"All the same it was not Lycurgus' main aim at the time to leave his city as the leader of so many other cities. Instead his view was that happiness in the life of a whole city, as in that of one individual, derives from its own merits and from its internal concord: it was to this end that all his arrangements and his structures were combined, so that Spartans should be free and self-sufficient, and should have the good sense to continue thus for a very long time. This theory of government was adopted by Plato, Diogenes, and Zeno and all those who are praised for their attempts to make some statement about these matters, even though they left only paper theories."
-Plutarch, On Sparta - Lives - Lycurgus - 31
-Plutarch, On Sparta - Lives - Lycurgus - 31
- Though the Spartans were respected as the defacto leaders of Greece at the time of Lycurgus, this was not his aim.
- Lycurgus believed that cities should focus on their own internal virtue and self-sufficiency.
- This will lead to long periods of stability.
- This is similar to the individual philosophies of the Cynics and the Stoics.
