and fists. At the feast of
Artemis they were beaten before the statue of the goddess till the
blood flowed; some died under this ordeal, but their honor required
them not to weep. They were taught to fight and suffer.

Often they were given nothing to eat; provision must be found by
foraging. If they were captured on these predatory expeditions, they
were roughly beaten. A Spartiate boy who had stolen a little fox and
had hidden it under his mantle, rather than betray himself let the
animal gnaw out his vitals. They were to learn how to escape from
perplexing situations when they were in the field.

They walked with lowered glance, silent, hands under the mantle,
without turning the head and "making no more noise than statues." They
were not to speak at table and were to obey all men that they
encountered. This was to accustom them to discipline.

=The Girls.=--The other Greeks kept their daughters secluded in the
house, spinning flax. The Spartiates would have robust women capable
of bearing vigorous children. The girls, therefore, were trained in
much the same manner as the boys. In their gymnasia they practised
running, leaping, throwing the disc and Javelin. A poet describes a
play in which Spartiate girls "like colts with flowing manes make the
dust fly about them." They were reputed the healthiest and bravest
women in Greece.

=The Discipline.=--The men, too, have their regular life and this a
soldier's life. The presence of many enemies requires that no one
shall weaken. At seventeen years the Spartiate becomes a soldier and
this he until he is sixty. The costume, hour of rising and retiring,
meals, exercise--everything is fixed by regulations as in barracks.

Since the Spartiate engages only in war, he is to prepare himself for
that; he exercises himself in running, leaping, and wielding his arms;
he disciplines all the members of the body--the neck, the arms, the
shoulders, the legs, and that too, every day. He has no right to
engage in trade, to pursue an industry, nor to cultivate the earth; he
is a soldier and is not to allow himself to be diverted to any other
occupation. He cannot live at his pleasure with his own family; the
men eat together in squads; they cannot leave the country without
permission. It is the discipline of a regiment in the enemy's
territory.

=Laconism.=--These warriors had a rude life, with clean-cut aims and
proud disposition. They spoke in short phrases--or as we say,
laconi