It exceeds our faith in human nature to believe, with Mr. Müller, that, in spite of these untoward circumstances, “the citizens maintained the same proud indigence.” History, in fact, renders inexcusable the belief in such virtue, though men occasionally arose at Sparta, as well as at Athens and elsewhere, who, with a stoical firmness, resisted the allurements of riches and pleasure. The greater number fell, and yielded themselves up with so much enthusiasm to the pursuit of gain, adding acre to acre and gold to gold, that from the Ephoralty of Epitadeus downwards, the city was infested with usurers, great capitalists, and extensive landed proprietors, who, by degrees, got into their hands the whole property of the country. Much less ingenuity than the Spartans possessed would, in fact, have enabled them to evade the old law, which seems to have immediately grown obsolete when the arts of rendering it powerless had been invented. They deposited their surplus wealth at Delphi, in Arcadia, and several other countries, so that if driven into exile,[1541] of which there was always a probability, they might be able to subsist in splendour in their new country.[1542] But these speculations sometimes failed; in the case of the Arcadians, the possession of the gold converted bankers into enemies, as, by picking a quarrel with the owners, they hoped to be able to defraud them.[1543] Lysander, though he did not commence this practice, at least countenanced it by his example. Gylippos, inheriting from his family the thirst of gold, was condemned and starved to death, by the Ephori, for purloining public property. His father Cleandridas, in conjunction with king Pleistoanax, had accepted bribes from Pericles, and ended his days in exile.[1544] From this period, as seems to be undeniable, the possession of gold and silver by private individuals was permitted by law, or connived at; and the Spartans proceeded, after the manner of all other nations, to divide themselves into very rich and very poor, to house together, in the same city, misery and splendour, extreme luxury and extreme want, until the common fate, foreign conquest and slavery, overtook them. ----- Footnote 1541: This was thought necessary even by so great a man as Lysander. Plut. Lysand. § 18. Footnote 1542: As in the case of Cleandridas, father of Gylippos. Footnote 1543: Athen. vi. 24. Footnote 1544: Thucyd. vi. 104. Plut. Pericl. § 22. Müller, ii. 225. -----