The Spartan Education System: Shaping Warriors and Citizens
The Spartan education system, known as the agoge, was a unique and rigorous program designed to produce strong, disciplined citizens dedicated to military service and the state. Unlike other Greek city-states, Sparta emphasized collective education as a compulsory prerequisite for citizenship, with all adult males bearing responsibility for rearing good citizens. This system, though often viewed through the lens of its military focus, also fostered intellectual and civic virtues.
The Spartan Agoge: Public Education and Civic Duty
The Spartan agoge was a subject of extensive discussion, even in the ancient world. No other contemporary state provided for, and in fact required, its citizens to attend public school. Unfortunately, because we must rely on descriptions of the system provided by outsiders, we have a kind of mirror image of the Spartan agoge. Observers reported whatever struck them as unique or different from education in their own cities, rather than reporting systematically about Sparta's system of education. Equally distorting for the modern historian interested in archaic Sparta is the fact that all our existing ancient sources except Xenophon describe the Spartan educational system as it was reinstituted in the Hellenistic period, after what may have been nearly a century in abeyance. It is often very difficult to distinguish traditional from innovative features of the described schooling.
Collective education was considered so important that not only was the agoge a compulsory prerequisite for citizenship, but all adult males bore an equal responsibility for rearing good citizens. This was manifest in the laws that required boys in school to address all older men as "father" and gave any citizen the right to reprimand - but not punish - a boy or youth under age. As best as historians can piece together from ambiguous evidence, all citizens were directly involved in the education of the next generation in another respect as well: at the age of 20, before being awarded citizenship at 21 and serving in the army, young Spartans acted as instructors in the agoge for their younger classmates.
Despite the emphasis on public education, it is absurd to think that parents did not take a very personal and intense interest in the education of their own offspring. Numerous quotes demonstrate the pride and sense of personal accomplishment that Spartan mothers felt with regard to their sons. Human nature, which has changed very little in 3000 years, suggests that fathers would not have been less proud.
From Arts to Military: Stages of Spartan Education
At first, in the archaic period of 700-600 BC, education for both sexes was, as in most Greek states, centred on the arts, with the male citizen population later receiving military education. A Spartan male's involvement with the army began in infancy when the Gerousia first inspected him. Any baby judged weak or deformed was left at Mount Taygetus to die since the Spartan society was no place for those who could not fend for themselves. (The practice of discarding children at birth took place in Athens as well.)
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Both boys and girls were brought up by the city women until the age of seven, when boys (paidia) were taken from their mothers and grouped together in "packs" (agelai) and were sent to what is almost equivalent to present-day military boot camp. This military camp was known as the Agoge. They became inured to hardship, being provided with scant food and clothing; this also encouraged them to steal, and if they were caught, they were punished - not for stealing, but for being caught. There is a characteristic story, told by Plutarch: "The boys make such a serious matter of their stealing, that one of them, as the story goes, who was carrying concealed under his cloak a young fox which he had stolen, suffered the animal to tear out his bowels with its teeth and claws, and died rather than have his theft detected." The boys were encouraged to compete against one another in games and mock fights and to foster an esprit de corps. In addition, they were taught to read and write and learned the songs of Tyrtaios, that celebrated Spartan exploits in the Second Messenian War. They learned to read and write not for cultural reasons, but so they could be able to read military maps.
At the age of twelve, a boy was classed as a "youth" (meirakion). His physical education was intensified, discipline became much harsher, and the boys were loaded with extra tasks. Adulthood was reached at the age of 18, and the young adult (eiren) initially served as a trainer for the boys. At the same time, the most promising youths were included in the Krypteia. If they survived the two years in the countryside they would become full blown soldiers. At 20, Spartans became eligible for military service and joined one of the messes (syssitia), which included 15 men of various ages. Those who were rejected retained a lesser form of citizenship, as only the soldiers were ranked among the homoioi. However, even after that, and even during marriage and until about the age of 30, they would spend most of their day in the barracks with their unit.
The Goals of Spartan Education: More Than Just Warriors
One aspect of this goal is obvious: future citizens were by definition professional soldiers, and so the educational system very clearly sought to create physically hardened men, capable of enduring hardship, pain, and deprivation. This was exceptional in Greece, and hence attracted particular attention. Many anecdotes are told about the hardships the boys endured, and that they were allowed to steal. Despite a common misconception found even in ancient commentary, careful research indicates that the boys in the agoge were not encouraged to steal throughout their training - only during a specified segment. Most likely, this was a form of survival training intended to teach the youths how to survive on their own so that they would be able, for example, to operate behind enemy lines. Throughout their public education, they were also apparently subjected to harsh discipline, which may have included flogging - a punishment reserved almost exclusively for slaves in other Greek cities. But it was not until the Roman period that whipping contests were introduced, in which boys were brutally flogged just to see how long they could endure.
Less obvious, and often overlooked by modern observers, is the fact that being a good soldier required much more than just an ability to endure hardship and obey orders. Good soldiers have to be able to track, hunt, and fish, to navigate by the stars, to provide first aid, to recognize poisonous and medicinal plants, to build fortifications and to undermine them, and much more. Furthermore, good soldiers can think and act independently; they can recognize opportunities and seize the initiative. It is reasonable to assume, therefore, that the agoge taught fundamental first aid, botany, astronomy, and so on. Certainly it raised youth who were capable of independent thought and action, as the evidence of Sparta's successful independent commanders (such as Gylippus, Mindarus, and Lysander) amply proves.
Furthermore, the goal of producing good future citizens was not fulfilled by producing good soldiers alone. Future citizens had to be able to deliberate wisely in the Assembly, to serve as magistrates and judges, and to conduct negotiations with foreign powers. Thus, despite the harsh discipline, Sparta did not seek to break her youth or make them subservient. Instead, they were taught not only their laws but also the functioning of democracy from the very start of their schooling - not in theory, but in practice. On starting school at the age of 7, the boys were organized into units, teams, or herds - and elected their own leaders. Some sources suggest that they also elected their instructors from among the eligible 20 year-olds.
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Even more noteworthy is the fact that Socrates himself considered the Spartans the greatest philosophers in mainland Greece. It has been argued that Sparta not only welcomed and entertained philosophers such as Pythagoras for years on end, but actually provided the foundation for Milesian, Pythagorean, Socratic, Platonic, and Aristotelian philosophy. Certainly Socrates, Xenophon, and Plato were admirers of Sparta; it hardly seems reasonable to hypothesize that these leading Athenian intellectuals admired a city-state that - as many modern writers portray it - was anti-intellectual and inhabited by illiterate brutes.
Furthermore, although there may have been more emphasis on physical fitness in a Spartan education than elsewhere, numerous sources testify to the fact that Sparta also placed great emphasis on training the intellect. The fact that no contemporary source mentions that the boys learned to read and write has been taken mistakenly to mean that they did not. This is absurd. There is abundant evidence that the Spartans were every bit as literate as other Greeks. Anything less would have put Sparta at a disadvantage in foreign affairs, and would have made it inconceivable that Spartans were repeatedly requested to assume positions of leadership. Furthermore, the percentage of Spartans who were literate clearly exceeded that of any other city-state because - in contrast to the other cities - Spartan women were literate. The fact that learning to read and write is not mentioned in the descriptions of the Spartan agoge is a function of the fact that all Greeks learned these skills while in school, and so this was not deemed worthy of comment.
Worthy of comment, however, was the excellence of Spartan education in music, poetry, and dance. The boys and youths of the agoge were famed for their proficiency at all three skills. Such skills require practice and are further evidence that modern depictions of the Spartan youth living like wild beasts in the wilderness is pure fantasy.
Another area in which Spartans excelled was in brevity and clarity of expression. Rhetoric in ancient Greece was highly valued. Men paid large sums to improve their speaking skills, and in democratic Athens power rested with those men who could sway the Assembly with their rhetoric. This skill with words largely accounts for Pericles' and Alcibiades' power in their time. If Athenians collected Spartan sayings and laconic forms of expression were admired, this is clear testimony of the quality of Spartan education in this regard.
Lastly, the manners of Spartan youth were admired in the ancient world, and comparisons were often drawn to the rude, impudent youth of other cities. One anecdote describes an old man looking for a seat at the Olympic Games. As he stumbled about from one section to the other, the spectators laughed at him. But when he came to the Spartan section, all the Spartans stood to offer him their places - and there was universal applause. The moral drawn by the commentator was: You see, all Greeks know how we ought to behave, but only the Spartans act on it.
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Education for Girls in Sparta
Sparta also provided training beyond the domestic arts for girls, sending them to school between ages six and seven, where they lived and trained in barracks. Girls were also required to pass a rigorous skills and fitness test at age eighteen and after successfully passing were assigned husbands and sent back home. Both boys and girls failing the test lost their citizenship rights and joined the perioikos, or middle class. Their school was not as brutal, but all girls in ancient Sparta could wrestle and fist fight and handle a weapon. They were taught how to kill. The Spartans believed that strong women produced strong babies. Besides, the women might have to defend the city if the men were away at war.
The Spartan Army: Organization and Equipment
Like the other Greek city-states' armies, the Spartan army was an infantry-based army that fought using the phalanx formation. The Spartans themselves did not introduce any significant changes or tactical innovations in hoplite warfare, but their constant drill and superb discipline made their phalanx much more cohesive and effective. The Spartans employed the phalanx in the classical style in a single line, uniformly deep in files of 8 to 12 men. When fighting alongside their allies, the Spartans would normally occupy the honorary right flank. During the Peloponnesian War, battle engagements became more fluid, light troops became increasingly used, and tactics evolved to meet them. According to Xenophon, the ephors would first mobilize the army. The Spartans used the same typical hoplite equipment as their other Greek neighbors; the only distinctive Spartan features were the crimson tunic (chitōn) and cloak (himation), as well as long hair, which the Spartans retained to a far later date than most Greeks. Spartan shields were in the earlier years (7th - 6th centuries BCE) decorated with a personal emblem, as was common in all city states. With the development of the morai, each mora had a unique emblem, carried by all its members. That of Sparta itself was the face of a gorgon; others were the scorpion, rooster, lions' head, eagle and bulls' head. The Spartan king, fighting in the front rank, carried a shield with a sun symbol. The fanous 'lambda' was displayed by the end of the Peloponnesian War on the shields of the auxiliary contingents that filled the ranks and made up for the losses. Other city states did the same, Athens distributing shields with an alpha or an owl, or Thebes distributing shields with Hercules' club. Military families passed on their shields to each generation as family heirlooms. The Spartan shields' technical evolution and design evolved from bashing and shield wall tactics. They were of such great importance in the Spartan army that while losing a sword and a spear was an exception, to lose a shield was a sign of disgrace. Not only did a shield protect the user, but it also protected the whole phalanx formation. To come home without the shield was the mark of a deserter; rhipsaspia, or "dropping the shield," was a synonym for desertion in the field. Mothers bidding farewell to their sons would encourage them to come back with their shield.
Decline of Spartan Power
Spartan ascendancy did not last long. By the end of the 5th century BC, Sparta had suffered severe casualties in the Peloponnesian Wars, and its conservative and narrow mentality alienated many of its former allies. Firstly, the population declined due to Sparta's frequent wars in the late 5th century. Secondly, one could be demoted from the Spartiate status for several reasons, such as cowardice in battle or the inability to pay for membership in the syssitia. Failure to pay became such an increasingly severe problem because commercial activities had started to develop in Sparta. However, commerce had become uncontrollable, leading to the complete ban of commerce in Sparta, resulting in fewer ways of earning income. Consequently, some Spartiates had to sell the land from which they made their livelihood. As Sparta's military power waned, Thebes also repeatedly challenged its authority. The ensuing Corinthian War led to the humiliating Peace of Antalcidas that destroyed Sparta's reputation as the protector of Greek city-states' independence. At the same time, Spartan military prestige suffered a severe blow when a mora of 600 men was defeated by peltasts (light infantry) under the command of the Athenian general Iphicrates. Spartan authority finally collapsed after their disastrous defeat at the Battle of Leuctra by the Thebans under the leadership of Epaminondas in 371 BC.
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