There was a belief in Sparta that wine was more strengthening than water for a bath, and so the first bath a baby had was always in wine.
There was much care and art, too, used by the nurses; the children grew up free and unconstrained in limb and form, and not dainty and fanciful about their food; not afraid in the dark, or of being left alone; without any peevishness or ill-humour. Upon this account, Spartan nurses were often hired by people of other countries.
At the age of seven, Spartan boys left their homes and their mothers, and the State took charge of the rest of their education.
As soon as they were seven years old they were to be enrolled in certain companies and classes, where they all lived under the same order and discipline, doing their exercises and taking their play together. Of these, he who showed the most conduct and courage was made captain; they had their eyes always upon him, obeyed his orders, and underwent patiently whatsoever punishment he inflicted; so that the whole course of their education was one continued exercise of a ready and perfect obedience. Reading and writing they gave them, just enough to serve their turn; their chief care was to make them good subjects, and to teach them to endure pain and conquer in battle.
As they grew older, Spartan boys were taught to undergo all kinds of hardships. They wore very little clothing, even in the cold of winter, and one coat had to serve them for a year.
After they were twelve years old they lodged together in little bands upon beds made of the rushes which grew by the banks of the river Eurotas, which they were to break off with their hands without a knife. The old men had an eye upon them at this time, coming often to the grounds to hear and see them contend either in wit or strength with one another, and this seriously and with much concern; so that there scarcely was any time or place without someone present to put them in mind of their duty, and punish them if they had neglected it.
Besides all this, there was always one of the best and honestest men in the city appointed to undertake the charge and governance of them; he again arranged them into their several bands, and set over each of them for the captain the most temperate and boldest of those they called Irens, who were usually twenty years old. This young man, therefore, was their captain when they fought, and their master at home, using them for the offices of his house; sending the oldest of them to fetch wood, and the weaker and less able, to gather salads and herbs and these they must either go without or steal; which they did by creeping into the gardens, or conveying themselves cunningly and closely into the eating-houses; if they were taken in the act, they were whipped without mercy, for thieving so ill and awkwardly. They stole, too, all other meat they could lay their hands on, looking out and watching all opportunities, when people were asleep or more careless than usual.
If they were caught, they were not only punished with whipping, but hunger too, for they were then reduced to their ordinary allowance, which was purposely kept very small, in order to force them to use cunning and skill if they wanted to add to it. "So seriously did the Lacedaemonian children go about their stealing, that a youth having stolen a young fox, and hid it under his coat, suffered it so to tear with its teeth and claws, that he died rather than let it be seen."
In every way the Spartan youths as they grew up were severely disciplined. Every year the older boys were whipped in public before the altar of Artemis, in order to teach them to endure pain without crying out, and it is said that some boys died under this whipping rather than utter a complaint.