The Rise of Athens

As for Sparta itself, it could scarcely be called a town, let alone a city. It looked very much like what it was—a haphazard collection of four villages. There were some visually unimpressive shrines, altars, and temples, and soldiers’ barracks. It had a sort of a citadel, which, as one visitor described it, was “not so high as to be a landmark.” Thucydides, the Athenian historian, was struck by the contrast between Sparta’s position as a major power and the dismal appearance of its chief city. He noted politely: “There would be an impression of inadequacy.”

Also, unusually for an urban settlement in an age of endless wars, Sparta had no defensive walls, a fact of which the Spartans were counterintuitively proud. When someone asked a Spartan king why there were no fortifications, he simply pointed at some Spartan soldiers. “These are our walls!” There was truth in this, but Sparta was also protected by near-impassable mountains.

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This then was where a young Spartan was brought up. Children were held to be the property of the state, not of their parents. On their birth a committee of elders examined the infant to decide whether or not he or she should be allowed to live. The life of the epileptic, the sickly, and the disabled infant was “of no advantage to itself or to the state,” so it was taken to a ravine called Apothetae, which translates as a “place reserved for special occasions.” The euphemistical special occasion was the baby’s exposure to the elements (not to mention wild animals) and death.

Those allowed to live were reared without traditional swaddling clothes, leaving their limbs and physiques to develop naturally. Their nurses taught them to be happy and contented, to eat up their food and not be afraid of the dark or of being left alone. Tantrums and tears were discouraged.

At the age of seven, boys were taken on by the state and divided up into companies or troops. From this early age they were trained in the art of war. Their education—or, as it was called, agogē

—was designed to make them “obey orders, cope with stress and win battles.” They were taught to read and write—but “no more than was necessary.” They lived together, rather as in a Victorian boarding school. They went about barefoot, had their hair cropped, and usually played naked. They never wore a tunic, and were given only one cloak a year. They slept together in dormitories on rush-filled pallet beds. Older men came to watch their competitions and disputes, and identified the most aggressive and fearless.

When little Spartans reached the age of twelve they were allocated “lovers” from among young men of good character. The purpose was not meant to be sexual (at least in theory), but to provide role models.

A state official, the Inspector of Boys, employed a team of men with whips to administer punishments. He supervised the companies and appointed commanders for each of them from men in their early twenties. They ordered the bigger boys to fetch and carry, to find firewood and food. The idea was that, like the boy with the fox, they stole all these things from gardens and the messes for adult Spartans, and became adept at pouncing on sleepers or catching people off their guard. According to Plutarch,

any boy who is caught is beaten and has to go hungry. For their meals are meager, so they have to take into their own hands the fight against hunger. In this way, they are forced into daring and villainy.

Adolescents took part in a fearsome rite of passage in honor of Artemis Orthia (Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo, goddess of the hunt and childbirth; she was identified with Orthia, a local Peloponnesian divinity), held at the goddess’s sanctuary on the bank of the Eurotas. Cheeses were piled on an altar and guarded by men with whips. Competitors had to snatch as many cheeses as they could while running a gauntlet of flagellators. Blood stained the altar.

The Athenian writer and soldier Xenophon, who lived through Sparta’s heyday in the fifth and fourth centuries, was an admirer of the system. He observed: “All this education was planned in order to make the boys more resourceful at feeding themselves, and better fighting men.”

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That is true as far as it goes, but is not completely right. A good Spartan was expected to embody apparently contradictory qualities. Criminal guile, aggression, and tolerance of pain cohabited with obedience, deference, and modesty. A boy was taught to keep his hands inside his cloak, to walk in silence, and to fix his eyes firmly on the ground.

There were a few acceptable pleasures. Food at the Spartan dinner table may have been terrible, as can be guessed from its most famous delicacy, “black broth,” which was made from pig’s blood and vinegar; but alcohol was permitted, although not to excess. An admiring Athenian poet noted:

The Spartan youths drink just enough

To bring each mind to pleasant thoughts