributing Spartan wealth. This approach could be useful in today’s soc...