He tried to get elected to one of the dining clubs "or military mess halls." There were generally about fifteen members. In the ballot each member would drop a pellet of bread into a jar, and if a single man squeezed his pellet flat, then the candidate would be rejected. To fail to win the election meant becoming a social outcast. Members of the club ate all their meals together, and each man had to provide a monthly quota of barley, wine, cheese and figs. The diet was plain and included a type of "black" broth or porridge, which was known to be nasty. With military training continuing through adulthood, no one was free to live like they wanted. The city was like a military camp, and they had a set way of life and a routine to public service. They were convinced that they were the sole property of the city-state. If they had no duty assigned to them, they would watch the boys, by teaching either them something useful, or learning from their elders. Oddly, The soldier-centered state of Sparta was the most liberal state in regards to the status of women. While women did not go through military training, they were required ti be educated along similar lines. The Spartans were the only Greeks not only to take the education of its women seriously, and they instituted it into state policy. This was not, however, academic education. This was physical education which was tough. The same with infant girls as with infant boys, they were exposed to infanticide if the elders judged them to be weak. In childhood the girls were exposed to physical and gymnastic training. This education also involved teaching women that their lives should be dedicated to the state. In most Greek city-states, women were required to stay indoors at all times, however, the upper class was the only class that could afford to observe this custom. Spartan women, however, were free to move about, and had an unusual amount of domestic freedom due to the fac...
