The Spartans: No proper name signifies a grim, determined, disciplined warrior more than this one.
However, the way in which Sparta, a little polis or city-state in ancient Greece, fostered these warriors started, not with war, but with the structure of its society. On one hand, this society had many profound problems, problems which seem to have had a direct impact on its eventual decline. Therefore, much of Spartans’ training should not to be emulated.
However, there is much to learn from the Spartans as well, because in their strengths, they were unmatched. For hundreds of years, spanning from the sixth century to the fourth centuries B.C., Spartans were knit into a fabric of the most intentional social bonds ever devised.
Sparta: Ancient Totalitarians?
Some might say that Spartan society resembled modern totalitarian states. In some ways, this is true. First, the impetus for their social organization was their wide-spread oppression of peoples they had conquered long before: the helots. The Spartans were outnumbered by as much as 10 to one by this subjugated people who did much of the polis’s farming.Thus, the Spartans worried about a helot revolt; their response to this worry was to intensify the relationships among themselves. Therefore, Spartan society bears a resemblance to modern totalitarian states insofar as it was motivated to control and limit the freedom of others.
Nevertheless, there is more to it. The Spartans never aimed to get rid of non-state institutions like the family, while communist Soviet Russia did just that when it took power in 1917. While the Spartans subordinated certain aspects of the family to the survival of the polis, they had a healthy common sense and no desire to change human nature.
Finally, while the Spartan society was motivated to maintain its power, its organization was based on strengthening certain natural human bonds. Far from the tendency of modern states to weaken human connections and substitute a connection to itself as the only stable and direct one for its citizens, individual human bonds were essential to the social integration of the Spartans.
In fact, the Spartans were loyal to Sparta not because of impersonal government pronouncements or school propaganda but because they knew and knew well the individual men they learned with, served with, and ate with.
While one may still respond that the state mandated these social ties, that point cannot be taken too far. No modern state, for example, has such a small number of citizens as Sparta did throughout its history. In terms of adult males, the population never exceeded 10,000. In a sense, Sparta was more like a small town—a place where everyone knew each other.
Learning Together
We all know that particular sense of fellow-feeling with those who are of our own age. Such people are familiar with many of our own opportunities and difficulties, whether from the excitement of getting a first driver’s license to the familiarity brought about by aching knees. The Spartans merely took this fellow-feeling and intentionally intensified it.
Starting from the age of 7, a Spartan boy left his parents’ home to live with boys of his own age. These boys would be his constant companions for the next 22 or so years. They were educated together, taught to fight together, and lived together. Story after story could be told about the privations and harsh discipline they endured. But the key factor here is that they endured it together.
Eating Together
Another way of bringing Spartans together was at the syssition, or common mess hall. Here, as opposed to age-delegated classes, males of ages 20 to 70 would gather to eat. A communal meal offered time to laugh, argue, and tell tall-tales together. And while in practice it wasn’t always the case, the ideal was that a Spartan stayed in one designated hall until he died or became too feeble to attend.Fighting Together
Around the age of 20, Spartans were ready for war. Here too, the Spartans’ design was to be long-term; the squad entered was the squad one remained with until death or old age intervened.So why were the Spartans such good fighters? They did not fight for their state, way of life, or due to impersonal state propaganda. Although we could say they fought for Sparta, Sparta was not a mere abstract idea. Their experience of Sparta consisted of intense, enduring, concrete relationships with other Spartans.
They fought for their state because they were fighting for the individuals they had grown up with, learned from, eaten with, and with whom they were fighting side-by-side. It was not hatred of enemies, but love for one’s brothers, that motivated the most fearless warriors the world has ever seen.
