training

• Military training in Sparta

  Compulsory part of life for all boys who were the sons of Spartan citizen men
• Agoge

  1. Boys leave their homes where they had been being raised by their mothers, never to return

  2. Enter the agoge, which literally translates to "rearing", the way one might rear livestock

  3. Not a school with a school building, but rather a training regimen that he would need to pass in order to graduate to being a full citizen of Sparta

  4. If he failed to live up to the expected standard of skill and character, he would not be allowed to join a syssition and would not be allowed to be a full citizen

  5. If he was not a full citizen, he would not be given a kleros or any helots, so he would probably have to rely on begging to survive
• Initial Phase: 7-early teens

  1. Boys put into "packs" like classes with boys of similar ages

  2. Led by boys in their late teens who had excelled in their classes (called prefects)

  3. Prefects would supervise the boys at all times and whip boys for any misbehaviour

  4. Very little reading or writing taught- just enough to comprehend basic written texts

  5. No philosophy was taught as this would have developed the boys' critical thinking skills

  6. Emphasis on physical excellence and unquestioning obedience to the authority of the prefects

  7. Boys also learned music and dancing in groups, developing their precision and teamwork
• Boys were encouraged to fight one another to toughen up and encourage competitiveness
• Second Phase: early teens to late teens

  1. Training intensified

  2. Boys could only walk around barefoot to toughen their feet for running and climbing

  3. They trained naked to toughen their whole bodies

  4. They learned to do without luxuries - they were given only one cloak to last the whole year, whatever the weather

  5. They had to build their own beds from reeds they collected themselves without the use of knives to help them cut, making the beds rough and uncomfortable

  6. Food was rationed so each boy had barely enough to survive

  7. They were encouraged to steal more for themselves, but were severely punished if they were caught (the punishment wasn't for stealing, but for being sloppy)

  8. Boys were told to cut their hair short, stay silent in public and keep their eyes on the ground as a sign of respect for elders

  9. Transgressions were punished severely with beatings

  10. Boys were expected to take an older man as a lover and mentor, who would help the boy with his training, and there would be competition amongst the men to mentor the strongest boys

  11. If a boy was having a training fight and he cried out in pain, his mentor would be punished
• Krypteia

  Secret police of Sparta
• Krypteia

  • Only the best boys would be selected to serve
  • Members would go on solo missions into the countryside with basic rations and a dagger
  • They would rest during the day and kill helots at night
  • They would also watch and kill influential helots in the fields
  • This training was thought to toughen the boys and get them used to killing
  • It had the added benefit of terrorizing and subjugating the helot population
• Syssitia

  Dining clubs of around fifteen adult Spartan men of varying ages
• Joining a Syssition

  1. The men would meet each day to share an evening meal

  2. The food was simple to encourage not getting used to luxury and further encourage equality

  3. The varying ages of the men fostered a sense of togetherness and unity

  4. When on military campaign, the members of each syssition would share a large tent, further encouraging close bonds between warriors

  5. To join, each member of the syssition had to agree to invite the boy, if a single person said no he was denied full citizenship

  6. Adult Spartan men would continue to spend time doing physical training and practicing military manoeuvres with their syssition mates
• Unlike Sparta, Athens had no formal military training that all boys had to complete
• All adult citizens in Athens were expected to serve in the military until the age of 60
• It would make sense for individual Athenian families to ensure their sons had some sort of training, as they knew they would go to war often in their adult lives
• Evidence of physical training in Athens

  • Middle class Athenians fought using the phalanx formation, which required cooperation, endurance and synchronicity
  • Boys in Athens usually started receiving an education from the age of 7 when their family would pay tutors to teach him, including physical education in the gymnasium
  • Adult men would often spend time in the gymnasium training and socializing
• Plato (in Protagoras): 'Young Athenians of 'good' parents go to school to learn literature and music. As well as this they are sent to a trainer so that the good mind may have a good body to serve it, and no one be forced by physical weakness to play the coward in war and other ordeals'
• Athletic training and competitions in Athens

  • Might have served as a kind of preparation for battle
  • The hoplite race (race in armour over four hundred yards) was a reminder that all athletics was in origin preparation for war
• It was down to each individual Athenian to train or not
• Most Athenian men had to work to earn a living, so they would not have had as much time as Spartan men did to work on their physical fitness and military manoeuvres
• Pericles (in Pericles' Funeral Oration): 'in the matter of education, whereas they from early youth are always undergoing laborious exercises which are to make them brave, we live at ease, and yet are equally ready to face the perils which they face'
• The Athenians usually factored in a couple of days before a campaign began for rowers to practice their rowing, steering and timing
• The Athenian navy was much more active than other Greek navies, going on more campaigns than other states simply because they had invested in building a large fleet
• Rowers in the Athenian navy were more practiced than any other rowers in the Mediterranean World
• Training of Legionary Soldiers

  1. 4 months of basic training

  2. Marching drills

  3. Fitness training (swimming, running, jumping, riding horses)

  4. Weapons training (fighting practice, javelin throwing, stone/slingshot throwing)

  5. Cavalry training (mounting/dismounting horses)

  6. Shield training (defensive and offensive)

  7. Camp building and road/fort construction

  8. Archery training (including on horseback)
• Institutions

  • Training continued throughout 25 year military career
  • Training done in groups to promote close bonds
  • Opportunities for promotion based on skills, discipline and loyalty
• Centurions

  Experienced soldiers who led by example and enforced discipline
• Punishments for breaking military oath

  • Fines or reduction of food ration
  • Flogging in front of century or legion
  • Demotion or extra duties
  • Execution
  • Decimation (group of 10 men, one beaten to death by the other 9)
• Breaking the military oath by disobeying an officer or fleeing in battle was punished harshly
• Decimation was the harshest punishment, only normally used if the legion attempted to mutiny or displayed unacceptable cowardice