Zeus is scheduled for release fall 2000

As one might guess from the above, not everyone made it through the harsh training procedure. Those who dropped out or fell by the wayside were ridiculed (they were known as the "tremblers"), forced to wear cloaks bearing coloured patches, and had to shave half their beard. They were not allowed to hold public office and had little or no chance of ever getting married. They were also rejected by their own kinsfolk, who they were believed to have dishonoured.

Spartan women weren't left out of this system either. Although they couldn't fight themselves, they were expected to produce plenty of future soldiers. Unlike Greek women elsewhere, female Spartans were educated at the state's expense, were given rations equal to those the men received, and often exercised outside. Before they were married, women wore their hair long, but when they married, it was cut short. Generally speaking, women married at about 18, and men at some point before 30.

This austere lifestyle, coupled with the fact that Spartans never married foreigners, meant that the number of male Spartans declined steadily over the years. In the Archaic period, it has been estimated that there were about 9000 Spartans, this number declining to 8000 by the fifth century BC. Not only were valuable Spartans lost during military campaigns, but natural disasters took their toll - there was a devastating earthquake in Sparta in 464 which took the lives of not only many adult Spartans, but which supposedly killed the majority of, if not all, youths who were currently undergoing military training. Early in the fourth century, quite a few Spartans were lured away to serve as mercenaries elsewhere. When he visited the city in 330BC, Aristotle put the number of Spartans at about 1000. By Roman times, there were very few left indeed.

Next page - the government of Sparta