Dining together was a form of social organization in ancient Greece, especially in Crete and Sparta. Among them, the catering system in Sparta is relatively mature, which is a practical form of military catering. The catering system in Sparta has played an extremely important role in history. Spartan catering began in the 8th century BC. Before that, Spartans, like other Greeks, ate together at home. Lycurgus believes that this is an important cause of misconduct, and the dining system based on public places can minimize the contempt for order, which is the direct reason for the establishment of the dining system. First, it is not a simple matter for Spartans to attend a dinner party. Spartans call a meal "Phidia", and attending a meal is not a simple matter. In fact, the training of a real Spartan began from birth. After the baby is born, the male elders in the family get together to decide the baby's life and death. After the seventh birthday, the boys in Sparta had to leave home and begin to receive compulsory and collective systematic training, which was called "qualified people" and Paul Catrici called it "improvement training". The place to eat is called a public tent. Usually fifteen people form a unit, and there will be something more or less. "Qualified" training lasted until 18 years old, and Spartan men who successfully completed the training task were eligible to participate in the selection of some political and military positions. Young Spartan men around the age of 20 are eligible to accept the selection of public canteens, and usually hold ceremonies to select them. The selection process is full of competition. Plutarch described the selection ceremony in Biography of Lycurgus: "Everyone who dined together in the canteen held a small piece of soft dough. When the servants came with bowls, they put the dough into the bowls without saying a word, just like voting. If you agree to accept the applicant, put the dough as it is. If you don't agree, hold the dough in your hand beforehand. Because the flattened dough has a veto effect. If there is such a flat piece of dough in the bowl, even if the applicant's request to join the canteen is not approved, because they hope that all diners have the same interests and likes and dislikes. " Catering organizations will not accept new members at will, and must obtain the consent of every existing member of the group. This reflects the Spartans' recognition of sharing meals. If you can't "share the same interests, likes and dislikes", then you can't accept the applicant to join the dining group. Some public canteens are obviously more exclusive and desirable than others, among which the Wangs canteen is the best. If a person fails in the selection of all public canteens, it is equivalent to being excluded from the whole Spartan society and he may not be able to join the army. In order to truly become a member of the public canteen, we must not only get tickets for the public canteen, but also pay a fixed quota to the public canteen regularly. People in the same public canteen have to pay the cost of Midenos barley, eight cocoa wines, five meters of dry cheese and two and a half meters of figs once a month, and they have to pay a little money to buy delicious food such as fish and meat. In addition, anyone who sacrifices with the fruit of the first harvest, or brings game home, will be given a kettle to eat. Second, the public canteen implements a strict attendance system. In fact, the citizenship of a Spartan also depends on his ability to maintain the membership of this dining member. Once he is allowed to enter the public canteen, he must pay regularly according to the prescribed quota. Public canteens implement a strict attendance system, and there are only two situations in which the law allows people not to eat in public canteens: one is to hold necessary sacrificial activities; The second is hunting. Sparta hunted animals like Athens, such as deer and wild boar. However, their views on hunting and the way they treat their prey are completely different. Unlike Athens, Spartans did not regard hunting as a leisure or sport, and they did not give prey as a gift to their lovers. They think hunting is a very serious activity, and the harvested food is usually provided to public canteens. Even the king will be punished if he violates the attendance regulations. King agis made an expedition to Athens and returned home in triumph. He wanted to share dinner with his wife at home, so he sent someone to get his share. The military consul refused his request. The next day, in a rage, agis forgot to sacrifice as usual, so they fined him a sum of money. Lycurgus believes that when people of the same age eat together, it is easy to lose vigilance and cause confusion. Therefore, he arranged people of different ages in the same public canteen, and the experience of the old people will inspire the young people more or less. According to Xenophon's On Spartan Regime, Xenophon thinks that Spartans seldom show insolence at dinner, seldom get drunk, and seldom make shameful words and deeds. Having a meal away from home also has the following advantages: they need to stay awake enough to go home safely, because they know that they can't stay in the place where they eat, and they must walk in the dark as in the daytime, and they can't bring torches, which is more suitable for military activities. In Plutarch's "On Morality", it is also recorded that Spartans walked at night: after moderate drinking at public dinners, Spartans chose to go home in the dark instead of lighting torches. In fact, they are not allowed to walk with bright objects at night, whether they take the usual route or the new route. In this way, they are used to walking confidently and fearlessly in the dark. Spartans ate a big meal during the day and night. In order to make the Spartans form the habit of secret operations at night, they insisted on walking in the dark after supper, which made the Spartan army more adaptable to complex combat situations. Third, Sparta economically ensured the smooth development of the separate dining system. In order to ensure the smooth economic development of the meal sharing system, Sparta divided the land into two parts, one is public and the other is private. Each part must be divided into two parts. Part of the public sacrifice is used to bear the cost of offering sacrifices to gods, and the other part is used to bear the cost of sharing meals. Part of the private sector is close to the border and the other part is close to the polis. This is done in order to let everyone get two plots of land, and legislation stipulates that all citizens must own land in two places. This not only satisfies the principle of equality and justice, but also helps the poor to meet their daily household expenses without being stretched, and also helps citizens to be more United in the sudden border war. Where this practice is not practiced, some people are indifferent to the enemy situation at the border. In order to ensure the safety of the city-state, the city-state set up many strongholds and watchtowers, and allocated catering groups according to the armed strongholds. Let the person in charge of the sacrifice and the chief eat in a specific place, far and near, which can fully show the advantages of its terrain and the strength of its neighbors. Then the priests and administrative officials of the polis should be arranged in a row, and the dining place of the priests should be arranged around the place where they presided over the sacrifice affairs. Officials in charge of various contracts, written lawsuits, subpoenas and other such matters, as well as market legal supervisors and so-called city legal supervisors, should eat near squares or places where people gather. 4. How did Sparta's dining system affect its society? In the Republic, Plato expressed his approval of the system of sharing meals through Socrates' mouth: "If they want to be excellent guardians as we hope, is this way of life feasible?" First, they can't have any private property except absolute necessities. Second, no one should own a house or warehouse that does not belong to everyone. As for their food, it is provided by other citizens. As a reward for being able to fight wisely and bravely, a fixed amount is given every year according to their needs to avoid redundancy or shortage. They must eat and live together, just like soldiers on the battlefield. The recognition of dining together can be seen not only in the Republic, but also in the later Trade Union Law, which was written decades outside the Republic. He regarded the dining system as a basic part of the political system of Sparta and Crete, especially in Sparta, where the dining system was an indispensable part of its military organization. Plato mentioned many times that "legislators focus on war and stipulate that eating together and physical exercise are conducive to the formation of virtue." First of all, the influence of Spartan dining on the city-state military should not be underestimated. In order to get tickets for public canteens, every Spartan man has received strict and even cruel military training since childhood, and even the greatest pain should be kept silent and endured. The original intention of establishing common meals in Lycurgus is to minimize the confusion caused by small group private meals. The atmosphere of mutual supervision created by eating together is conducive to creating strict military discipline. This is inseparable from the powerful military power of Sparta in the future. Secondly, the influence of Spartan dining on city-state education and moral shaping is indispensable. Spartans believe that when a boy reaches the age of 12, he has to accept another young adult soldier as his lover-in Spartan's own words, these older soldiers are called "motivators" and young boys are called "listeners". There may be sex in their relationship, but sex can never be the only purpose, or even the main purpose of establishing this relationship. There is also a relationship between education and education between adult men and boys. In fact, this can be traced back to the unique customs of Sparta. At that time, in order to make people love each other, Lycurgus stipulated that every father not only had the right to discipline his own children, but also had the right to discipline others' children. If a boy tells his father that he was flogged by someone else's father, then the boy's biological father will flog the boy again, because they trust someone else's father not to give improper discipline. It is this atmosphere of mutual trust that makes the relationship between education and being educated between adult soldiers and boys who are not related by blood. It is precisely because of this discipline that every boy can grow up healthily and finally qualify to join the public canteen. After joining the public canteen, this educational task can still continue. As mentioned earlier, people of different ages are arranged in the same public canteen in Lycurgus, and Lycurgus thinks that the experience of the elderly will be useful for the teenagers. In public canteens, people can express their views on city-state affairs relatively freely. No matter who walks into the canteen, the oldest person in the group will point to the gate and say to him, "Everything said here is not allowed to leave this door." Under the condition that the political discussion is completely internal, members of the rice ball can express their opinions more freely and will not have reservations because they think too much about the consequences. V. Supplement of Spartan Citizens' Participation in City-State Politics In Sparta, adult citizens often lead a strictly militarized life and cannot freely participate in city-state politics like Athenian citizens. In this sense, eating together has played a certain substitute role. It is very beneficial to learn the political affairs of the polis to allow boys to appear at the scene where the members of the dining group discuss. In the public canteens in Sparta, every adult male is always accompanied by a boy. When a man finishes his wine, the boy will refill his glass. When young men get together to discuss the great events of the polis or the heroic deeds of their ancestors, boys are instilled with this knowledge. Boys can even ask questions and always get answers. In this way, teenagers are exposed to the political affairs and historical traditions of the city-state, get a more comprehensive education, and prepare for becoming real citizens. The educational function of Spartan dining not only affects individuals, but also has a far-reaching impact on the city-state society. ? On the one hand, the educational function of the city-state undertaken by dining together is the educational substitution model before the school appeared, replacing the educational role undertaken by the school; On the other hand, even after the school came into being, it was a supplementary form of city-state education. In any case, the educational function of dining together has deeply influenced the city-state society. As a typical representative of military catering, Spartan catering production has an irreplaceable influence on the military and education of the city-state. References: Xenophon's Drinking, A Study of Drinking in Ancient Greece, and Ji's Eating Style and Etiquette in Ancient Greece.