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What Life Was Really Like for the Average Spartan
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Being a Spartan was no picnic.
If you were a boy, your life was constantly under scrutiny,
literally from the day you were born until the day you died.
You were seen as a high-level war machine, a workhorse.
And the only reason why you were alive
was to fight for your country.
When you weren't fighting for your country,
you were training to fight for your country.
In short, you were bred for battle.
Today we're going to find out what life was really
like for the average Spartan.
But there's one quick thing before we do.
This is a good time to subscribe to our channel, Weird History.
Or just leave a comment and tell us
what weird historical society you'd like us to dissect next.
This is Sparta.
Boys birthed into the Spartan state
were under scrutiny practically from the moment they were born.
Not long after a woman gave birth to a boy,
the infant was taken to a gerousia,
a council of leading elder Spartans where it
was inspected like livestock.
During this inspection, if the baby boy
seemed sick, ill, or mentally or physically handicapped,
the newborn was of no use to the Spartan army.
While you've probably heard the myths that these discarded
babies were thrown into the chasm
or placed at the base of Mount Taygetus,
they were most likely abandoned in the wilderness
or nearby hills.
Sometimes these cast-off newborns were found by locals
and quietly taken in.
But more often than not, they succumbed to exposure.
The boys that passed the gerousia test
were determined to be healthy and were
returned to their families where they
were groomed for toughness.
These baby boys weren't bathed in water.
They were bathed in tubs of wine.
It was thought the wine would toughen them up.
The belief was that the weaker children
would have convulsions and die.
These babies were also conditioned
to not fear darkness or solitude.
And when they cried or complained,
their parents and caretakers ignored them.
And all this lasted until they were seven years old.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[CHANTING]
Life was pretty rough for a Spartan boy the first six years
of their lives.
But it was the best years of their lives
compared to how they were treated
by the state, which owned them once they
turned seven years old.
This was the age where the real military training began.
At seven, the male child was enrolled in the Agoge
under the authority of the paidonomos,
a Spartan term which translates to a boy herder.
This boy herder was a magistrate charged
with supervising the education of these young Spartan
warriors.
The Agoge was split into three divisions--
the paides, which were made up of boys age seven to 17;
the paidiskoi, aged 17 to 19; and the hebontes, aged
20 to 29.
Some sources indicate that there were subdivisions by year
even within these classes.
In the early paides stage, Spartan boys
undergo an intense training regimen.
Through this 10-year course, they
were forged into fearless warriors, schooled in survival
tactics, like hand-to-hand combat, war strategizing,
and hunting.
Female Spartans weren't subjected
to quite the same program.
But they were trained in dance, gymnastics,
and javelin throwing, so they would
be strong, healthy mothers.
After all, Spartan women were in charge
of giving birth to the healthiest future warriors
possible-- no, pressure, no pressure.
Since we're speaking about Spartan women,
it should be known that they were famous in ancient Greece
for having more freedom than any other women in the Greek world.
To those outside of Sparta, Spartan women
had the reputation for promiscuity
and controlling their husbands.
They were their own persons with very little rule over them.
Spartan women were even able to legally own
and inherit property.
They were usually better educated too.
And while it's confirmed that Spartans practiced infanticide
if newborns were thought to be unhealthy,
it's unclear whether this applied
to girls as well as boys, although testimony
from Plutarch implies it did not.
But instead of being turned over to the state
for military training like the boys,
it's likely that girls were simply
given back to their mothers immediately after birth.
It was there that these young girls
were raised with a healthy regimen of exercise,
with a nutritious diet in order to become
physically fit women so they could give birth
to healthy babies.
As for the aforementioned healthy regimen of exercise,
Spartan girls were trained to make themselves
as strong as the boys who were getting in shape for war
themselves, although the young girls stopped
short of combat training.
Instead the physical training for Spartan girls
consisted of learning how to properly ride a horse,
running, wrestling, throwing the discus and javelin, and trials
of strength.
When you think about it, it makes sense.
The Spartan soldiers abstained from heavy drinking,
because getting loaded would ruin their sole purpose
in life, which was to serve the Spartan army.
A wasted soldier was a useless soldier.
So Spartan children were taught at an early age
that heavy drinking was for slaves only.
Every now and then, Spartan soldiers
would force their slaves to get drunk to the point
of belligerence.
Once thoroughly blotto, the soldiers
would parade the drunk slaves in front of the local children
to let them see how ridiculous they looked.
Drinking was a sign of weakness.
Of course, soldiers were allowed a glass of wine with a meal.
But it took discipline to keep up with the Spartan army.
So the heavy drinkers probably didn't survive
past their first few battles.
Being a Spartan at seven years old
meant that you were scrutinized all the time.
In regards to clothing, each future soldier
was given one garment a year to wear, a red cloak.
This was in part a way to prevent the children
from gaining too much weight.
If you got fat and couldn't figure out
how to clothe yourself with what you were given,
then the only way to fit in their garment
was to exercise and eat less.
And these boys didn't even get footwear
until they graduated into official military service.
The children were forced to walk barefoot,
even through the snow.
The idea was to harden the bottom of their feet
so calluses would form so they can march
for miles under any condition.
The mess halls also underserved portions
to the boys, which were slightly less than filling
to promote athletic figures, which always
kept them slightly hungry.
Plus if you were fat, then you became a pariah
and ran the risk of being banished.
While life was fairly rigid for young Spartans,
they were allowed to marry.
They actually got married all the time,
as that was how they kept the birth rate at a constant
so that the army always had a steady flow of young boys
to train for war.
However, because men were devoted
to the state and their military service,
they were forced to live in barracks.
Once you turn 30, you're allowed to live elsewhere.
But men who got married earlier were
forced to sneak out at night in order
to be with their loved ones.
Of course, if the boys were caught sneaking away
from their barracks, they were beaten as punishment,
not because they snuck away, but because they got caught.
Keep in mind, any punishment doled out
to these young men never served as a deterrent to the crime.
The beating was always given because the men were
sloppy enough to get caught.
The Spartans were an odd bunch.
Unlike their state counterparts in Athens, the people of Sparta
weren't concerned with philosophies,
the pursuits of arts, or anything other
than becoming the greatest warrior possible.
That said, the Spartans did educate their population.
Of course, that education mostly centered
on learning more strategies-- physical
training and strengthening their mental warfare.
Young Spartan girls were not exempt
from this kind of war training, even
if they didn't have to serve military time the way
their male counterparts did.
It wasn't uncommon for Spartan boys
to be routinely and randomly beaten or hazed.
It was done to keep them on their toes
and to ensure they grew up tough and on edge.
Military leaders would even create tension amongst the boys
by initiating fights between them.
It was a way to rout out the weakest boys
and find out who were the strongest.
Once a Spartan child showed themselves as weak,
they were treated with disdain and violence.
Spartan boys were also intentionally underfed
to encourage them to steal food for themselves.
If they were caught, they were severely punished,
not for stealing, but for not being smart enough
to get away with the theft.
This underfeeding tactic was also
meant to produce tough, grizzled soldiers rather than
soft, fat ones.
Scarce rations also let the boys get used to hunger.
And this prevented those hunger pains
from being a problem during battle later in life.
Ancient Sparta wasn't a stranger to social inequality.
There were definitely classes.
And while the driving force of a Spartan
was to serve the military, there was a class system that
kept society chugging along.
The three main classes were made up of the Spartiate
at the top of society, followed by the Perioeci,
and at the bottom, the Helots.
The Spartiate were native Spartans who served in the army
and had full political and legal rights.
This class could trace their ancestry back
to the original or first inhabitants of the city.
They also enjoyed all of the political and legal rights
of the state.
They were also the only ones who could participate in politics.
They served in the military, led the military, and ran Sparta.
Basically the Spartiate ran the show.
Next on the social food chain were the Perioeci,
who were often foreigners.
They were the traders and blacksmiths
who produced weapons and armor for the military.
The blue collar [? Johnny ?] lunch box is a Sparta.
They were taxpayers.
They had rights.
And they could own land.
They even had the right to learn how to read and write.
The Perioeci served in the military
too, just as everyone else.
The Perioeci weren't warriors, though.
They were in charge of the trade and communication
with Sparta's neighbors.
To be honest, life wasn't all that bad for members
of the Perioeci.
Of course, the lowest class of the three
were the Helots, who acted as servants and farmers
doing menial tasks.
And make no mistake, the Spartans hated the Helots.
The Helots came from what the Spartans called Helos.
Helos was south of Sparta.
But due to Sparta's booming population,
Sparta expanded its territory when they
came to the village of Helos.
The Spartans then invaded this village, decimating the people
and keeping many as prisoners.
Eventually the Helots became Sparta slaves,
though they could earn their freedom
by joining the military, not that it mattered.
Even if a Helot earned his freedom,
they were still treated like animals.
As a matter of fact, it was legal every now and then
in Sparta to kill any Helot, even if they were free.
It was almost like the movie, The Purge,
where the government picks one day for its citizens
to go ham on each other.
No Helot was ever safe.
Thanks to having a servant class in the Helots,
Spartan women were free from most domestic duties.
If they weren't mothers, women kept
themselves occupied with pastimes like competitions
that judged them on their singing, dancing, throwing,
wrestling, and other various sports.
According to Spartan artwork and drawings,
the girls competed in these activities nude.
It's believed that Spartan girls also
competed in Gymnopaedia, a yearly festival during which
naked youths displayed their athletic and martial skills
through the medium of war dancing.
The event was introduced in 668 BC concurrently
with the introduction of the aforementioned naked
activities.
Naturally a lot of these competitive activities
and sports were organized to attract Spartan men.
But the feats were also designed to prepare them for motherhood.
So what do you think?
Would you be able to live the life of a Spartan?
Let us know in our comment below.
And while you're at it, check out some of these other videos
from our Weird History.
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