Another political phenomenon in striking contrast to the Athenian experiment was the legislative program of Lycurgus, the Spartan lawgiver who flourished in the ninth century B.C. One wonders how a single man succeeded in establishing the most startling and unpleasant laws in history. These laws divided the land of Laconia among the free citizens and at the same time forbade them to participate in trade or any other activity except the profession of arms to which they were to devote themselves exclusively. The cultivation of the soil and all other work fell to the serfs, the Helots. Eugenics was practiced in this state too. A law forbade marriage sport ween men and women with physical defects. Malformed children were tossed from cliff tops, and husbands were encouraged to lend their wives to exceptional men for the breeding of handsome young warriors. sports ual exclusivism was considered absurd.
Since this nation dreaded contamination by foreigners, Xenophobia was prevalent, a lack of hospitality without precedent in the ancient world. As for the Spartans themselves, they could not leave their country without special authorization. The iron curtain we know today is not a novelty. The Spartans doubtless knew that a breath coming from countries where freedom was held in honor would have sufficed to ruin this bizarre regime where two-thirds of the population was composed of Helots and the ruling class themselves were the not free s of the state.