Spartans

Sparta was one of several Greek city states in the 1st millennium BC and among the most powerful in that region. It was notable for stratification (With Spartiate upper class, Perioeci artisans and merchants and Helots, agricultural slaves) and of the extreme level of militarization it had among its ruling class. With the exception of the heir apparent, the entire male Spartiate class was subjected to a brutal training regimen from childhood called the Agoge and then required to serve as kill squads against their Helot Farmers and then soldiers in the spartan army before being able to marry and after that would drill constantly. This contrasted with the armies of the other greek city states. These were composed of informal forces civilian militia drawn from the general population who were expected to train and equip themselves.

This system did produce the best Hoplites in Greece (for a time at the least) as they held formation for longer and breaking formation in Hoplite warfare was just another way of saying "lost" as well as being effective against the armies of the Achaemenid Empire, which was to be expected given that civilian hoplite militia did well against Achaemenid armies. That said would ultimately prove to be their downfall. Since they were constantly killing their kids there was never more than about 8,000 of them at one time and the only way to get new ones was by reproduction. The Helots, which outnumbered the Spartiates considerably and did not like being constantly under their heel or having to put up with armed teenage wankers trying to kill them and other such bullshit were constantly rebelling and needed constant attention to be kept in line. They soon pushed themselves to their limit and afterwards their numbers dwindled away and were eventually defeated. The end of their prominence happened famously by Theban general Epaminondas at Battle of Leuctra and finally by the Macedonians and Romans, which could mobilize their various conquered peoples to provide vast numbers of soldiers.

To add insult to injury the Theban army that broke the Spartiates were using a similar training only not as brutal, named the Sacred Band which was 150 gay couples hand pick based solely on skill form their normal hoplite militia.

Legacy in Fiction

Despite the regimen's inefficiency, writers for science fiction have developed a veritable fetish for soldiers produced in this manner. It should be noted, however, that most fictional examples are of an elite force supplementing a greater army of mooks, rather than composing one's entire military force of a small number of elite soldiers that take a long time to train. Which is exactly what Sparta did.

Examples of such training programs include...

• Sardaukar from Dune
• Spess Merhens in Warhammer 40,000
  • Especially the Minotaurs
• The Clans from Battletech
• The child soldier program in Metal Gear universe. Raiden is one of the notable example. Grey Fox is from a different but similar program than Raiden.
  • There are other variations created by the patriots, like the Genome Soldiers. It is a lot similar to the star wars stormtroopers down below (only Boba Fett is replaced by Big Boss for gene cloning). The well known Les Enfants Terribles project utilizing the super baby method. Using both Eva's womb and big boss's gene that gave birth to badasses like Solid snake and Liquid snake.
  • Later on they just said fuck it and started using VR training and nanomachines to program soldiers. Later on in Metal Gear Rising, children of other poor third war country were kidnapped and their brain were put into some sort of simulator where they play Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine in actual experience(with pain and all that). The children's brain were then put into a cyborg body as a "graduation present."
• Spartans (not even trying to be subtle) from Halo. Though it should be noted that the program was impractical and the later Spartan IV program did away with the Spartan way and is much more effective.
• Star Wars Stormtroopers, really. Only the cloned ones, though. The academies that produce officers for the Imperial Army and Imperial Navy also produce Stormtrooper Corps privates (and some, such as Carida, specialize in that).

This does not mean that you won't end up with several hundred extremely capable, elite warriors. You'll get your fighters, most certainly, but you'll also have the corpses of many more who have taken up valuable resources that could have been more normal warriors.

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