The Spartan Way – The Life of War and Honour (Part 1)

Who are the Spartans? How could Cyrus have never heard of such a group of awesome people? How dare he regard such people with disdain? Did he not fear their wrath? The answer is simply no! How could he be expected to know? After all to Cyrus, Sparta was merely an insignificant city edged on a corner of his empire, in a forgotten backwater of mountainous and inhospitable Hellas (the term the Greeks used to refer to Greece). In his ignorance about the existence of Sparta, the great king probably never heard of this parable as well:

“The Spartan boy was terrified, but nonetheless determined. He must not let himself or his comrades down. They were under strict instructions of their trainers to steal wherever and whatever they could. Their only crime was “to be caught”.

His group has stolen a tame young fox and handed it to him to look after. When its owner came to look for it, the teenager immediately hid the fox under his cloak. The frightened animal struggled to escape. It began biting through the boy’s side and lacerated his intestines. The teenager did not move or make a single noise. He did not want “to be caught”.

The owner left and the teenager’s friends realised what had happened. They told him off for his stupidity. Is it not better to be caught than losing his life? “No” he resolutely answered, though mortally wounded. “Far better to die with honour without giving in to the pain than save his own life and live ever after in disgrace.”

A grim and brutal, yet crucial, lesson for young Spartans. Though unlikely to be true, the story vividly paints a picture of a ruthless and unforgiving society, in which its individuals were tested at every turn of their life. The first test came early. On their birth, a committee of elders examined the infant to decide its fate. The life of the epileptic, the sickly, and the disabled infant was held to be “of no advantage to itself or to the state,” and these infant were then taken to the “Apothetae”, a ravine which means “a place reserved for special occasions.” Those special occasions were the weakling infant’s exposure to the elements and death. Indeed, to allow these weaklings to grow up would amount to giving them a life of disgrace, and, to quote the parable above, “far better to die with honour…than…live ever after in disgrace.” 

This succinctly reminds every Spartan of one ugly truth about their very existence: that their lives are the property of their polis, and are at the polis’ disposal. A Spartan would always have to subordinate their personal desire and motive to those of their polis. Their polis is their very life-blood. It gives them a sense of identity and purpose. Without his polis, a Spartan is nothing! Spartan infant, who survived their first grueling test and escaped the Apothetae, were reared without traditional swaddling clothes. Their limbs and physiques were left to develop naturally. Their nurses taught them to be content, to eat up their food and not to fear the dark. Tantrums and tears were strictly discouraged.

Life in the Agoge would have involved all kinds of training
including wrestling

Military life for boys began at the age of seven, when they were taken by the state and divided into companies. They were to be educated in the art of war at the institution called agoge, which was designed to make them “obey orders, cope with stress and win battles.” Reading and writing were taught only to the extent “necessary.” They went about barefoot, had their hair cropped, and played naked. They wore no tunic, and were given only one cloak per year. They slept together in dormitories on the rush-filled pallet beds. They were supervised by older men who attended their competitions and fights and identified the most fearless and aggressive individuals.   

Upon reaching the age 12, the Spartan boys were allocated “male lovers”. Yes, male lovers! Shocking as it is from a modern standard, male homosexuality in ancient Greece was not only condoned, but in some states (i.e. Sparta) even compulsory. Nonetheless, to a modern eye unfamiliar with the idea and concept of Greek love, this rite of passage must have been an extreme oddity. The male lovers for the Spartan boys would have been selected from a group of youth of good character. The real purpose for the match was not sexual (in theory), but to provide the boys with role models.

Punishment for disobedience or failure to live up to the grueling standard was administered by a team of men employed by a state official, the Inspector of boys. Punishment often came in the form of whips. The Inspector of Boys also supervised the companies and appointed commanders for each of them from men in their early twenties. The boys were then instructed to steal wood and food from gardens and the messes for adult Spartans and themselves, just like the boy in the parable above. In this way, they became adept at pouncing on sleepers or catching people off their guard. This struggle for survival of a Spartan boy is summarised by Plutarch as follows:

“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.”

Another horrific rite of passage took place when a Spartan boy reached his adolescence. This rite was in honour of Artemis Orthia (Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo; she was identified with Orthia, a local Peloponnese goddess), and was held at the goddess’ sanctuary on the bank of Eurotas. Cheese were piled on an altar and guarded by men with whips. The goal was to snatch as many cheeses as possible while running a gauntlet of flagellators. Blood stained the altar. Death was not uncommon.

   

Thus, the Spartans were bred from a young age to embody a set of contradictory qualities, just as their polis stood for a set of confusing paradox: criminal guile, aggression, and tolerance of pain coupled with obedience, deference, and modesty. Good manner was taught and strictly enforced. Boys were required to keep his hands inside his cloak, to walk in silence, and to fix their eyes firmly on the ground. Food at the Spartan dinner table was terrible, being the famous “back broth” made from pig’s blood and vinegar. Alcohol was permitted but only on a moderate degree. The focus was always on austerity and moderation. A traveller to Sparta, having tasted it famous black broth, remarked that he could now see why “the Spartans are so willing to die.”

One of the reasons why we know so little about Sparta is the Spartans’ aversion to long speeches. They spoke very little and wrote very little, that virtually no records survived through the centuries. They were men of very few words, hence our word “laconic.” The Spartans’ down-to-earth brevity only served to enhance their charm and allure. When a Spartan king was asked what type of training was most practiced at his polis, he replied “knowing how to take orders, and how to give orders.”  

To be continued in the next blog

The Spartan Way – Introduction to the Awesome People of Laconia

Perhaps one of the less popular groups to be the talk of history class. However, the Spartans are one the most awesome people who will ever encounter in your study of antiquity! Where else would you encounter people who threw their babies off a cliff just because they were found to have defect? Where would you come across people who bathed their babies in wine to toughen them up? And where else would you run into people who always ate disgusting broth made of pig blood and vinegar? Nowhere else in the Greek world was luxury scorned, and any innovation regarded with aversion. Nowhere else in the Greek world were boys surrendered at the age of 7 to military life which would last for most of the period of their lives. Nowhere else in the Greek world were girls allowed to exercise naked alongside boys. Welcome to Sparta.

The origin of the Sparta, or Lacedaemon, is shrouded in myth. The Spartans were believed to be among the Dorian invaders of Greece as opposed to the native Ionians who resided in Attica (Athens being the main city in that region) and established themselves along the west coasts of Turkey at the time of colonisation. Sparta lay in a fertile river valley in the southern Peloponnese, a landmass named after the mythical figure called Pelops. Like a typical Greek landscape, it was rocky and barren. As a result of the inhospitable landscape, Greece bred a race of fiercely independent and individualistic people. The mountainous surrounding further serves to foster this individualism and lay a foundation for the establishment of fragmentary city-states or polis that littered the country. One of this is Sparta.

Sparta itself could hardly be called a polis. Rather it resembled a collection of villages or settlements. Known for their conservatism and frugality, their buildings were unimpressive and its citadel scarcely imposing, which hardly did any justice for the city’s position as a major power. The sense of isolation of the city was greatly reinforced by the high barrier of Taygetos rang, which cut off Sparta from the west. In summary, the Spartans could not be any more different than their friends in Attica, the Athenians. While the Athenians were innovators, thinkers and reformers, the Spartans were extremely old-fashioned, conservative, resentful of changes, and disliked outsiders.       

Military prowess is everything for Sparta where her soldiers
serve as her walls

Yet, what may seem a drawback only serves to distinguish these awesome people. In an age of ceaseless warfare with city-states at each other’s throat, Sparta had no defensive wall to defend her people? While Athens was heavily fortified, Sparta could confidently boast her “wall-lessness.” Why? Because “[the soldiers] are our walls” said a certain Spartan king. Again, the two city-states could not be more different.

Another typical Spartan characteristic is that they dislike babbling. Gossip was neither popular nor encouraged. So were long speeches. Children were taught to read and write “to the extent necessary.” Writing was not widely practiced and records rarely kept. As a result, the Spartans were terrible at PR and we know very little about them than we would like to! The aversion to long speeches and chatter gave us the term “laconic.”

The simple city layout exemplifies the Spartan
austere way of life

When the Persion king, Cyrus the Great, decided to embark on his conquest of the Greek colonies in Turkey, the Ionians appealed for assistance from their mainland compatriots. The Spartans sent a herald to Cyrus, telling him to leave the Ionians alone, “for the Spartans will not tolerate it.” Surprisingly, the bemused Cyrus turned to his official and asked “who are the Spartans?” The answer to this question, we will explore further in our next blog.