3. The age of marriage was fixed by the ancient Greeks and western nations much later than at a subsequent period by those of the east. Following the former, the laws of Sparta did not allow women of too tender an age to be disposed of in marriage. The women were generally those at the highest pitch of youthful vigour(1359) (called in Rhodes ἀνθεστηριάδες),(1360) and for the men, about the age of thirty was esteemed the most proper, as we find in Hesiod,(1361) Plato,(1362) and even Aristotle. Public actions might however be brought against those who married too late (γραφὴ ὀψιγαμίου), to which those also were liable who had entered into unsuitable marriages (γραφὴ κακογαμίου), and those who remained unmarried (γραφὴ ἀγαμίου).(1363) It is well known that these laws have been blamed as a violation of the rights of individuals, and even a profanation of the rite of marriage: but these censors should have remembered that they were judging those institutions by principles which the founders of them would not have recognised. For the Spartans considered marriage, not as a _private relation_, about which the state had little or no interest, but as a _public institution_, in order to rear up a strong and healthy progeny to the nation. In Solon’s legislation, marriage was also placed under the inspection of the state, and an action for not marrying (γραφὴ ἀγαμίου(1364)), though merely as a relic of antiquity, existed at Athens. It is nevertheless true that marriage, especially in Sparta, was, to a certain degree, viewed with a primitive simplicity, which shocks the feelings of more refined ages, as the peculiar object of matrimony was never kept out of sight. Leonidas, when despatched to Thermopylæ, is said to have left as a legacy to his wife Gorgo the maxim, _Marry nobly, and produce a noble offspring_;(1365) and when Acrotatus had fought bravely in the war against Pyrrhus, the women followed him through the town, and some of the older ones shouted after him, “Go, Acrotatus, enjoy yourself with Chelidonis, and beget valiant sons for Sparta.”(1366) Hence we may perceive the reason why in various cases(1367) (such as are known to us have been mentioned above(1368)) Lycurgus not only allowed, but enjoined the marriage duties to be transferred to another; always, however, providing that the sanctity of the marriage union should be for a certain time sacrificed to that which the Doric race considered as of higher importance, viz., the maintenance of the family. That these cases were so defined by custom, as to leave but little room for the effects of caprice or passion, is evident from the infrequency of adultery at Sparta:(1369) but the above aim justified even king Anaxandridas, when, contrary to all national customs, he cohabited with two wives,(1370) who lived without doubt in separate houses. To marry foreign women was certainly forbidden to all Spartans, and to the Heraclidæ by a separate rhetra;(1371) contrary