The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [260]
22. And yet kept their wives shut up, to be made mothers only by themselves, who might be foolish, infirm or diseased;
23. As if it were not apparent that children of a bad breed would prove their bad qualities first upon those who were rearing them,
24. And well-born children, in like manner, their good qualities.
25. These regulations, founded on natural and social grounds, were certainly so far from that scandalous liberty which was afterwards charged upon Spartan women,
26. That they knew not what was meant by the word adultery.
Chapter 9
1. Nor was it in the power of the father to dispose of a newborn if he thought it unfit;
2. He had to carry it before assessors, whose business it was carefully to examine the infant;
3. If they found it healthy and vigorous, they gave order for its rearing, and allotted to it one of the nine thousand shares of land for its maintenance,
4. But, if they found it misbegotten, they ordered it to be taken to the chasm called Apothetae,
5. Thinking it neither for the good of the child itself, nor in the public interest, that it should be brought up.
6. The women did not bathe the newborn children in water, as in other countries, but in wine, to prove the temper of their bodies,
7. From a notion that weakly children faint away upon their being thus bathed, while those who are strong acquire firmness by it.
8. Much care and art was used by the nurses; they had no swaddling bands;
9. The children grew up free and unconstrained in limb, not dainty about their food,
10. Not afraid in the dark, or of being left alone, and without peevishness or crying.
11. On this account Spartan nurses were valued in other countries.
12. Lycurgus would not have teachers bought out of the slave market, nor those who charged fees;
13. Nor could fathers themselves educate their children after their own fancy;
14. But when seven years old they were enrolled in companies where they lived under the same order and discipline, doing their exercises and playing together.
15. Of these, the one who made the best showing was made captain; they kept their eyes upon him, obeyed him and patiently accepted his discipline,
16. So that their whole education was one continued exercise of ready and perfect obedience.
17. The older men were spectators of their performances, and often stirred disputes among them,
18. To find out their different characters, and see which would be valiant, which a coward, in real conflicts.
19. They taught them just enough reading and writing to serve;
20. The chief care was to make them good subjects and soldiers, and to teach them to endure pain and conquer in battle.
21. As they grew older their discipline was proportionately increased; their heads were close-clipped, they went barefoot and played naked.
22. After they were twelve years old, they were forbidden to wear undergarments, and made one coat last a year.
23. Their bodies were hard and dry, with little acquaintance of baths and unguents; these indulgences were allowed only on particular days in the year.
24. They lodged together in little bands upon beds made of the rushes from the River Eurotas.
25. If it were winter, they mingled some thistledown with the rushes for warmth.
26. By the time they reached this age none of the more hopeful boys lacked a lover to bear him company.
27. The old men, too, had an eye upon them, coming often to the grounds to observe them contend in wit and strength,
28. And this with as much interest as if they were their fathers, tutors or magistrates;
29. So they were never without someone present to remind them of their duty, and punish neglect of it.
30. One of the best men in the city was appointed to take charge of them;
31. He arranged them into their bands, and chose their captains from among the most temperate and boldest of the Irens,
32. Who were usually twenty years old, two years out of the boys’ group.
Chapter 10
1. A young man chosen as Iren was the boys’ captain when they fought