Sparta
Sparta was not exactly Athens' "best friend." Sparta was a city in
southern Greece. Sparta's soldiers were mainly noticed because they
were so tough. When Spartan boys went off to war, their mothers said,
"Come back with your shield, or on it." That meant either win or come
back dead. If a newlybirthed baby wasn't "satisfactory", (if there
were too many girls in the family) then the family would take it to a desolate
field and leave it there to painfully starve to death or get eaten by wild,
mangy, rabid animals. Apparently they were serious about war. The
Spartan soldiers were so tough that there was a story of a boy who hid a
fox underneath his clothes and did not let anyone know that it was there,
even though it chewed his guts out.