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A Spartans Life

Ron Cosman
History 134 / 142961
28 September 2014

The morning dew is still fresh on the ground as I lie on my bed thinking about the day ahead.
Todays schedule is as follows: short morning run of 3 miles, breakfast, long spear training,
lunch, phalanx formations, dinner and then free time. I am used to the morning runs, but do not
enjoy getting up before the sun to start training. My name is Hector. I am 17 years old and a
Spartiate. Being that I am only 17, I am not considered a full citizen yet. I will only be a full
citizen after age thirty.
My day starts off as every other day. The warden of our agoge wakes us up just before sun
rises. We will do a little stretching, then he leads us on our run. Often times we sing of victories
past and fallen heroes while running. Sometimes he makes it a competition to see who is the
fastest and a reward is given to whoever comes in first.
After our morning run, we get to go and eat. We do not have anything elaborate to eat or
overindulge in food like the Athenians. Normally, whoever comes in last though has less food to
eat because the fastest runners ate their fill. Most of the time our meals consist of figs, barley
meal and cheese. If we are still hungry later, we have to steal food, but we better not get caught.
If we do, we will be beaten not for stealing, but because we got caught.
Today we will continue with our training from yesterday on our doru or long spear. This
spear can be from 7-9 feet long with a leaf shape point at one end and sharp point at the other
end. Some people like to call that end the lizard killer. I battled with all the guys in my agoge
yesterday and made it up to the final round, but then was dethroned by my best friend Maximus.
We will have simulated fights all the way up till noon, then we will break for lunch.
After lunch, we will be going out to the battlefield to practice our phalanx maneuvers. This is
one of a Spartans greatest offensive and defensive strategies. It is from this formation that we do

attacks, but are yet able to still defend ourselves. We will practice this formation for hours at a
time to ensure we have no weaknesses in it. Sometimes we even have the older hoplites try to
attack us as we do simulated war games.
Dinner time is when training is technically done for the day. After we eat dinner, we have the
freedom to associate with the females or just enjoy our leisure. We cannot marry a girl until we
are twenty. Even after we marry though, we cannot live with our wives until the age of thirty.
Sometimes some of us go out and torment the helots if we see any walking in the streets. This is
supposed to be one way to help us hone our skills against invaders.
As the evening draws to an end, I am told that tonight I will be the one standing guard. We
all take turns watching the perimeter at night, keeping a vigilant eye on our Sparta. In the event
of an enemy, I will sound the alarm and all our Spartan soldiers will come out at a moments
notice. But no one dare try to attack, for they know better.

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