It was one of the penalties of the narrow discipline of Sparta that it produced so few really great men. The body was cultivated at the expense of the mind, and little or no importance was attached to intellectual pursuits. Music was almost the only form of art generally cultivated, and that chiefly because of its connection with military drill. The victory of Agis at Mantinea in 418 B.C., when he was taken by surprise, was largely due to the inspiring and regulative influence of the fifes and war-songs (which were as cheering and not so exciting as the speeches delivered on the other side), as well as to the superior mode of transmitting orders from the general, through the various gradations of rank (down to the _enomotarch_ in charge of some twenty-five men), as compared with the public proclamation by a herald, which was customary elsewhere. Even for their music they are said to have been indebted to foreign teachers--to Tyrtæus, whose stirring strains raised their spirits at a most trying crisis in their history; to Terpander, who added three strings to the lyre, completing the octave; and to Alcman, the last to train a popular and voluntary chorus. Not only in their military drill, but also in their public processions and choral dances, music played a great part in their civilisation. People of all ranks and classes (not excepting even the kings) and of all ages, were expected to undergo training at the hands of the chorus-master and take their allotted place in the public celebrations. To this day you may sometimes see on festive occasions well-dressed men and women joining with the children in a choral dance on the public road. One great defect in the Spartan discipline was the want of a natural home-life for the growth of family affection and social culture. Their city was more like an armed camp in the midst of a hostile population than the capital of a civilised state. The military distinction to which they sacrificed everything else fostered a spirit of imperious pride, which became their ruling passion, as it was indeed their chief reward for their unsparing self-denial. For a long time they were regarded as practically invincible, so much so that when nearly 300 of them surrendered at Sphacteria to an immensely superior force of Athenians, it created quite a sensation throughout Greece. The description of them given by Demaratus to Xerxes, that Spartans must either conquer or die, expressed the character which they not only claimed for themselves but which was popularly attributed to them by the whole Hellenic race, and it procured for them an honourable reception wherever they appeared in time of peace. In war they had the support of the periœci, as they were called, the inhabitants of the country towns and more mountainous parts of Laconia, to whom they conceded [Illustration: SPARTA AND MOUNT TAŸGETUS