The Spartan Krypteia
700–371 BCE
The Krypteia was a secret Spartan military institution in which young Spartan warriors were sent into the countryside alone, without weapons or supplies, with orders to kill any Helot (slave) they encountered — especially the strongest and most capable. It served simultaneously as a survival training exercise, a terror campaign to suppress the Helot population, and a rite of passage. It is the earliest documented state-sponsored covert assassination program in history.