Editing Crypteia (section)

== Overview ==
Much of the debate surrounding the Crypteia comes from the differing accounts provided by the few surviving Classical texts that mention the Crypteia, and the fact that [[Xenophon]]'s [[Constitution of the Lacedaemonians]] makes no mention of it.

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[[Plutarch]] and [[Heraclides Lembus]] (both of whom may be using a lost work by Aristotle as a source),{{cn|date=June 2024}} and some scholars, (such as [[Henri-Alexandre Wallon]] (1812–1904)), saw the Crypteia as a kind of [[secret police]] – a state security force organised by the [[Spartiate |ruling class]] of [[Sparta]] to patrol the Laconian countryside and terrorise the [[helots]], by carrying out secret killings.<ref name=Wallon1850>{{Cite book|last= Wallon |first= Henri|title= Explication d'un passage de Plutarque sur une loi de Lycurgue nommée la Cryptie (fragment d'une Histoire des Institutions politiques de la Grèce)|publisher= Dupont |year= 1850|location=Paris | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=xqI-AAAAcAAJ | quote = Grote [...] se refusant, comme Müller et Thirlwall, à voir dans cette institution un massacre périodique et officiel, le reduit de même à n'être tout au plus qu'un système d'espionnage étendu pas les éphores sur les bourgs des périèques comme sur les villages des hilotes : système marqué parfois par des assassinats qui demeuraient inconnus. ["Grote refuses, like Müller et Thirlwall, to see a periodic and official massacre in this institution, and even reduces it to a spy system deployed by the [[ephor]]s against the towns of the [[perioikoi]] and the villages of the helots alike : a system occasionally remarkable for assassinations which remain secret]}}</ref> Others, including [[Hermann Köchly]] (1815–1876) and [[Wilhelm Wachsmuth]] (1784–1866), saw it as a form of military training similar to the Athenian ''[[ephebia]].''<ref name="Köchly1835">{{Cite book|last= Köchly |first= Hermann|title= Commentatio de Lacedaemoniorum cryptia |year= 1835 |location= Leipzig}}</ref><ref name=Wachsmuth1844-1846>{{Cite book|last= Wachsmuth|first= Wilhelm|title= Hellenische Altertumskunde aus dem Geschichtpunkt des Staates (Teil 1 & 2)|year= 1844–46}}
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The ranks of the Crypteia comprised young upper-class Spartan men, probably between the ages of 21 and 30,<ref name="Massimo2018"/> possibly selected as "those judged to have the most intelligence."<ref name="Massimo2018"/>{{qn|date=March 2024}} The men were known as ''hêbôntes'', one of the many social categories that preceded full [[Spartiate]] citizenship, and had completed their rearing at the [[agoge]] with such success that Spartan officials marked them out as potential future [[leader]]s.<ref name="Richer2018_p530">{{Cite book|last= Richer|first= Nicolas|title= A Companion to Sparta|publisher= Wiley-Blackwell|year= 2018|editor-last= Powell|editor-first= Anton|page= 530}}</ref>

According to Plato, the ''kryptai'' did not use footwear during the winter and slept without shelter. Plato describes them as being unsupervised and as depending on themselves alone for survival. Plato's description might seem to imply that the ''kryptai'' were forced to be independent, but some scholars think that they may have had attendants at certain times to watch over them.<ref name="Kennel2010_p268"/>{{qn|date=March 2024}}

The duration of service in the Crypteia is also largely unknown, but it has been suggested that one year of service may have been all that was required of the men,<ref name=Figuera_2018_p569>{{Cite book |last= Figueira|first= Thomas|title= A Companion to Sparta|publisher= Wiley-Blackwell|year= 2018 |editor-last= Powell|editor-first= Anton|pages= 569}}</ref>{{qn|date=March 2024}}<ref name=Ducat2006_p297>{{Cite book|last= Ducat |first= Jean|title= Spartan Education: Youth and Society in the Classical Period |publisher= The Classical Press of Wales|year= 2006|page= 297}}</ref> based on a [[scholion]] of Plato's ''Laws'' (see below).