The warrior children

In the time of the Hegemon's and when diplomacy was decided by the end of a pike there was a city that had such well trained warriors that it was able to spread its influence far and wide, this city was Sparta. Sparta is home to the famed Spartan warrior, known for his ferociousness and discipline in battle. The story of the 300 spartan's, although fiction, has forever solidified the power of the spartan warrior in modern day culture. The reason for the greatness of Sparta's military is the Spartan Agoge system.
Right from birth a spartan boy is taken to the old scarred veterans who judge if the boy is good enough to be a spartan warrior. If any signs of weakness or birth defects are noticed the baby will be taken to a near cliff where he is cast away. When the child reaches the age of seven he is taken from his mother and placed in a communual barracks with other young spartan boys. From this point on the child will go through intense training every day until the age of tweleve. At this point in the boy's training he is cast into the outside world with only a mere rag for clothing. They are forced to live off the land and be exposed to the wild beasts. After one year has passed the boy's are now men. For the next seven years they will participate in live war games against local non spartan's. These games were very dangerous and left dead. Once the spartan was twenty he would then continue to live in the barrack's as a part of the standing army. This went on for ten years, then at this point the warrior would be allowed to marry and take their own home and if choose a public office. I found this article on a site called Suite101 and the article was called Agoge- Spartan Military Training. Link provided http://ancient-military-history.suite101.com/article.cfm/agoge_spartan_military_training