[204] Τὰς νησοὺς εὶς εἴκοσι ἔτη διελόμενοι, πάλιν κληρουχοῖσιν ὄταν ὁ χρόνος οὗτος διέλθη. The word πάλιν means a second time and not periodically. There is no expression such as νῦν ἔτι which the historian would have used if he had meant to imply that it was still practised in his own time. The conjunction ὄταν indicates a single action; the historian has not written όσάκις. It is true he uses κληρουχοῦσι in the present tense; whether copying an old document, or employing the “narrative present” so usual with historians. It is necessary, moreover, to notice the intrinsic meaning of the word κληρουχεῖν; the term is usual enough in Greek for its meaning to be perfectly well ascertained. It is always used of a definitive division, a partition made for all time. We cannot suppose that Diodorus would have used κληρουχεῖν for a temporary and periodical division. [205] Diodorus, v. 53; v. 59; v. 81; v. 83 and 84; xii. 11; xv. 23. [206] See Strabo vi. 1. [207] Κοινὰ ποιοῦντες τὰ κτήματα τοῖς ἀπόροις ἐπὶ τὴν χρῆσιν. [208] Εὔνουν παρασκευάζουσι τὸ πλῆθος. [209] Xenophon, _Commentarii_, i. 2, 61, tells us that the Lacedæmonian Lichas was celebrated for the generosity with which he entertained his guests at dinner; Herodotus, vi. 57, represents individuals as inviting a king to dinner in their own houses; Plutarch, _Lycurgus_, 12, says that every Spartan who made a sacrifice was excused from the public meals, _i.e._, he could eat at his own home the animal he had sacrificed. It is, therefore, a great mistake to say that the Spartans always ate in common. [210] Athenæus, iv. 16. [211] Herodotus, who knew Sparta very well, says that the public meals were not established till two centuries after the foundation of the city; i. 65. The same will be found in Xenophon, _Republ. Laced._, v. and in Plutarch, _Lycurgus_, 10, who says distinctly that before this period the Spartans ate their meals at home. Private property, on the other hand, was established from the very beginning of the city. [212] Plato, _Laws_, vi. p. 781; Aristotle, _Politics_, ii. 7; Alcman, in Strabo, x. 4, 18. [213] Aristotle, _Politics_, ii. 7; Plutarch, _Lycurgus_, 12. [214] Aristotle, _Politics_, ii. 6, 21. [215] Plutarch, _Lycurgus_, 12. [216] Cicero, _Tusculan. Disput._ v. 34; Plutarch, _Lycurgus_, 21; Xenophon, _Republ. Laced._, v; and, above all, the authors cited by Athenæus, iv, 20. [217] We have elsewhere pointed to the evidence for private property in Sparta, and the rules concerning it. (_Comptes rendus des séances de l’Académie des sciences morales_, 1879-1880.) See, on the same subject, the excellent work of M. Claudio Jannet. [218] Viollet, p. 472. [219] Diodorus, v. 53; v. 59; v. 81; v. 83; v. 84; xii. 11; xv. 23; Odyssy, vi. 11; Herodotus, v. 77; Plato, _Laws_, iii. pp. 684-685; Pausanias, _passim_.