Full moon night, 470 B.C.
The two comrades, Brithos and Kleidos, met in secret. Even a sigh could reach the Ephors, so they had to be cautious.
They were not naive boys, but two hoplites of proven courage who had fought side by side at Plataea and during Pausanias’s campaign in Byzantium.
But perhaps we should take a step back and explain what Sparta was, and what life was like in a Greek polis.
The streets of the capital of Laconia were narrow and winding. The buildings had asymmetrical walls, with a single opening in the roof to let the smoke of the braziers escape. Everything in the environment reflected the mindset of its institutions and people.
Lacedaemonian society was divided into three classes: the Spartiates, the ruling class whose entire lives were devoted to war and its preparation. Their training was almost an initiatory path, called the agoge. They went to war and died in great numbers to affirm Sparta’s hegemony. Land ownership was indivisible and was worked by the Helots on behalf of the Spartiates.
The Helots were slaves with no rights, though occasionally one could be elevated to the status of Perioikos, an intermediate class that included merchants, sailors, and craftsmen and enjoyed a few more rights.
The Helots, as one might expect, often attempted rebellions, which always ended the same way — in blood. I think it is fair to call Spartan society, at least in its archaic form, the first communist society in history.
Money was banned, and trade was conducted through barter. At the top of the polis stood two kings chosen from among the Spartiates (warriors over thirty years old), one with administrative duties and the other with military command.
But real power was in the hands of five Ephors, high magistrates who oversaw every aspect of society — including the kings. Even the faintest suspicion, with or without evidence, could lead to a terrible end.
The sons of the Spartiates — at least those who survived “natural selection” — lived with their families until the age of seven. From that point on, the agoge began, ending at twenty with an initiation rite that involved being whipped in the agora until exhaustion. The victor was the one who remained standing after the ordeal.
To understand the depth of their conditioning, one must recall that Spartan mothers and wives handed their men the hoplon, the great shield, when they departed for war, saying: “Come back with this (victorious) or on this (dead).” There was no third option.
All officers, already from a young age, became members of the Krypteia, a kind of secret service, and were trained to commit every sort of atrocity — including the killing of Helots — and were punished only if they were caught.
It was, in short, a unique society that placed the rights of the State above those of its citizens.
Women were no exception. Unique in the Greek world, they enjoyed an autonomy unthinkable in other poleis. They were subjected to intense physical training, and their education included horseback riding, literature, and mathematics.
Through all this, they absorbed the principles they would pass on to their sons — who, in turn, became new warriors.
Thucydides and Herodotus before him, and Plutarch later, recount the epic deeds of the Spartan phalanx — a unit capable of moving in perfect unison at a mere gesture from its commander. Its coordination was astonishing, and its mere appearance on the battlefield, accompanied by the rhythmic sound of flutes, terrified its enemies.
It was a perfect war machine. After all, Spartiates trained for war until the age of sixty, and defeat was not an option.
Let us return now to our two warriors. Brithos and Kleidos had also been lovers — but this was nothing unusual in the ancient world. They had protected each other through many battles, and now Brithos was the secret lover of Gorgo, Queen of Sparta, daughter of King Cleomenes I and widow of King Leonidas, of the Agiad dynasty and hero of Thermopylae…
Excerpt from “War Flutes” (2025) by Nino Salzone, a.k.a. Cenides.
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