Editing Civics (section)

==== Archidamus ====
In the ''[[History of the Peloponnesian War]]'', [[Thucydides]] quotes a speech by [[Archidamus II]] wherein he stressed the importance for [[Sparta]] of civic education for the Spartan virtues of toughness, obedience, cunning, simplicity, and preparedness:{{blockquote|And we are wise, because we are educated with too little learning to despise the laws, and with too severe a self-control to disobey them, and are brought up not to be too knowing in useless matters—such as the knowledge which can give a specious criticism of an enemy's plans in theory, but fails to assail them with equal success in practice—but are taught to consider that the schemes of our enemies are not dissimilar to our own, and that the freaks of chance are not determinable by calculation. In practice we always base our preparations against an enemy on the assumption that his plans are good; indeed, it is right to rest our hopes not on a belief in his blunders, but on the soundness of our provisions. Nor ought we to believe that there is much difference between man and man, but to think that the superiority lies with him who is reared in the severest school.<ref>[[Thucydides]]. [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/7142/7142-h/7142-h.htm#link2HCH0003 ''The History of the Peloponnesian War'', Book I, Chapter III]. Translated by [[Richard Crawley]]. [[Project Gutenberg]].</ref>}}
French essayist [[Michel de Montaigne]] commended how [[Agesilaus II]], the son of Archidamus, followed his father's approach closely:{{blockquote|One asking to this purpose, Agesilaus, what he thought most proper for boys to learn? "What they ought to do when they come to be men," said he.<ref>[[Michel de Montaigne]]. [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3600/3600-h/3600-h.htm#link2HCH0024, Book I, Chapter 24]. One asking to this purpose, Agesilaus, what he thought most proper for boys to learn? "What they ought to do when they come to be men," said he.—[Plutarch, Apothegms of the Lacedamonians. Rousseau adopts the expression in his Diswuys sur tes Lettres.]—It is no wonder, if such an institution produced so admirable effects. Translated by [[Charles Cotton]]. [[Project Gutenberg]].</ref>}}