But it wasn’t a novelty introduced by the legendary lawgiver Lycurgus, and in context, it makes complete sense. Pre-classical and classical Sparta may have used iron to store value. And yet, there may be a kernel of truth in it. So you’d think there’s good reason to raise eyebrows at Plutarch’s story. Plutarch is one of the most unreliable sources we have for classical Sparta. Most of the stories of Spartan exceptionalism that are still popular today - about the Spartan agōgē, killing ‘defective’ babies, military supremacy, and so on - were shaped by centuries of myth-making, long after Sparta’s actual heyday. Now, Plutarch’s story is certainly distorted. For who was going to steal something, or take bribes in it, or steal it, or take it by force, when it wasn’t possible to conceal it, to possess it jealously, or even to make a profit by cutting it up? For the red-hot iron was quenched with vinegar, it’s said, so that the hardening took away its usefulness and value for any other purpose, making it weak and unworkable. When this was ratified, many kinds of crimes disappeared from Lacedaimon. The main piece of ancient testimony comes from Plutarch, a 2nd-century-CE essayist, biographer, and priest:įor first, voided all gold and silver coinage, and decreed that they should use only iron and to this he assigned only a small price for a large weight and volume, so that a value of ten mnai required a lot of storage in the home, and a pair of oxen to transport it. It’s just that there are some solid, sensible reasons why they might have done so. But it’s actually pretty plausible that the early and Classical-era Spartans really did use iron spits as a kind of money. When modern people hear it, they often think it’s a myth, because it sounds pretty daft. Welcome to 2018! Our first topic for this year may not actually be a myth. that’s because sowing is the helots’ job) We do not sow! Game of Thrones, HBO, 2016
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