The agōgē was the rigorous education and training regimen mandated for all male Sparta

Sparta

Sparta or Lacedaemon, was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the banks of the River Eurotas in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. It emerged as a political entity around the 10th century BC, when the invading Dorians subjugated the local, non-Dorian population. From c...

n citizens, except for the firstborn son in the ruling houses, Eurypontid and Agiad. The training involved learning stealth, cultivating loyalty to one's group, military training (e.g. pain tolerance), hunting, dancing, singing, and social preparation
The word "agoge" had many meanings in ancient Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

, among them seizure or abduction, but in this context generally meant leading, guidance or training.

According to folklore, agoge was introduced by the semi-mythical Spartan law-giver Lycurgus

Lycurgus (Sparta)

Lycurgus was the legendary lawgiver of Sparta, who established the military-oriented reformation of Spartan society in accordance with the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi...

 but its origins are thought to be between the 7th and 6th centuries BC when the state trained male citizens from the ages of seven to twenty-one.

The aim of the system was to produce physically and morally strong males to serve in the Spartan army. It encouraged conformity and the importance of the Spartan state over one's personal interest and generated the future elites of Sparta. The men would become the "walls of Sparta" because Sparta was the only Greek

History of Greece

The history of Greece encompasses the history of the territory of the modern state of Greece, as well as that of the Greek people and the areas they ruled historically. The scope of Greek habitation and rule has varied much through the ages, and, as a result, the history of Greece is similarly...

 city with no defensive walls after they had been demolished at the order of Lycurgus

Lycurgus (Sparta)

Lycurgus was the legendary lawgiver of Sparta, who established the military-oriented reformation of Spartan society in accordance with the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi...

. Discipline was strict and the males were encouraged to fight amongst themselves to determine the strongest member of the group.

The agoge was prestigious throughout the Greek world, and many aristocratic families from other cities vied to send their sons to Sparta to participate in the agoge for varying periods of time. The Spartans were very selective in which young men they would permit to enroll. Such honors were usually awarded to the próxenoi of Sparta in other cities and to a few other families of supreme ancestry and importance.

Structure

When a baby boy was born, it was required that he be checked by the Gerousia

Gerousia

The Gerousia was the Spartan senate . It was made up of 60 year old Spartan males. It was created by the Spartan lawgiver Lycurgus in the seventh century BC, in his Great Rhetra...

(a council of leading elder Spartans) from his tribe to see if he was fit and healthy enough to be allowed to live. In the event that the baby did not pass the test, he was left at a place called the apothetai near Mt. Taygetus

Taygetus

Mount Taygetus, Taugetus, or Taigetus is a mountain range in the Peloponnese peninsula in Southern Greece. The name is one of the oldest recorded in Europe, appearing in the Odyssey. In classical mythology, it was associated with the nymph Taygete...

 to die of exposure. At the age of seven, he was enrolled in the agoge under the authority of the paidonómos , or "boy-herder", a magistrate

Magistrate

A magistrate is an officer of the state; in modern usage the term usually refers to a judge or prosecutor. This was not always the case; in ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest government officers and possessed both judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a...

 charged with supervising education. This began the first of the three stages of the agoge: the paídes (roughly speaking, ages 7–17), the paidískoi (ages 17–19), and the hēbōntes (20-29); some classical sources indicate that there were further subdivisions by year within these classes.

The boys lived in groups (agélai, "herds") under an older leader. They were encouraged to give their loyalty to their communal mess hall known as the Syssitia, rather than to their families. Beginning at the age of 12 boys would be given only one item of clothing per year — a red cloak known as a Phoinikis. They also created beds out of reeds pulled by hand, with no knife, from the Eurotas River

Eurotas River

The Eurotas or Evrotas is the main river of Laconia prefecture and one of the major rivers of the Peloponnese, in Greece. The river's springs are located just northwest of the border between Laconia and the prefecture of Arcadia, at Skortsinos. The river is also fed by underwater springs at...

. Boys were intentionally underfed to encourage them to master the skills necessary to become successful at stealing their food. This was also meant to produce tall well-built soldiers rather than fat short ones. This let the boys become accustomed to hunger so that during a campaign hunger would not be a problem. They would be severely punished, however, if they were caught stealing. Only the heirs apparent

Heir apparent

An heir apparent or heiress apparent is a person who is first in line of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting, except by a change in the rules of succession....

 of the two Spartan royal households (the Agiads and Eurypontids) were exempt from the process.

At around age 12 the boys would enter into an institutionalized relationship with a young adult male Spartan. Plutarch

Plutarch

Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...

 described this form of Spartan pederasty wherein somewhat older warriors would engage promising youths in a long-lasting relationship with a pedagogic motive. The boy was expected to request the relationship, which was seen as a method to pass on knowledge and maintain loyalty on the battlefield. At the stage of paidiskoi, around the age of 18, the students became reserve members of the Spartan army. They also (or probably just a small group of very promising ones) became part of the Crypteia

Crypteia

Krypteia or crypteia was a tradition involving young Spartans, part of the agoge regime of Spartan education...

, a type of 'Secret Police' testing their skills by declaring war on the helot slave population, which encouraged the students to murder those who were out at night and to take their food to ensure these 'inferiors' remained submissive.

At the stage of hēbōntes, roughly age 20, the students became fully part of the syssitia

Syssitia

The syssitia was, in Ancient Greece, a common meal for men and youths in social or religious groups, especially in Crete and Sparta, though also in Megara in the time of Theognis and Corinth in the time of Periander .The banquets spoken of by Homer relate to this tradition...

and Spartan army although they continued to live in barracks

Barracks

Barracks are specialised buildings for permanent military accommodation; the word may apply to separate housing blocks or to complete complexes. Their main object is to separate soldiers from the civilian population and reinforce discipline, training and esprit de corps. They were sometimes called...

 and continued to compete for a place among the Spartan hippeis

Hippeis

Hippeis was the Greek term for cavalry. The Hippeus was the second highest of the four Athenian social classes, made of men who could afford to maintain a war horse in the service of the state. The rank may be compared to Roman Equestrians and medieval knights. Among the Athenians, it referred to...

the royal guard of honor. At the age of 20 they were voted into one of the public messes. The voting was done by their peers who were already in the mess; if all members of the mess did not vote in this person, they could not join that mess. They could then try for a different mess, usually one that was worse. They had ten years to be accepted into a mess, if they failed, they would not gain Spartan citizenship and be an inferior. When they turned 30, or at their peak age, they were finally permitted to marry and to become full citizens of Sparta who could vote and hold office.

Education in the agoge served as a great equalizer in Sparta. Men were meant to compete in athletics and in battle. Helots and common men likely only developed their reading and writing skills as was necessary to make votive offerings and read important inscriptions. On the other hand Spartans who became kings, diplomats or generals would also improve their rhetoric, reading and writing skills as they were necessary abilities to have for their positions. How the majority of the population of citizen male Spartans became literate, or whether they were literate at all, is not well known. However, there is reference made in Plutarch's "Sayings of Spartan Women" to correspondence kept between mother and sons on campaign, which would suggest some degree of literacy.

Education of girls

Girls also had a form of state education involving dance

Dance

Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....

, gymnastics

Gymnastics

Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...

 and other sports; together with other subjects such as music, dance, poetry, including writing and war education. Traits such as grace and culture were frowned upon in favor of physical tempering and moral rectitude. The girls were also encouraged to help the males by humiliating them in public and criticizing their exercising. Just as Spartan males were raised to become warriors, so the females of Sparta were trained for their primary task: giving birth to warriors. Encouraged to be strong and healthy, girls participated in athletic competitions, running footraces in off-the-shoulder chitons. Unquestioning in the performance of their duty, Spartan mothers did not give in to sentiment even when faced with a child's death. "I bore him so that he might die for Sparta," one woman said of her son, "and that is what has happened, as I wished."

Spartan women wore the old-fashioned peplos

Peplos

A peplos is a body-lengthGreek garment worn by women before 500 BC. The peplos is a tubular cloth folded inside-out from the top about halfway down, altering what was the top of the tube to the waist and the bottom of the tube to ankle-length. The garment is then gathered about the waist and the...

 , open at the side, leading to banter at their expense among the other Greeks who dubbed them phainomērídes the "thigh-showers." At religious ceremonies, on holidays and during physical exercise girls and women were nude as in bed.

Rise and fall

Any male who did not successfully pass through the agoge would be denied Spartan citizenship. At various times this selection process came to be seen as detrimental to Spartan society particularly when the number of free male Spartan citizens dwindled. The practice waned in the 3rd century BC but was successfully reinvigorated some time in the 220s BC

220s BC

-Births:* 229 BC** Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus, Roman general, consul and politician ** Qin Er Shi, Emperor of Qin China * 228 BC** Prusias I Chlorus, king of Bithynia...

 by Cleomenes III

Cleomenes III

Cleomenes III was the King of Sparta from 235-222 BC. He succeeded to the Agiad throne of Sparta after his father, Leonidas II in 235 BC.From 229 BC to 222 BC, Cleomenes waged war against the Achaean League under Aratus of Sicyon. Domestically, he is known for his attempt to reform the Spartan state...

. It was abolished, however, less than forty years later by Philopoemen

Philopoemen

Philopoemen , was a skilled Greek general and statesman, who was Achaean strategos on eight occasions....

 in 188 BC

188 BC

Year 188 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Messalla and Salinator...

. The agoge was reinstated in the year 146 BC

146 BC

Year 146 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Lentulus and Achaicus...

 after the Roman defeat of the Achaeans in the Achaean War

Achaean War

The Achaean War was an uprising by the Greek Achaean League, A alliance of Achaean and other Peloponnesian states in ancient Greece, against the Roman Republic around 146 BC, just after the Fourth Macedonian War. Rome defeated the League swiftly, and as a lesson, they destroyed the ancient city of...

.

Roman agoge

The Roman agoge was limited to males between the ages of 14 to 19 and was essentially ephebic

Ephebos

Ephebos , also anglicised as ephebe or archaically ephebus , is a Greek word for an adolescent age group or a social status reserved for that age in Antiquity....

 in nature and organized by phyle

Phyle

Phyle is an ancient Greek term for clan or tribe. They were usually ruled by a basileus...

s (citizen tribes). The instruction consisted of athletics, singing, dancing, military and probably some academic training. The students were supervised by officials called bideioi ("overseers") and a patronomos ("guardian of law"). During the Flavian dynasty

Flavian dynasty

The Flavian dynasty was a Roman Imperial Dynasty, which ruled the Roman Empire between 69 and 96 AD, encompassing the reigns of Vespasian , and his two sons Titus and Domitian . The Flavians rose to power during the civil war of 69, known as the Year of the Four Emperors...

a team-based structure was introduced to the Roman agoge which put groups of students under the command of a team leader or boagos (βοαγός). Sponsorship was available to some poor students who could not afford the training.