Penguin Classics: Plutarch on Sparta

'Plutarch on Sparta' Translated with an introduction and notes by Richard J.A. Talbert.

The Spartan's proverbial beliefs - in discipline, in subjugating serfs by terror and violence, in devotion to the creation of an invincible warrior class - are nowhere more fully and vividly portrayed. From Plutarch we learn that Sparta's women were steeled to subordinate themselves totally to the interests of the state; that homosexual love was institutionalized; that from the age of seven boys were made to sleep on thistledown beds in boarding schools; that unhealthy babies were thrown into a deep chasm. Included are collection of Spartan sayings and the biographies of three Spartans from Plutarch's famous 'Lives".