Before I went to school my mom taught me all the things she could, but ever since I turned seven I went to school to learn and be as strong as I could be. I was the best in my class and advanced really quickly but when I got older I got into even harder training. They taught me to be the best and strongest man I could be, I was taught to fight and grow stronger every day. I went to military school my whole life basically, so I am really tough and I don’t think anybody from another city could beat me in a fight. Being in the military school in Sparta isn’t all that fun though I had to learn how to do things without complaining, I had to stand on hot coals for what felt like forever and I couldn’t complain at all, I basically couldn’t even say anything. I also had to be whipped without complaining, it was so painful and so hard to not complain or scream. It was almost not fair but once I got through all that I was allowed to take a test to see if I could be in the military. The test was really hard, it was long and painful. Finally after I finished it though I got accepted into the military, but I found out that my best friend, who was in my class, didn’t make it and he said he had to take the whole test over again after he got more training. The trainers didn’t think that he was learning well so they trained him more and made him take the test again. I didn’t really feel that bad because he was a jerk and they taught me not to feel that bad for others.
Now that I’m older I could be a part of the government but I’m really not that interested in the government, I’m more into fighting and stuff like that. Only a few people could be in the Council of Elders where they discuss and vote. The people didn’t really have a have a say, they could say yes or no if they did or didn’t want that law but the power was in the Council of Elders so they could say yes if we said no or no if we said yes. The weird thing is that they get elected by who yells the loudest for who they want to be in the Council of Elders and once they got in, their term wasn’t for four or eight years or something like that, they served for life. The only way they could get out of the council is if they died.
When we want something we don’t trade like Athens, no, we steal what we want from other city-states and from people around us. I steal just because its fun and my teachers encouraged it if I didn’t get caught, I never did so I keep stealing. The teachers encourage stealing mostly because we don’t really want to farm for ourselves although we do farm a little bit. We don’t really have farm land because its super rocky here so we don’t farm that much because we are surrounded by mountains so we can’t farm because the soil isn’t really even soil its more like rock. We do have these people that aren’t citizens called Perioikoi. They are willing to trade for us because we help them live basically, they do a little trading for us so we benefit from them in a good way.
People say we are cruel here in Sparta but I disagree, we give women rights unlike Athens. The women here are treated like men, they can almost do what they want, they are so much luckier than other women in different places. They can go out without a male in the family and shop and stuff even though we don’t shop and buy that much. Women and slaves are treated a lot better than anywhere else, slaves don’t have to work as hard. The slaves do have to give a little of their crops but at least not all of it. Sure they have to help around the house and stuff but they are treated so much better than the other slaves in other city-states. In other words they were treated fairly nicely.
It is well written