Spartan Army
The Spartan army stood at the centre of the Spartan state, whose citizens' primary obligation was to be good soldiers. Subject to military drill from infancy, the Spartans were one of the most feared military forces in world history. At the height of Sparta's power – between the 6th and 4th centuries BC – it was commonly accepted that "one Spartan was worth several men of any other state."
The iconic army was first coined by the philosopher Lycurgus. In his famous quote of Sparta having a "wall of men, instead of bricks", he proposed to create a military-focused lifestyle reformation in the Spartan society in accordance to proper virtues such as equality, austerity, strength, and fitness. A Spartan man's involvement with the army began in infancy when he was inspected by the Gerousia. If the baby was found to be weak, he was left at Mount Taygetus to die. Those deemed strong were then put in the agoge at the age of seven. Under the agoge the young boys or Spartiates were kept under intense and rigorous military training. Their education focused primarily on sports and war tactics, but also included poetry, music, academics, and sometimes politics. Those who passed the agoge by the age of 30 were given full Spartan citizenship.
The term "spartan" became synonymous with multiple meanings such as: fearlessness, harsh and cruel life, bland and lacking creativity, or simplicity by design. It is mostly used to describe a professional soldier or army.
Read more about Spartan Army: Training, Clothing, Arms and Armor, Philosophy, Education and The Spartan Code, Spartan Navy, Wars and Battles, In Popular Culture
Famous quotes containing the words spartan and/or army:
“But there’s another knowledge that my heart destroys
As the fox in the old fable destroyed the Spartan boy’s
Because it proves that things both can and cannot be;
That the swordsmen and the ladies can still keep company;
Can pay the poet for a verse and hear the fiddle sound,
That I am still their servant though all are underground.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Methinks it would be some advantage to philosophy if men were named merely in the gross, as they are known. It would be necessary only to know the genus and perhaps the race or variety, to know the individual. We are not prepared to believe that every private soldier in a Roman army had a name of his own,—because we have not supposed that he had a character of his own.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)