> Would we accuse the ancient Spartans of “government overreach” if they mandated that each warrior, facing the enemy, hold his shield before him and not abandon it and run away?
The Spartan state was already so brutal that this extra requirement - to hold a shield and not run away - wouldn't be the straw the broke that camel's back and finally classifies the government as overreaching.
Remember, in Sparta the helots were owned by the state[1], and spartiate children were raised in the government agoge child-soldier training system, where a common rite of passage, the krypteia, was to go out into the countryside and kill any helots who were too, to use the modern derogatory term, "uppity."[2]
1 comment
[ 4.6 ms ] story [ 15.0 ms ] threadThe Spartan state was already so brutal that this extra requirement - to hold a shield and not run away - wouldn't be the straw the broke that camel's back and finally classifies the government as overreaching.
Remember, in Sparta the helots were owned by the state[1], and spartiate children were raised in the government agoge child-soldier training system, where a common rite of passage, the krypteia, was to go out into the countryside and kill any helots who were too, to use the modern derogatory term, "uppity."[2]
[1] https://acoup.blog/2019/08/23/collections-this-isnt-sparta-p...
[2] https://acoup.blog/2019/08/16/collections-this-isnt-sparta-p...