THE SCENE: In describing the Suebi, a fearsome German tribe, Julius Caesar evokes the Spartans as he describes a society that is organized around two priorities: communal living and readiness for war.
THE TEXT: The Suebi are by far the largest and most warlike of the German nations. It is said that they have a hundred cantons, each of which provides annually a thousand armed men for service in foreign wars. Those who are left at home have to support the men in the army as well as themselves, and the next year take their turn of service, while the others stay at home. Thus both agriculture, and military instruction and training, continue without interruption. No land, however, is the property of private individuals, and no one is allowed to cultivate the same plot for more than one year. They do not eat much cereal food, but live chiefly on milk and meat, and spend much time in hunting. Their diet, daily exercise, and the freedom from restraint that they enjoy – for from childhood they do not know what compulsion or discipline is, and do nothing against their inclination – combine to make them strong and as tall as giants. They inure themselves, in spite of the very cold climate in which they live, to wear no clothing but skins – and these so scanty that a large part of the body is uncovered – and to bath in the rivers. The absolutely forbid the importation of wine, because they think that it makes men soft and incapable of enduring hard toil.
– The Conquest of Gaul, Julius Caesar, 1st Century BC
