the state that he should not live at all.  Wherefore the women used to wash their newborn infants with wine, not with water, to make trial of their constitution.  It was thought that epileptic or diseased children shrank from the wine and fell into convulsions, while healthy ones were hardened and strengthened by it.  A certain supervision was exercised over the nurses, making them bring up the children without swaddling clothes, so as to make their movements free and unconfined, and also to make them easily satisfied, not nice as to food, not afraid in the dark, not frightened at being alone, not peevish and fretful.  For this reason, many foreigners used to obtain Lacedaemonian nurses for their children, and it is said that Amykla, the nurse of Alkibiades, was a Lacedaemonian.  But Plato tells us that Perikles put him under the care of one Zopyrus, who was no better than the other slaves; whereas Lykurgus would not intrust the Spartan boys to any bought or hired servants, nor was each man allowed to bring up and educate his son as he chose, but as soon as they were seven years of age he himself received them from their parents, and enrolled them in companies.  Here they lived and messed in common, and were associated for play and for work.  However, a superintendent of the boys was appointed, one of the best born and bravest men of the state, and they themselves in their troops chose as leader him who was wisest, and fiercest in fight.  They looked to him for orders, obeyed his commands, and endured his punishments, so that even in childhood they learned to obey.  The elder men watched them at their play, and by instituting fights and trials of strength, carefully learned which was the bravest and most enduring.  They learned their letters, because they are necessary, but all the rest of their education was meant to teach them to obey with cheerfulness, to endure labours, and to win battles.  As they grew older their training became more severe; they were closely shorn, and taught to walk unshod and to play naked.  They wore no tunic after their twelfth year, but received one garment for all the year round.  They were necessarily dirty, as they had no warm baths and ointments, except on certain days, as a luxury.  They slept all together in troops and companies, on beds of rushes which they themselves had picked on the banks of the Eurotas with their hands, for they were not allowed to use a knife.  In winter they mixed the herb called lycophon with the rushes, as it is thought to possess some warmth.

XVI.  At this age the elder men took even greater interest in them, frequenting the gymnasia where they were, and listening to their repartees with each other, and that not in a languid careless manner, but just as if each thought himself the father, instructor, and captain of them all.