Lycurgus, A noble man of Sparta, sonne of Polydecta, and brother to Eumonus king of Lacedemon, whom hee succe-ded in the kingdome, not knowing that he left his wife with childe. Which thing so soone as Lycurgus vnderstoode, hee left the name of a kyng, and called himselfe gouernour or protectour. When the yong prince came to age he faithfully restored the kingdome to him. But in the meane time perceyuing the citie to be in ill forme of gouernement, he denised new and wholesome lawes, which when by the oracle of Apollo he had learned to be verie profitable, he published % same. And after he had well inured the Lacedemoniaus to the obedience of them, faining that he had a iourney to Delphos, hee caused all the people to sweare that they shoulde faithfully obey and keepe those lawes vntil such time as he returned. Gaing therefore to Delphos, when the oracle had signifyed, that Lacedemon should flourish so long as it kept his lawes, hee determined neuer to returne into hys countrey, but euer after liued in banlshment, & at his death commaunded his ashes to bee cast into the sea, that the Lacedemonians, by procuring to haue them, might not thinke themselues discharged of the othe, that they had taken, but perpetually should be bound to the keeping of those lawes, which he had deuised.
Lewis and Short: Latin dictionary
Lcurgus, i, m., = *lukou=rgos. I.Son of Dryas, king of the Edones, who prohibited the worship of Bacchus to his subjects, and ordered all the vines to be destroyed, Ov. M. 4, 22; Prop. 4, 16, 23; Stat. Th. 4, 386; Hor. C. 2, 19, 16; Hyg. Fab. 132; 242.—II.Son of Pheres, a king of Nemea, Stat. Th. 5, 39. —III.Son of Aleus and Neæra, and father of Ancæus, a king of Arcadia; hence, L-curgīdes, ae, m., a male descendant of Lycurgus, i. e. Ancæus, Ov. Ib. 503; and: Lcŏorgīdes, ae, m., the same, Prisc. 584 P.—IV.The famous lawgiver of the Spartans, Cic. Div. 1, 43, 96; id. Rep. 2, 1; 2, 9, 5 sq.; id. Off. 1, 22, 76; Vell. 1, 6, 3 et saep.—V.An Athenian orator, the contemporary and friend of Demosthenes, famed for his incorruptible integrity, Cic. Brut. 34, 130; id. de Or. 2, 23, 94.—Transf., for a severe magistrate: Lycurgos invenisse se praedicabat et Cassios, columina justitiae prisca, Amm. 30, 8, 13.—Hence, Lcur-gēi, ōrum, m., = *lukou/rgeioi, disciples of Lycurgus, inflexibly severe: nosmetipsi, qui Lycurgei a principio fuissemus, cotidie demitigamur, Cic. Att. 1, 13, 3.