Plutarch compares Lycurgus and Numa as lawgivers who tried to keep a city at peace. Lycurgus built Sparta's training, common meals, and senate. Numa built Rome's priesthoods and a long quiet after Romulus.

He finds Numa the gentler man, and the nearer to a philosopher. He finds Lycurgus harder to love and harder to undo. The Spartan order outlasted the man who made it. Numa's peace did not.