Some Insight Into the Life of a Spartan

“He who sweats more in training bleeds less in war.”  This quote from the Spartan Creed tells a little about Spartan life that consisted of a lot of training and war.

When a boy was born to a family, he was immediately taken to the wise men of the city who decided whether the boy should live or not. If the child was sick or deformed, it would die. If the boy were healthy or strong he would survive.

At the age of seven, all children were taken from their parents to the city center where they would be trained. Every Spartan was thought to bear pain without complaining about it.

After the kids were old enough to go to war, they were taken into many battles. Every time a Spartan left to war, his mother would give him his shield and tell him:

“Come back with it or on it.”

Which meant “Come home honorably, bearing your shield, thus showing that you have never thrown it away to save yourself by flight, or die so bravely that your companions will bring back your body resting on your shield, to give you a glorious burial.”