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“Were I to go through all of these practices, I should greatly fatigue both myself and my hearers, but if I mention only a single one—one which they cherish most and by which they set most store—I think that I can put before you their whole manner of life. For every day they send out their boys, from the very cradle, as it were, with such companions as each may prefer, ostensibly to hunt, but in reality to steal1 the property of the people who live in the country.
1 For this feature of their training see Plut. Lyc. 17-18; Xen. Const. Lac. 2.5 ff.; Gilbert, GCA p. 64.