Stealing in the agoge

The most misread element of Spartan upbringing. Xenophon is explicit that boys were underfed on purpose, on the theory that a spare diet produced height, and that they were then permitted to steal in order to close the gap. He is equally explicit that a boy caught stealing was beaten, and he anticipates the obvious objection: why punish what you encourage? His answer is that the beating is for incompetence, exactly as any other taught skill is punished when performed badly.

The intended product was not a thief. Xenophon lists what the practice forces: sleeping little, lying in wait by day, deceiving, placing scouts. He is describing reconnaissance and ambush, taught to children through food.

Plutarch adds the famous story of the boy who hid a stolen fox under his cloak and let it tear open his belly rather than be found out. He offers it as hearsay, then supports it with something he says he witnessed himself: youths dying under the lash at the altar of Artemis Orthia.