Instituta Laconia

Moreover, the young men were required not only to respect their own fathers and to be obedient to them, but to have regard for all the older men, to make room for them on the streets, to give up their seats to them, and to keep quiet in their presence. As the result of this custom each man had authority, not as in other states over his own children, slaves, and property, but also over his neighbour’s in like manner as over his own, to the end that the people should, as much as possible, have all things in common, and should take thought for them as for their own.[*](Cf. the note on Moralia, 232 b (3), supra.)

When a boy was punished by anybody, if he told his father, it was a disgrace for his father, upon hearing this, not to give him another beating; for they had confidence one in another, as the result of their ancestral discipline, that no one had ordered their children to do anything disgraceful.[*](Cf. Xenophon, Constitution of Sparta, 6. 2.)

The boys steal whatever they can of their food, learning to make their raids adroitly upon people who are asleep or are careless in watching. The penalty for getting caught is a beating and no food.