THE BEECHMONT CREST GUIDE TO ANCIENT GREECE
Just how tough were the Spartans?
You had to be tough to survive in Sparta, starting from day one. Shortly after birth, each infant was subjected to an inspection by a group of the polis’s elders. Any infant who failed to pass this test was quickly eliminated from the Spartan gene pool. Deformed and frail babies were placed on a hillside, where they perished from exposure to the elements, starvation, or wild animals.
If a boy made it through this selection process, he was allowed to spend the next six years with his birth mother. These six years would be the only easy years of his life—until he was much, much older. At seven boys were taken away from their mothers and assigned to a barracks with other boys. This was the start of their military training. For a male citizen of Sparta, there was only one real career choice: the army.
Once inside the barracks, the young male recruits were at the mercy of older boys and young men who hazed them mercilessly. The boys were also forced to fight each other. This was all a part of their conditioning.
At twelve, Spartan male recruits were made to sleep outdoors, where they fashioned their beds from grass and reeds. They were encouraged to steal food from the local community—although they were beaten if they were caught.
The final bit of training for a Spartan male came in late adolescence. Before he could “graduate,” each recruit had to ambush and kill one of the lower caste serfs who performed physical labor for the Spartan state. These serfs, called helots, were literally murdered as part of Sparta’s military training regimen.
At the age of twenty a Spartan male entered the military Although a Spartan male could also marry at the age of twenty, he was not allowed to live with his wife until the age of thirty. A male soldier in his twenties had to live in the barracks, and he was required to take all his meals with his comrades. Retirement from the military finally arrived at the ripe old age of sixty—provided that he lived that long.
The life of a Spartan was marked by few, if any creature comforts. Spartan toughness even extended to the kitchen. The typical soldiers’ meal consisted of a piece of pork boiled in blood. (This was known as “Spartan stew.”) But a lifetime of regimented, military discipline did make the Spartans a respected force throughout Greece.
One visitor from another polis could not help wondering if the Spartan’s sacrifices were worth the cost. When the visitor observed a group of Spartan soldiers dining on Spartan stew, he remarked, “Now I understand why Spartans have no fear of death.”