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Agoge
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The agoge was a rigorous education and training regime for all male Spartan citizens, except for the first born son in the ruling houses, Eurypontid and Agiad.
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The agoge was a rigorous education and training regime for all male Spartan citizens, except for the first born son in the ruling houses, Eurypontid and Agiad. The training involved learning stealth, cultivating loyalty to one's group, military training, hunting, dancing and social preparation
The word "agoge" had in ancient Greek many meanings, among them seizure or abduction, but in this context generally meant leading, guidance or training.
According to folklore, agoge was introduced by the semi-mythical Spartan law-giver Lycurgus, but its origins are thought to be between the 7th and 6th century BC, when the regime trained male citizens from the ages of seven through twenty-nine.
The aim of the system was to produce physically and morally strong males to serve in the Spartan army. It encouraged conformity and the importance of the Spartan state over one's personal interest, but also generated the future elites of Sparta. The men would become the "walls of Sparta" because Sparta was the only Greek city with no defensive walls – they had been demolished at the order of Lycurgus. Discipline was strict and the males were encouraged to fight amongst themselves to determine the strongest member of the group.
Structure
When a boy reached his seventh birthday, he was enrolled in the agoge under the authority of the paidonómos , or "boy-herder", a magistrate charged with supervising education. This began the first of the three stages of the agoge: the paides (roughly speaking, ages 7-17), the paidiskoi (ages 18-19), and the hebontes (20-29); some classical sources indicate that there were further subdivisions by year within these classes.
The boys lived in groups (agelai, "herds") under an older boy leader. They were encouraged to give their loyalty to their communal mess hall rather than their families. Boys would be given one item of clothing per year, and they created beds out of reeds from the Eurotas River. Boys were intentionally underfed to master the skills necessary to become successful at stealing their food. They would be severely punished, however, if they were caught. Only the heirs apparent of Spartan royal households (the Agiads and Eurypontids) were exempt from the process.
At around age 12, the boys would enter into an institutionalized sexual relationship with a young adult male Spartan. Plutarch described this form of Spartan pederasty, wherein somewhat older warriors would engage promising youths in a long-lasting relationship with a purportedly pedagogic motive. The boy was expected to request the relationship, and it was seen as a method to pass on knowledge and maintain loyalty on the battlefield. Some classical writers, including Xenophon in his "Polity of the Lacedaemonians", wrote that Spartans did not engage in sexual relations with adolescents, believing it akin to indulging in their own children.
At the stage of paidiskoi, around the age of 18, the students became reserve members of the Spartan army. They also (or probably just a small group of very promising ones) were taken to the Crypteia, a sort of festival testing their skills by declaring war on the helot slave population, encouraging the students to murder those who were out at night and take their food.
At the stage of hebontes, roughly age 20, the students became full part of the syssitia and Spartan army, and were finally permitted to marry, although they continued to live in barracks, and continued to compete for a place among the Spartan hippeis, the royal guard of honor.
Education of girls
Girls also had a form of state education involving dance, gymnastics and other sports; together with other subjects such as reading, writing and war education. Traits such as grace and culture were frowned upon, in favor of physical tempering and moral rectitude. The girls were also encouraged to help the males by humiliating them in public, and criticizing their exercising.
Spartan women wore the old-fashioned peplos , open at the side, leading to banter at their expense among the other Greeks, who dubbed them phainomerides, , "thigh-showers." At religious ceremonies, on holidays and during physical exercise, girls and women were nude.
Rise and fall
Any male who did not successfully pass through the agoge would be denied Spartan citizenship. At various times this selection process came to be seen as detrimental to Spartan society, particularly when the number of free, male Spartan citizens dwindled. The practice waned in the 3rd century BC, but was successfully reinvigorated some time in the 220s BC by Cleomenes III. It was abolished, however, less than forty years later, by Philopoemen, in 188 BC. The agoge was reinstated in the year 146 BC.
Roman agoge
The Roman agoge was limited to males between the ages of 14 and 19, and was essentially ephebic in nature, and organized by phyles, or citizen tribes. The instruction consisted of athletics, singing, dancing, military and probably some academic training. The students were supervised by officials called bideioi ("overseers") and a patronomos ("guardian of law"). Some time during the Flavian dynasty, a team-based structure was introduced to the Roman agoge which put groups of students under the command of a team leader, or boagos. Sponsorship was available to some poor students who could not afford the training.
See also
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