The History of Sparta

Sparta was not a particularly good society. I think directionally, my list of reasons is correct for the same reasons that yours would be. Very corporal, often quite brutal punishments were very normal in part because most pre-modern societies don't have the capacity to incarcerate people. That said, you really get a sense of human cruelty as an innate part of human nature when some of the almost morbidly exotic punishments tied up with an assortment of animals and thrown into a river.