Cicero, Tusculanae disputationes 2.36: physical education for Spartan women
Title
Cicero, Tusculanae disputationes 2.36: physical education for Spartan women
Date
106-43 BCE
Type
Philosophy
Source Type
Discourse
Translation
Accordingly those who gave to Greece the specific form of her governments were in favour of having young men's bodies strengthened by toil; the citizens of Sparta applied the same rule to women, who in all other cities lead a luxorious mode of life and are "sequestered behind the shadow of walls". The Spartans however wished for nothing of that sort
in Spartan maids
Whose cares are wrestling, sun, Eurotas, dust and toil
Of drill far more than barbarous fecundy
It follows that the pain sometimes intervenes in these toilsome exercises: the victims are driven on, struck, flung aside or fall, and toil of itself brings a certain callousness to pain.
in Spartan maids
Whose cares are wrestling, sun, Eurotas, dust and toil
Of drill far more than barbarous fecundy
It follows that the pain sometimes intervenes in these toilsome exercises: the victims are driven on, struck, flung aside or fall, and toil of itself brings a certain callousness to pain.
Translation used
John E. King, Tusculan Disputations (= Loeb Classical Library; 141), Cambridge, MA 1927.
Text
itaque illi, qui Graeciae formamrerum publicarum dederunt, corpora iuvenum firmari labore voluerunt; quod Spartiatae etiam in feminas transtulerunt, quae ceteris in urbibus mollissimo cultu parietum umbris occuluntur. illi autem voluerunt nihil horumsimile esse
apud Lacaenas vírgines,
Quibus magis palaestra Eurota sol pulvís labor
Milítia in studio est quám fertilitas bárbara.
ergo his laboriosis exercitationibus et dolor intercurrit non numquam, inpelluntur feriuntur abiciuntur cadunt, et ipselabor quasi callum quoddam obducit dolori
apud Lacaenas vírgines,
Quibus magis palaestra Eurota sol pulvís labor
Milítia in studio est quám fertilitas bárbara.
ergo his laboriosis exercitationibus et dolor intercurrit non numquam, inpelluntur feriuntur abiciuntur cadunt, et ipselabor quasi callum quoddam obducit dolori
Edition used
Max Pohlenz (ed.), M. Tulli Ciceronis Tusculanae Disputationes, Leipzig 1918.
Collection
Citation
Cicero, “Cicero, Tusculanae disputationes 2.36: physical education for Spartan women,” Cynisca: Documenting Women and Girls in Ancient Greek Sports, accessed December 22, 2024, https://fdz.bib.uni-mannheim.de/cynisca/items/show/12.