Xenophon wrote the ancient work Constitution of the Lacedaemonians, also called the Spartan Constitution.
The treatise examines the institutions and customs associated with Sparta. Xenophon praises the arrangements traditionally attributed to Lycurgus, including the education system, communal discipline, military organization, and social regulations. His admiration reflects his well-known sympathy for Sparta.
The work is valuable because it offers a detailed ancient account of Spartan practices, but it is not a neutral modern-style description. Xenophon selected features that supported his argument about the strength of Lycurgus’ system. Some details may represent ideals, later developments, or practices that were not universal across every period of Spartan history.
Xenophon was an Athenian aristocrat and soldier who served alongside Spartan forces. His perspective differs from that of Thucydides, who focused primarily on the Peloponnesian War, and from Plutarch, who wrote a much later biography of Lycurgus.