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Life of Lycurgus

The Life of Lycurgus is a biography of the legendary Spartan lawgiver by the Greek writer Plutarch, part of his Parallel Lives, where it is paired with the life of the Roman king Numa. It describes the Spartan constitution, the redistribution of land, the common meals and the education of boys, and preserves the text of the Great Rhetra. It shaped the image of Sparta for later writers from Machiavelli to Rousseau.

Life of Lycurgus
Image: Plutarch · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

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Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Life of Lycurgus. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/life-of-lycurgus
MLA
“Life of Lycurgus.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/life-of-lycurgus. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Life of Lycurgus.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/life-of-lycurgus.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Life of Lycurgus’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/life-of-lycurgus (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻