Euphaes judged that his army was sufficiently trained to oppose the Spartan professional soldiers.

Spartan soldiers hid these messages around their waist, under their belts.

An Athenian doctor received it from a Spartan soldier as payment for his services.

On most days he saw Spartan soldiers walking through the market-places or sitting at the dining areas.

Beyond the walls, Norac could hear the pounding feet of the Spartan soldiers as they ran to form a fighting square.

Twenty paces to his left a Spartan soldier was leaning over the wall, staring but at the mob.

Two years ago he arrested two Spartan soldiers, cracking their skulls for them.

"When, in all of their glorious history, have Spartan soldiers ever failed to obey an order?"

The story is framed by a voice-over narrative by a Spartan soldier.

After two years, at the age of twenty, this training was finished and the now grown men were officially regarded as Spartan soldiers.