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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Polity of Athenians and Lacedaemonians by Xenophon: THE POLITY OF THE LACEDAEMONIANS
I
I recall the astonishment with which I[1] first noted the unique
position[2] of Sparta amongst the states of Hellas, the relatively
sparse population,[3] and at the same time the extraordinary power and
prestige of the community. I was puzzled to account for the fact. It
was only when I came to consider the peculiar institutions of the
Spartans that my wonderment ceased. Or rather, it is transferred to
the legislator who gave them those laws, obedience to which has been
the secret of their prosperity. This legislator, Lycurgus, I must
needs admire, and hold him to have been one of the wisest of mankind.
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