137

W

ithin the ordinary Greek city, it was customary to refer to those

under thirty as hoı néoı, “the young men” (Xen. Mem. 1.2.35;

Polyb. 4.20.7); and we know that, at Sparta, those under that age

were subject to special restrictions: Plut. Lyc. 25.1. This has led scholars to

presume that the néoı referred to at Plut. Lyc. 15.7–8 are Spartiates in their

twenties.^1 However, in classifying citizens among the youth [neótēs], as in so

many other things, Sparta appears to have been an exception to the rule.^2 Xe-

nophon’s assertion (Ages. 1.6) that Agesilaus was “still young [étı néos]” when

he became king in about 400 would otherwise make no sense given the fact

(Hell. 5.4.13) that he was over sixty in 379 and well into his eighties and had

been king for more than forty years when he died in or shortly after 360 (Ages.

2.28; Plut. Ages. 36.3, 40.3). This peculiar technical use of the term néos and

its cognates by the Spartans almost certainly underlies the report which Di-

odorus (13.76.2) drew on in claiming that Kallikratidas was quite young

[néos] when he became navarch in 407/406; and Plutarch (Lyc. 22.1–6) clearly

uses these terms in this fashion as well. The néoı or, as they are sometimes

(e.g., Xen. Hell. 3.3.8–9) called, the neō ́teroı appear to have been distinguished

from the presbúteroı of classical Sparta in much the same fashion as the

iuniores were distinguished from the seniores of ancient Rome. The fact, then,

that all the men under forty-five slept with their tent-mates helps explain why

so many Greeks looked on Sparta as an armed camp. If the comparative data

gathered by ethnologists are any guide, Henri Jeanmaire may be correct in

arguing that the young men of a set of sussıtía shared sleeping quarters.^3 This

would, in any case, stand to reason. Not all of the fifteen or so men who be-

Appendix 2. The Néoı at Sparta