of returning home, forcing the citizens of Sparta by oath to keep his laws indefinitely. He later enjoyed a hero cult in Sparta and Spartans retained much respect towards him. Lycurgus's reformed institutions Lycurgus is credited with the formation of many Spartan institutions integral to the country's rise to power, but more importantly the complete and undivided allegiance to Sparta from its citizens, which was implemented under his form of government. Lycurgus is said to have been the originator of the Spartan "Homoioi," the "Equals," citizens who had no wealth insofar as the citizens (not the Helots) were concerned. This radical lifestyle differentiated the Spartans once again from other Greeks of their time. Lycurgus forbade the Great Rhetra from being written down. Instead of having rules simply written down for people to follow, he wanted his laws to be ingrained into the Spartans as a part of their character, forming a greater bond with them. This would also allow flexibility to the laws so that they could change and evolve in times of need, rather than referring to firmly written rules. A new council between the people and the kings The first reform instituted by Lycurgus involved establishing a twenty-eight-strong Council of Elders (Spartans of sixty years or more) called the Gerousia, with the two kings bringing the membership up to thirty. The people had the right to vote on important questions, but the Gerousia decided when a vote might be taken. As Plutarch puts it, a Gerousia "allays and qualifies the fiery genius of the royal office", and gives some stability and safety to the commonwealth, like the ballast in a ship. Earlier, Sparta had oscillated between extremes: democracy and tyranny, anarchy and dictatorship. With the addition of the Gerousia, which resisted both extremes, the government became stable and the people and their rulers respected each other. Land reforms To accomplish this equality, Plutarch, in his Life of Lycurgus, attributes to Lycurgus a thoroughgoing land reform, a reassignment and equalizing of landholdings and wealth among the population, To support this new land division, Lycurgus was said to have divided Laconia into 30,000 equal shares, and the part attached to the city of Sparta in particular into 9,000; all shares were distributed among the Spartans. Helots (the population of the territories the Spartans had captured in their wars in Laconia) were attached to the land, not to individual owners; hence,