The Brutal Spartan School, Breaking Boys to Build Warriors

The 2007 Hollywood film 300, shows off a dramatized version of the Battle of the Thermopylae. In the film, the Spartan myth is shown in all its barechested glory. 300 Spartan warriors, led by their defiant king, Leonidas, face off against a horde of Persians 300, 000 strong. Utilising a narrow mountain path, they hold their ground for three whole days against overwhelming odds, fighting to the bitter end and leaving mountains of slain enemies before them. Such battletrained, chiselled warriors were just born. They had to be built. The Spartans had a system to create warriors, one that started a childhood. It used extreme violence, ritual starvation and strict social control to create selfsufficient, loyal, and battleready warriors. It wasnt really education, and it wasnt really military training. Thats because this wasnt school; this wasnt the army. This is Sparta. In today s episode of Wars of the World, we look at how Spatan s turned boys into warriors. 0:00 Introduction 7:47 How