The 300

The film the 300 depicts the Spartans as some sort of pro freedom type band of merry maruaders.

Unfortuantely, that difers from Spartan reality.

In Sparta, children were conscripted into military training at the age of 6, that is if the passed the fitness test, if they flunked that, they were left to die. At the age of 6 they were inducted and the training began, they were now property of the State, they fought each other in training drills, and to graduate to manhood, they ahd to sneak out at night and find a peasant to strangel with their barehands, then they lived in barracks until the age of 40 or so, when if married they could spend part of their time with their wives, a Spartan didn't "retire" until 55 or so, and then they were free to live on their own plot of land with their wife.
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I like the Spartans, there theory of "state as armed camp" makes a sort of sense, and we see that in practice in the world today, from North Korea to Cuba, however it should be pointed out that those aren't exactly the freest places in the world....