Dancing very naturally constituted a separate branch of education at Sparta as in Crete. In both places the execution of the Pyrrhic appears to have been regarded as a necessary accomplishment, the youths, from the age of fifteen or earlier, having been taught to perform it in arms.[921] It was or is—for the Pyrrhic still lingers in Greece, “Ye have the Pyrrhic dance as yet—” an exhibition purely military. The dancers, accoutred with spear and shield, went gracefully and vigorously through a number of movements, wheeling, advancing, giving blows or shunning them, as in real action.[922] In other parts of Greece, however, the Pyrrhic quickly degenerated in character, becoming little better than a wild dance of Bacchanals.[923] It has been rightly observed that at Sparta “the chief object of the Gymnopædia was to represent gymnastic exercises and dancing in intimate union, and, indeed, the latter only as the accomplishment and end of the former.”[924] One of the dances, resembling the Anapale, partook of a Bacchanalian character.”[925] The youth, also, when skilled in these exercises, danced in rows behind each other to the music of flutes, both military and choral dances, at the same time, repeating an invitation in verse to Aphrodite and Eros to join them, and an exhortation to each other.[926] Footnote 921: Athen. xiv. 29.—The armed dance was in particular favour with Plato.—De Legg. vii. t. viii. p. 17. Boys danced in armour during the Panathenaia at Athens.—Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 935. Footnote 922: Plat. de Legg. vii. t. viii. p. 54. Footnote 923: Athen. xiv. 29. Footnote 924: Müll. Dor. ii. 351. Footnote 925: Creuz. Com. Herod. i. 230. Footnote 926: Lucian de Saltat. § 10. seq.