Besides “Justice,” the children were taught the properties of plants, in order that they might avoid those that were harmful and use those which were good.[719] This seems a curious anticipation of “Nature-study,” with a strictly utilitarian object, and Xenophon deserves credit for an original suggestion.
The boys are assisted in the formation of good habits by the sight of their elders in the adjacent quarter of the Free Agora, setting them an example in temperance and obedience and self-restraint. They also learn not to be greedy, by taking their meals, when ordered, in the school, under supervision, off the very simple fare of bread, water, and a sort of seed resembling the modern mustard, which is all that they are allowed to bring with them from home for the purpose. What is more, this probably constituted the only meal which the children had on such days. It must have been a pretty stiff lesson in abstinence! How they would have hated a master who ordered it too often! For games and exercise they had shooting with the bow and hurling the javelin――that is, military training.
The other three ages are also organised each under twelve masters in its own quarter of the Agora of Education. The epheboi, who in Utopia include all from sixteen to twenty-six, even sleep there, acting as a standing army and a police force to guard the palace and the State buildings. Xenophon thinks it well that the men of this age, who need more attention, in his opinion, than even the boys, should be always under the eye of the authorities. They are organised into twelve companies, one from each of the Persian tribes. Their time is largely occupied in police-work, such as catching brigands, and in hunting. Xenophon attaches great importance to hunting of all sorts, as being the best training for war.[720] For it involves exposure to heat and cold and other hardships, training in marching and running, and skill with bow and javelin;[721] it also requires courage, to meet the sudden charge of a panther; and long and patient strategy, to catch birds and hares.[722] So, several times a month, the king goes out hunting and takes six companies of the epheboi with him, armed with bows and arrows, a dagger, a light shield, and two spears――one for throwing and one for stabbing. When not engaged in hunting or in police-work, the epheboi revise what they learned as boys, and practise shooting, competing with one another; there are also public contests, with prizes. Prizes are also given to the officer in charge of the company which shows itself the most intelligent, courageous, and trustworthy; the master who taught this company in its school-days is also commended.