10 Paıdeía
oil, they exercised their bodies for beauty’s sake and passed their time in the
pólıs. To take care of all the needs of life, they employed other men as servants
and drew ready nourishment from these. And they were ready to do all and
suffer all for this one accomplishment—noble and dear to human kind—that
they might prevail over all against whom they marched.”^11 While the ordinary
Greek city was a community of smallholders and gentleman farmers, Lace-
daemon was a legion of men-at-arms.
She was also an aristocracy of masters, a city of seigneurs, a common-
wealth of leisured gentlemen—who could be described as both noble and
good: kaloì kagathoí. The Spartans called themselves hoı hómoıoı: “the equals,
the similars, the peers.” In a sense, they were equal. By means of the land
grants, the pólıs abolished among the citizens what James Madison in The
Federalist would later call the distinction between “those who hold and those
who are without property” at all, and she thereby eliminated what he would
term “the most common and durable source of factions.” Of course, some of
the soil did remain in private hands. But although there remained a “various
and unequal distribution of property” of the sort that worried Madison in his
capacity as a statesman, in late archaic and early classical Sparta the gap be-
tween rich and poor was not profound. As men of property, the Spartans had
essentially the same interests.^12
Education
To remove any lingering doubts, the city exercised close control over the
education of children and the daily comportment of the citizens. The rich and
the poor grew up together, subject to the same regimen; they dressed in a
similar fashion and undressed with great regularity to exercise naked in the
public gymnasium; and they took their meals together in the common mess
[sussıtíon] thereafter, partaking of the simple fare.^13 The giving of dowries was
strictly forbidden. But, thanks to the continued existence of private property,
women were able to inherit. In consequence, the magistrates were empowered
to fine those who paid more attention to opulence than to virtue in matters of
love and marriage. To the same end, there were severe sumptuary laws to deny
the great families the public display and use of their riches.^14 An exception was
made for the breeding and racing of horses. But even before the Spartans or-
ganized for the defense of Laconia a standing force of cavalry, this practice
arguably served a military function. No army can do without scouts and mes-