It was a ruse to discover the most energetic and those most
capable of revolting. Two thousand were chosen; they were conducted
about the temples with heads crowned as an evidence of their
manumission; then the Spartiates put them out of the way, but how it
was done no one ever knew.[63]
And yet the oppressed classes were ten times more, numerous than their
masters. While there were more than 200,000 Helots and 120,000
Perioeci, there were never more than 9,000 Spartiate heads of families.
In a matter of life and death, then, it was necessary that a Spartiate
be as good as ten Helots. As the form of battle was hand-to-hand, they
needed agile and robust men. Sparta was like a camp without walls; its
people was an army always in readiness.
EDUCATION
=The Children.=--They began to make soldiers of them at birth. The
newly-born infant was brought before a council; if it was found
deformed, it was exposed on the mountain to die; for an army has use
only for strong men. The children who were permitted to grow up were
taken from their parents at the age of seven years and were trained
together as members of a group.
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