Plutarch, Comparison of Lycurgus and Numa
Bernadotte Perrin, Ed.

1. Now that we have recounted the lives of Numa and Lycurgus, and both lie clearly before us, we must attempt, even though the task be difficult, to assemble and put together their points of difference. For their points of likeness are obvious from their careers: their wise moderation, their piety, their talent for governing and educating, and their both deriving their laws from a divine source. But each also performed noble deeds peculiar to himself. To begin with, Numa accepted, but Lycurgus resigned, a kingdom. [2] One got it without asking for it, the other had it and gave it up. One was made by others their sovereign, though a private person and a stranger; the other made himself a private person, though he was a king. It was a noble thing, of course, to win a kingdom by righteousness; but it was also a noble thing to set righteousness above a kingdom. For it was virtue which rendered the one so famous as to be judged worthy of a kingdom, and virtue, too, which made the other so great as to scorn a kingdom.

[3] In the second place, then, it is granted that, just as musicians tune their lyres, so Lycurgus tightened the strings at Sparta, which he found relaxed with luxury, and Numa loosened the strings at Rome, where the tones were sharp and high; but the task was more difficult in the case of Lycurgus. For his efforts were to persuade the citizens, not to take off their breast-plates and lay aside their swords, but to cast away gold and silver, and abandon costly couches and tables; not to cease from wars and hold festivals and sacrifices, but to give up feasting and drinking and practise laboriously as soldiers and athletes. [4] Wherefore the one accomplished all his ends by persuasion, through the good-will and honour in which his people held him; but the other had to risk his life and suffer wounds, and scarcely then prevailed.

Numa's muse, however, was gentle and humane, and he converted his people to peace and righteousness, and softened their violent and fiery tempers. And if we must ascribe to the administration of Lycurgus the treatment of the Helots, [5] a most savage and lawless practice, we shall own that Numa was far more Hellenic as a lawgiver, since he gave acknowledged slaves a taste of the dignity of freedom, by making it the custom for them to feast in the company of their masters during the Saturnalia¹ For this too was one of the institutions of Numa, as we are told, who thereby admitted to the enjoyment of the yearly fruits of the earth those who had helped to produce them. Some, however, fancy that this custom was a reminder of the equality which characterized the famous Saturnian age, when there was neither slave nor master, but all were regarded as kinsmen and equals.