Greek Training

[Matthew Amt]

Books, my friends, you need books! I think the Ospreys cover training pretty well, and they are easy to get. Connolly is good, too.<br>
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From what I recall offhand, training in most city-states was pretty cursory. How to hold the weapons (though they believed such actions were instinctive in man), basic marching in formation, that sort of thing. Probably regular drill sessions but not very frequent or intense.<br>
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Except for the Spartans!<br>
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Athens organized the men in age groups. New recruits were called ephebes, I believe. They and the oldest men were more likely to get stuck with garrison duty in wartime, leaving the prime experienced men to fight in the field.<br>
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As has been pointed out, sports and other activities were part of Greek education back then--a whole culture of phys-ed majors! And they considered war to be normal, while peace was an abberration. BUT they didn't follow that up with professional-level training for their troops.<br>
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Except for the Spartans!<br>
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Khairete,<br>
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Matthew <p></p><i></i>