The main business of a Spartan citizen was was to engage in war to which the citizens are trained since birth.
It was unfortunate that all sickly children were exposed to death.
Up to the age of 20 years, all boys were trained in one great school. The aim of such training was to make the boys and girls hardy and become indifferent to pain.
The aim of Spartan nation was to produce great soldiers who are fully devoted to the state and nothing else.
The real military service commenced at the age of 20 years.
The nation believed that a Spartan should never be destitute. Never.
No Spartan was allowed to own gold and silver. Money was made up of iron.
Women
Girls underwent the same training as boys. It is surprising that they undertook their physical exercises while naked.
I imagine girls running every single day, wrestling each other to harden their bodies.
Women were never allowed to express their emotions when:
- new-born children were killed for being weaklings or
- sons were killed during war
Bachelors
Men who would not marry (bachelors) were considered to be “infamous by law” and they were forced to walk up and down while naked near the place of workout for the youth.
Fathers
In the book The History of Western Philosophy, Betrand Russel tells us that any father who had 3 sons in Sparta was exempted from military service.
For fathers with 4 sons, it was even better. They could not even pay taxes.
Constitution
The Constitution of Sparta was largely complex.
It provided for 2 kings. One of these two commanded the military during war. After war their powers were reduced considerably.
These two kings were members of the Council of Elders. The council was made up of 30 members. Apart from the 2 kings, the other 28 members had to be aged 60 years or above.
The Council was also in-charge of carrying out trial of criminal cases.
The other arm was The Assembly which was made up of all citizens. Major decisions were made here.
It’s interesting to note that the Spartan kings swore to uphold the constitution every month.
The divine purpose of Sparta was to produce invincible warriors. So women who gave birth to large numbers of solders were highly respected in the society.
That is it. Now you know!
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This is very nice Information, i was searching for this.