Spartan Warrior holds up the shield

The Spartan hoplite raising his shield is the iconic image of the disciplined warrior class that shaped Greek warfare. From the age of seven, Spartan boys entered the agōgē — a brutal training system that produced soldiers of legendary endurance. The phalanx of locked shields, advancing as a single body, was the technology that beat back Persia, dominated mainland Greece for two centuries, and gave the West its earliest model of citizen-soldiery.