Spartan Training: Brutal Training That Produced World’s Best Warriors

Maup van de Kerkhof | Ancient Civilizations, Ancient Greece, Military | November 15, 2023

Spartan training is the intense physical training that the ancient Spartans of Greece underwent in
order to become formidable warriors. The Spartan training regimen was known for its emphasis
on strength, endurance, and mental toughness

But why was it so notorious? And why did it make them so famous? Or rather, what did the
Spartan army actually do to transform young Spartans into fierce soldiers?

The Start of the Spartan Army

The army of the Spartans became famous around 480 BC when the Spartan community was
attacked by a vast Persian army. At the brink of extinction, the last Spartan rulers decided to fight
back. Actually, they decided to reclaim the superiority they once had over their own lands,
defeating the way bigger Persian army.
However, 480 BC was not the year that the military regime of Sparta started. The training that
made the fierce Spartan warrior was implemented around the 7th or 6th century BC. The army
was quite fragile at that point and about to be conquered.
The Spartans, however, weren’t really planning on defeat and managed to create a society that
was fully focused on attacking and resisting enemy attacks. The leaders of the city-state
implemented a training regime called the agoge, which was responsible for the shift in sentiment.
The main character here is a leader called Cleomenes and he managed to increase his soldiers to
4.000, adding some novel weapons in the process. The agoge was both a military and a social
process. But what does the agoge consist of?
The Agoge
The agoge served for the installment of the soldierly mindset and its virtues of strength,
endurance, and solidarity. Some claim that only young boys and men would participate in army
training, but this is actually not true. Or rather, not entirely true. Spartan women were just as
well trained in some shape or form.

Women mostly focused on gymnastics, which was part of the curriculum alongside weaving and
cooking. It was very rare for a woman to actually go on to fight on the battlefield. However,
training in gymnastics was definitely unheard of since any woman in Ancient Greece was mostly
confined to the household realm. Not for the Spartans.
What Age Did Spartans Start Training?
The training regime called the agoge was divided into three age categories. Spartans were about
seven years old when they started their training, entering a group called the paides. When they
reached the age of 15, they’d transfer to a group called the paidiskoi. After reaching the age of
20, they were upgraded to the hēbōntes.
Times have definitely changed since training seven-year-olds for the military is not necessarily
something that would be accepted today. Right?
First Level: The Paides
Still, the agoge was not just a strict military training for combat. The first level, the paides,
included a broad curriculum that focused on writing and math, but also included gymnastics. It’s
probable that sports and athletics was a big part of the curriculum, in which the children would
compete in events like running and wrestling.
An interesting aspect of this life stage was that the young men were encouraged to steal their
food. It’s quite probable that the ones that were in this life stage were underfed. The hunger
would accumulate to a point that the young soldiers really needed some food, so they would go
out and steal it.
Although encouraged, they were punished when they were actually caught in the act of stealing.
After all, it’s only stealing if it’s not really allowed to be taken. The trick was to do it without
getting noticed by your contemporaries.
Why would a society encourage stealing? Well, it mostly had to do with teaching themlessons
about stealth and resourcefulness.
Some other aspects of the training were also quite remarkable, for example, the fact that the
children didn’t wear shoes. Actually, they weren’t provided with a lot of clothing anyway: the
soldiers would only get one cloak they could use for the whole year. It was believed that it trained
them in agility and being able to live a life with little assets.
Second Level: The Paidiskoi
As you might know, puberty hits around the age of 15. It’s probable that this determined the
transition from the first level to the second level of the Spartan army. During the stage of
paidiskoi, Spartan boys were encouraged to become an adult and were more and more allowed
to participate in the social life of adults.
Unfortunately for the young boys, this would go hand in hand with more intense Spartan warrior
training. Some sources also state that this included pederasty, a loving relationship with a
mentor: an older man. It was common in other city-states of ancient Greece, as can be seen from
numerous illustrations on pottery and other forms of ancient Greek art but there is no conclusive
answer if it was actually the case in Sparta.
Third Level: Hēbōntes
Luckily, puberty has an end. Around the age of 20, the first two stages of army training were
completed and the boys became full warriors. Reaching the same level as the father figures they
always looked up to, the new warriors became eligible for the army.
While it is the last stage of the agoge, it wasn’t necessarily the last stage of life. In fact, this stage
would normally end before the age of 30. Only after completion of the third level, hēbōntes, the
Spartans would be allowed to start a family.
Men that completed the brutal training and showed excellent leadership skills would be able to
lead an agelē. If not, they could become a member of a syssition, which was a sort of community
of men that ate and socialized together. Membership of a syssition was a life-long thing.
How Hard Was Spartan Training?
Simply put, the overall training wasn’t ‘hard’ in the sense that strength was the main focus.
Especially if you compare the above-described education with modern military training regimes,
Spartans wouldn’t really stand a chance against modern armies. While modern training regimes
combine toughness, endurance, strength, and agility, the Spartans mainly focussed on the latter.
How Did Spartans Train?
In order to obtain an excellent level of agility, training included gymnastic competitions and
exercises. However, the main part of the training probably revolved around dancing. Dancing was
not just an important part of the curriculum of Spartan women, it was actually recognized as one
of the most valuable tools for training soldiers.

A famous Greek philosopher, Socrates, stated that the most beautiful dancers would be regarded
as best fitted for warlike matters. Dancing, he said, was very similar to military maneuvers and
was a display of discipline and care for a healthy body.
How Well Trained Were Spartans?
So the Spartan army wasn’t really well trained if we compare it to modern armies yet, they are
renowned as potentially the most popular warriors in the history of the world. While their
training was brutal and an overall challenge, the training was not always focused on the physical.
More so on the mental.
Think about it: humans learn by example. The things that we learn from a very young age provide
us with the foundation of our life and worldview. If this foundation revolves around physical
training and agony, it becomes normal and even wished for.
This was the main difference between Sparta and other city-states: they enforced training
through law and custom. Other states would leave it to the individual and not really care about a
military focus in the upbringing.This was also affirmed by another famous Greek philosopher,
Aristotle. He wrote that the Spartans of Ancient Greece excelled ‘not because they trained their
young men in this manner, but because they alone trained and their opponents did not.’
What Did Spartans Really Look Like?
Starting training from a young age, it goes without saying that men and women from Sparta were
in good shape and had athletic bodies. They weren’t allowed to eat too much so that they
wouldn’t become sluggish through being too full. Some thinkers from ancient Sparta think that
the combination of training and little food created soldiers that were slim and tall, perfect for
battle.
So how tall were Spartans really? It’s hard to say since there is no reliable archeological evidence.
It might well be that they were taller than their contemporaries, but it’s not likely that they grew
taller because they ate less. In fact, if we follow modern science, eating too little probably stunts
growth rather than enhancing it.
Training After Agoge
While the distinctive aspect of the training of the Spartans was the starting date, military training
changed in focus once the warriors actually reached adulthood. It shifted to training in marching
and tactical maneuvers, therefore more related to the actual battlefield.
The leaders of the army taught their men how to analyze the position of the army that they were
fighting against. What is their weakest spot? How to counterattack? What is the best formation
we can adopt to conquer the enemy or win the battle?

The combination of mindset and fighting maneuvers created healthy men (and at times women),
really completing the superiority of Sparta on the battlefield. Because of it, they were able to
defeat and resist attacks from enemy armies that were way bigger. Eventually, however, they
were sucked into the Roman empire, leading to a gradual decrease in power.