Children, from the first, were subjected to a severe hardening process, in some respects good--for
example, they were not put in swaddling clothes. At the age of seven, boys were taken away from
home and put in a boarding school, where they were divided into companies, each under the
orders of one of their number, chosen for sense and courage. "Touching learning, they had as
much as served their turn: for the rest of their time they spent in learning how to obey, to away
with pain, to endure labour, to overcome still in fight." They played naked together most of the
time; after twelve years old, they wore no coats; they were always "nasty and sluttish," and they
never bathed except on certain days in the year. They slept on beds of straw, which in winter they
mixed with thistle. They were taught to steal, and were punished if caught--not for stealing, but
for stupidity.
Homosexual love, both male and female, was a recognized custom in Sparta, and had an
acknowledged part in the education of adolescent boys. A boy's lover suffered credit or discredit
by the boy's actions; Plutarch states that once, when a boy cried out because he was hurt in
fighting, his lover was fined for the boy's cowardice.
There was little liberty at any stage in the life of a Spartan.
Their discipline and order of life continued still, after they were full grown men. For it was not
lawful for any man to live as he listed, but they were within their city, as if they had been in a
camp, where every man knoweth what allowance he hath to live withal, and what business he hath
else to do in his calling. To be short, they were all of this mind, that they were not born to serve
themselves, but to serve their country.... One of the best and happiest things which Lycurgus
ever brought into his city, was the great rest and leisure which he made his citizens to have, only
forbidding them that they should not profess any vile or base occupation: and they needed not also
to be careful to get great riches, in a place where goods were nothing profitable nor esteemed. For
the Helots, which were bond men made by the wars, did till their grounds, and yielded them a
certain revenue every year.
Plutarch goes on to tell a story of an Athenian condemned for idleness, upon hearing of which a
Spartan exclaimed: "Show me the man condemned for living nobly and like a gentleman."