Fox said:Would someone tell me about history of Spartans soldiers. I heard teacher said Sparta send 500 soldiers to defend 10,000 persians. And Sparta won. But how they do that?
Whispering Death said:Sparta is one of my all-time favorite civilizations ever.
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparta said:Wikipedia - Sparta[/url]]Sparta was, above all, a military state, and emphasis on military fitness began virtually at birth. Shortly after birth, a child was brought before the elders of the tribe, who decided whether it was to be reared or not. If found defective or weakly, the baby was dropped off a cliff called the Apothetae, or Place of Rejection. In this way attempts were made to secure the maintenance of high physical standards in Sparta. From the earliest days of the Spartan, the claim on his life by the state was absolute and strictly enforced.
At the age of thirteen, young men were sent off into the countryside with nothing, and were expected to survive on wits and cunning. This was very probably, in origin, an old initiation rite, a preparation for their later career as elite soldiers.
At the age of twenty, the Spartan began his military service and his membership in one of the dining messes or clubs (in Greek 'syssition' or 'phyidition'), composed of about fifteen members each, of which every citizen was required to be a member and where all meals were taken. The Spartan exercised the full rights and duties of a citizen at the age of thirty. Only native Spartans were considered a full citizen, and needed to undergo the training as prescribed by law, and participation in and contribution to one of the dining-clubs. Those who fulfilled these conditions were considered peers, (homoioi) citizens in the fullest sense of the word, while those who failed were called lesser men, and retained only the civil rights of citizenship.
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