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 SOCIAL REGULATIONS AT SPARTA. 385 HjjKi kinic, cut open at the skirts, so as to leave the limbs both free *nd exposed to view, hence Plutarch speaks of them as completely uncovered, while other critics, in different quarters of Greece, heaped similar reproach upon the practice, as if it had been perfect nakedness. 1 The presence of the Spartan youths, and even of the kings and the body of citizens, at these exercises, lent animation to the scene. In like manner, the young wo- men marched in the religious processions, sung and danced at particular festivals, and witnessed as spectators the exercises and contentions of the youths ; so that the two sexes were perpetually intermingled with each other in public, in a way foreign to the habits, as well as repugnant to the feelings, of other Grecian states. "We may well conceive that such an education imparted to the women both a demonstrative character and an eager inter- est in masculine accomplishments, so that the expression of their praise was the strongest stimulus, and that of their reproach the bitterest humiliation, to the youthful troop who heard it. The age of marriage (which in some of the unrestricted cities of Greece was so early as to deteriorate visibly the breed of citizens) 2 was deferred by the Spartan law, both in women and men, until the period supposed to be most consistent with the perfection of the offspring. And when we read the restriction which Spartan custom imposed upon the intercourse even between married persons, we shall conclude without hesitation that the public intermixture of the sexes, in the way just de- scribed, led to no such liberties, between persons not married, as might be likely to arise from it under other circumstances. 3 j p 1 Eurip. Androm. 598; Cicero, Tuscul. Qnoest. ii. 15. The epithet Qaivo- /trjpidef, as old as the poet Ibykus, shows that the Spartan women were not uncovered (see Julius Pollux, vii. 55). It is scarcely worth while to notice the poetical allusions of Ovid and Propertius. How completely the practice of gymnastic and military training for young women, analogous to that of the other sex, was approved by Plato, may be seen from the injunctions in his Eepublic. 2 Aristot. Polit. vii. 14, 4. 3 " It is certain (observes Dr. Thirlwall, speaking of the Spartan unmarried women) that in this respect the Spartan morals were as pure as those of any ancient, perhaps of any modern, people." (History of Greece, ch. viii. rcl i. p. 371.) VOL. II. 17 270C.