6. Misreported Fact: The Extent of Spartan Infanticide
The notion of Spartan eugenics was popularized by Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus, in which the government decided whether newborns were fit to raise or not. The state wanted to produce strong warriors to maintain Sparta’s military dominance, so it involved itself in the selection of parents for their physical and mental traits. The authorities decided which newborns to keep. They also participated in the upbringing of children, who were raised in brutally tough boarding schools to ensure their development in accordance with Spartan ideals. Thousands of years later, a eugenics movement arose, and had its heyday in the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries. Modern eugenicists looked back at history, and filled with admiration for Spartan manliness and hardihood, figured that the ancient Spartans were on to something. However, what if Spartan infanticide as a matter of state policy is based on misreported facts?
A single passage from the Life of Lycurgus is the sole evidence for widespread Spartan infanticide. Plutarch wrote hundreds of years after Lycurgus had died. He was also more concerned with biographical details about his subject’s life, than with details about Sparta as a whole. Additionally, there are many examples of ancient Greeks who were reared despite birth deformities. Their numbers even include a Spartan king, Agesilaus II (444 – 360 BC), who was born lame. Despite that deformity, he was not exposed, and instead grew up to become a formidable warrior. Of course, the absence of (additional) evidence of Spartan infanticide is not evidence of absence. It could well be that Sparta did practice eugenics as described by Plutarch, but that there were some exceptions to the rule. The debate continues.
