Ok, I don't know if any of this has been said before (or if anyone cares), but I did a term on the Spartans last year in school.
Basically the Spartans are the freaks of the Roman Empire, they were easily the best warriors of their time. The Spartan children were brought up in a normal way during their time up until the age of 9, when they were put in training camps. They lived in camps and trained until they were about 20 (not really sure on that), and then tried to join the army. There were essentially clans in the army and you were forced to join one of these if you wanted to be in the army. The problem was that you had to be voted into a clan, so if they didn't vote you in, tough luck. Once you retired form the army you were given a wife and told to have however many children they wanted you to have, and basically worked on a farm until you died.
There are some other interesting facts about the Spartans though:
* The Spartans didn't socialise well with people that were not Spartans, and were basically considered the outcasts of the Empire.
* Many historians believed that as a general rule the Spartans were homosexuals. They think this because every boy was surrounded only by men from the age of 9, until they retired. Also the women were made to look like men, they had to have very short hair, they were allowed to wear no make-up, etc.
* The Spartan's city-state (Sparta) was inland, and deep inside the Roman Empire, so basically there was very little chance of being attacked, but no one was willing to attack the place where all those freaks came from, so there was almost no chance of them being attacked. But still, the fanatical Spartans had their city arranged in roughly a circular shape, with the merchants on the outside, then the slaves, then the weapon makers, then in the middle themselve. This was so that if anyone attacked, they would have to wade through the masses of peasants before they actually got to the Spartans.
So, there you go. I don't know why Bungie chose to name their suits SPARTAN, but it fits the profile of a mass murdering marine (master chief, whatever).
