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.
