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 bare-chested 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 battle-trained, 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 self-sufficient, loyal, and battle-ready warriors. It wasn’t really education, and it wasn’t really military training. That’s because this wasn’t school; this wasn’t 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