Strong will: the military training system of Sparta in ancient Greece

Historically, Spartans, as synonymous with heroic fighters, enjoyed a high reputation. They were famous for their bloody battles in the hot springs and their tenacious performance in the Peloponnesian War. At the same time, because Sparta came to Kugu to carry out reforms, in the 7th-6th century BC, this city-state embarked on a system similar to locking up the country. Therefore, the non-circulation of information has led to various speculations about the Spartan system, which has also produced various myths about Spartan culture. But with the first-hand records of Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon and others, we can still restore the details of Sparta's educational system and military system. It is easy for us to find that this is an extremely extreme education system that values force. This is a double-edged sword for the overall development of Spartan civilization. Spartans attached great importance to their own education system: Agogo. After the Spartans were defeated in the Battle of Megalopolis at 33 1, the Spartans refused the Macedonians' request to hand over 50 hostages. Because Spartans believe that even if they are defeated, they can't let their next generation and the future of the country lose the opportunity of education. So this undoubtedly reflects the Spartans' emphasis on education. So what about their academic qualifications? Let's go back to the historical documents to find the answer. Adolescent training When all Spartans are 7- 12 years old, they will join a special training team for young people, supervised by respected Spartan veterans, and punish young people who do not abide by military discipline in time. After a flogging, the only result that an officer needs is to make the young people obey the officer absolutely. In addition, in daily life, soldiers are required to live a simple and simple life, and simplicity is the highest principle of Spartan life. After receiving the most basic obedience training, the boys were divided into groups, and the one with the strongest fighting will was chosen as the candidate for captain and future leader. Older soldiers are watching the training site, supervising the young soldiers to train strictly and not to relax. In terms of training subjects, Spartan boys did not wear shoes as required. In order to make their legs and feet more flexible, they completed the training of jumping forward, long jumping and robes. After their legs are strong enough, boys can put on their shoes and continue training. In addition to running and jumping, there are also war dances. War dance is a kind of gymnastics that integrates cutting, attacking and defending movements, entertaining and entertaining, and carries out daily military training in the way of spring breeze and rain, moistening things quietly. And teenagers can only have one cloak a year, and they can't change clothes or clothes. In this way, boys can get used to marching and performing tasks in extremely harsh environment, which is not affected by extremely cold and hot weather. Because clothes will inevitably wear out, Spartans are very open-minded about wearing too little, men and women are very open, and even indifferent to their bodies. This attitude will also affect these people's views on fertility and parenting in adulthood. Sparta also strictly controlled the appetite of soldiers. Sparta's food supply is only based on the minimum standard of not starving to death. This is because Spartans believe that being fat and bloated is better than being slim because of hunger. Moreover, long-term hunger training can make soldiers more hungry and last longer in the case of shortage of military food. A simple diet without too many ingredients will help soldiers adapt to the rations or diets they have, rather than wasting food at critical moments. To our surprise, the Spartans at that time did not regard stealing as a shame, but regarded it as part of military training. Young soldiers often don't get enough rations and have to steal them to supplement their food and strength. Xenophon bluntly said that the training of other Greek city-states was to punish those soldiers who did not obey orders, while Spartans punished those soldiers who had poor stealing skills. In Plutarch's record, a teenager once stole a fox while attending training. When people came to look for the lost fox, he hid the fox under his chest and robe to avoid being found. As a result, the fox bit all his important organs, and when people found him, he was already dying. His last words were: It is better to hide his weakness with honor than to be found and die in disgrace. Spartans' extreme character and emphasis on honor can be seen. Once they lose their honor, it will mean that it is difficult to survive in society. In addition, Spartans don't encourage individual heroism. Everyone should eat together, train or go to the camp to rest. The most extreme embodiment of the fair system is the canteen. Only real members of society can eat in the canteen, which is a sign of social recognition. In the public canteen, everyone should contribute a diet to the public canteen, so that it will be fair to the end, otherwise you can't share food in the canteen. Finally, it is worth mentioning that Spartans actually love poetry, music and dance very much. The poet Tartus once wrote a lot of poems praising the Spartans for their bravery and good fighting skills, which have always been praised by Spartans. Spartans also believe that the war songs with boiling blood can help young people forget their fear of death. In fact, until the 6th century BC, Spartans were not particularly closed, and they had commercial and cultural ties with the outside world. This militaristic city-state is not the cultural desert people imagine. /kloc-After 0/2 years old, the little boys in Sparta will enter the next stage of training. They will be grouped by age, and the leader of each group is still the elite of that age. In order to ensure that the team members' abilities go hand in hand, each of the most cowardly and timid people will assign a best young person for pairing education. Every night, young Spartans collect food, cook and make a fire by themselves, and then sing after dinner, ask questions and ask who is the greatest hero and who is the best citizen of Sparta. People who can't answer will be considered as lacking in self-motivation and pursuit, thus being abandoned by their peers. In the middle of the night, the soldiers also collect reeds and straw, and then make reed mattresses to sleep at night. In other Greek city-States, adult men and young people can form friendly partnerships, but in Sparta, such partnerships and teaching relationships only exist at the level of teaching and training, and partners cannot cross the border. From 12 to 19, after the military training of other Greek city-states was basically over, almost only Spartans would continue strict military education and let teenagers enter the training of youth. Stage summary: the training of adolescence focuses on cultivating the excellent quality of hard work and receiving basic cultural education in order to accept military orders. These qualities are laying the foundation for further training. Compared with the very basic training in adolescence, the training in adolescence is more cruel and open. They will be trained under the supervision of the state machine and the public, and will be ready for inspection at any time. Youth training is at the age of 19-20, and young Spartans enter puberty. Although only 30 years old, Spartans are full citizens. His former partner will end his guardianship obligation for young people at the age of 30, and young people can't live with their men all day. From then on, these former partners will form a political alliance and elect * * *. However, at the age of 20, soldiers have the obligation to serve and join the army as a source of soldiers for the country. As a symbol of adulthood, they have the right to have long hair that symbolizes adulthood. In Sparta, only nobles and free men can have long hair-slaves can't have long hair because of heavy physical labor. According to the Spartans recorded by Xenophon, long hair can make handsome people more handsome and ugly people more terrible. The punishment for cowards and deserters is very severe, that is, in addition to corporal punishment, there is also humiliating shaving of some hair and beard. In addition to learning the usage of throwing daggers, shields and javelins, as well as the skills of survival in the wild, the additional supervision is that soldiers need to undergo physical examination by inspectors every 10 day to prevent soldiers from getting fat, which will not only affect the flexibility of action, but also prove that soldiers are lazy and not strict in training. In addition, inspectors will also check the soldiers' meals and beds to prevent young soldiers from being suspected of having fun. During the whole training period, the words and deeds of young soldiers will be supervised by all adult citizens, and once their behavior does not conform to the norms, they will be punished by everyone in the past. This fully explains one sentence: Spartans must learn how to be ruled before they can rule others. Obeying orders and laws is a very important quality of Spartans. The most basic principle of Spartan operations is: obey all the military orders of officers, even if the number of the other side is far greater than their own, they should not hesitate to kill the enemy and never retreat. In 480 BC, when the Persians invaded Greece, the deposed Spartan king Della Thomas, who went on an expedition with Emperor Xue Xisi, told the Persian emperor clearly that all Spartans were very afraid of the laws of Sparta compared with the threat of the king. Sacred laws are inviolable. As a reward for outstanding young warriors, the king of Sparta will select the best 100 young people from three families every year, and then use these 300 people to form the guard of the king of Sparta-hippies. This Greek word originally meant war horse. The early Dorians were nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes, so their elite guards were cavalry or chariot soldiers. It was only after the rise of heavy infantry tactics that the King's Guard kept this tradition out of the tradition. Because the guard is not a fixed team, the annual rotation system ensures that the guard has fresh blood, thus ensuring combat effectiveness. Every soldier has 10 chances to stand for election in his youth, which is a great honor and also means potential promotion opportunities, which will undoubtedly improve the social and political status of soldiers. In peacetime, in addition to guarding palaces or temples, guards greet or send away key guests on key occasions. For example, after visiting Sparta, Themistocles, a famous Athenian, enjoyed the treatment of being deported by the Spartan King's Guard because of his outstanding exploits in the Salamis naval battle. In wartime, under normal circumstances, 200 guards stayed at home, and 100 soldiers went abroad with the king. Therefore, it is very unusual for 300 guards to attack the hot spring pass in an emergency. It was because King Leonidas of Sparta realized that the hot spring pass war was gone forever, so he replaced all the guards with adult male citizens over 30 years old, with his wife and offspring, to ensure that these families would not be orphaned by bloody battles. Stage summary: Generally speaking, the cultivation of youth is a transitional period before young people become full citizens. Compared with the important rival Athens, Spartans became citizens 10 years later, but these ten years will make young people more stable and mature. The competitive selection mechanism of the King's Guard is also a continuation of Spartan eugenics. Most importantly, at this stage, the Spartans will be forced to instill a very important quality: obeying orders. This will be an important feature that distinguishes them from other Greek city-States. This is a double-edged sword, which will shape the characteristics of Spartan culture. Adult Training After the youth of 20-29 years old, the soldiers entered adulthood, and the young Spartans became full-fledged citizens, with the right to vote and stand for election. They also needed to fulfill their military obligations to travel and continue to live a collective life. But as the backbone of a ethnic group, they should bear the responsibility of reproducing and give their armor and shields to future successors. Spartans got married in their thirties. Because Spartans generally believe that women are not as mature as men, husbands are often 10 years older than their wives. For Spartans who live in a collective life, there is very little time to go home and rest with their wives at night. This is because Spartans believe that young and energetic young people can't control * * *, which may lead to the decline of baby's quality. Only by delaying the first experience and getting married after full maturity can the baby's health be guaranteed. In addition, in order to ensure the baby's physical quality from the source, wives also need to complete a certain amount of military training, such as long jump, long-distance running, gun throwing and other projects, in order to maintain good health and fitness. Only in this way can we give birth to the healthiest offspring. In Sparta, an amazing tradition surprised foreigners, that is, in Sparta, young wives can have offspring with young and strong men, and husbands will adopt their children. Spartans do not regard them as illegitimate children, but as excellent seeds produced by fertile men and women, which are worth cultivating. When other Greeks accused Spartan women of infidelity, Spartans directly denied that adultery did not exist in Sparta. From the perspective of a country, national security depends on all people, so individual chastity is insignificant in the face of collective security. In the context of the militarization of the whole people, women in Sparta also sound like heroines: Spartan mothers will tell their children before going out to war: they will either triumph with shields or be carried on shields to wait for the funeral. Once the young Spartans have completed their military training, they will become the real Spartan. After that, until he is 60 years old, he will respond to the call of the country and fight for the defense of the country. Unlike people in other Greek countries, adult male citizens need to live in the dormitory of 15-20 people with other male citizens and live in the camp in order to fight at any time. In addition to ordinary military training, such as armored racing, javelin throwing, stone throwing and wrestling, everyone needs to practice gymnastics, even before the war and in the barracks, which is an important way for Spartans to keep healthy and sensitive. In addition, as a nomadic people, Spartans also exercised their ability to climb mountains and mountains through hunting, especially hunting without hounds. In the case that the canteen often can't provide enough food, the prey can provide an additional source of protein to help soldiers supplement nutrition. After reading the military training mode of Sparta, there are some rumors that Sparta has no so-called tradition of infanticide. Considering the shaping effect of the accumulation law of ancient history on people's historical cognition, the record of infanticide appeared very late. Plutarch, who claimed that Spartans killed babies, lived in the1-2nd century, but he confirmed that it was a custom in the 8th-7th century BC. Although abandoned babies were very common in the ancient Mediterranean world, no regime took abandoned babies as a national policy. In addition, Plutarch's records come from the1-2nd century, and do not directly reflect the Spartan customs in the city-state era. So the credibility of his record is questionable. In all kinds of technical training, Spartans attached great importance to formation training. Spartans usually let the best soldiers walk on the right side of the whole column. Once a war breaks out, these people will change from columns to horizontal lines, become the pioneers of the whole phalanx, and cover the soldiers who follow them. According to strict daily training, Spartans have a high degree of tacit understanding. Because there was no Thucydides in the history of the Peloponnesian War, when the whole army advanced, the whole war would use flutes or military songs to keep the whole army in step. Even if they retreat, Spartans can withdraw from the battle in an orderly way according to the way that the back team becomes the front team, so as to avoid the retreat from becoming a complete disaster. In the daily March, they will let the soldiers of the same tribe stand in front of them according to the formation rehearsed during training, so that they can have a more reliable backer and right-hand man. For those who abandoned their comrades-in-arms in battle and prayed for their lives privately, the punishment of Spartans was not harsh: in addition to depriving them of their citizenship, shamefully shaving off half their beards, they were rejected and discriminated by the whole community and never turned over. Therefore, Xenophon wrote with emotion: Spartans were far more afraid of shame than death. There is no doubt about the advantages and disadvantages of Sparta's education and training system. Sparta's strict education system lacks training in literature, art and music, and highly militarized training has also created the most powerful and heavily armed infantry in Greece. After the famous Battle of Remaining in Karath, the Spartans suffered heavy losses, and other city-states tried to question the leadership of Sparta. As a result, the king of Sparta asked about the occupations of the infantry in neighboring countries, and found that the infantry in neighboring countries were all builders, masons and farmers, and only Spartans were professional soldiers of the whole people. Soldiers are not expensive, but expensive. The troops carefully built by Spartans with the training system have undoubtedly maintained a great deterrent for a long time. This is related to the fact that Spartans controlled more land with a very small population. Especially through the three wars in Messenia, they turned their compatriots in Messenia into national slaves, which is equivalent to letting everyone sit on the crater together and be in danger of being swallowed up by angry magma at any time. Because of the need to fight at any time, Spartans need to fight side by side with their comrades. Only by forming an indestructible infantry phalanx can we have the strongest combat effectiveness. Therefore, the culture of collectivism prevailed in Sparta, and the private life of individuals was even strongly interfered by the regime: not getting married means not taking the responsibility of reproducing the population, which is a crime and will be rejected by the public; As long as women and young men can produce excellent offspring, they are not cheating together. On the one hand, the intervention of national will in personal life reflects the dangerous situation of Sparta, on the other hand, it also has many adverse effects. The military culture of obeying orders and collectivism leads to the social atmosphere of despising literature and philosophy, and the individual's free thought and speculative spirit are also suppressed by laws and orders. Although Spartans are proud that there is no wall, because soldiers are the best wall, after thousands of years, there are almost no architectural sites facing the sun in Sparta's hometown, and Sparta has not left any famous works in literature, history and philosophy. Their customs and habits were left by Athenian writers, such as Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Plato and others, which proved Sparta's poverty in ideological and cultural fields. An all-round education system is very important for the growth of young people. Partial subjects in a single field will inevitably have unexpected shortcomings in other fields.