Paidiskoi

Training in speech continues even in the transitional period when one becomes known as a paidiskoi (bigger boy) around the age of twelve. When the boys reach this age, they were favored with the society of lovers from among the reputable young men. The elderly men also kept close watch of them, coming more frequently to their places of exercises, and observing their contests of strength and wit, not cursorily, but with the idea that they were all in a sense the fathers and tutors and governors of all the boys. In this way, at every fitting time and in every place, the boy who went wrong had someone to admonish and chastise him.

The classical model of other Maztica city-states in which an older male (the erastes, "lover") encourages and nurtures a younger man (the eromenos, "beloved") is so widely popular that even if it originates from the west, it has been adapted and made to suit the easts needs. In the context of the agoge program, it is thought this sort of relationship also deepened the bonds between the younger and older students who thought of themselves and were considered by others all sons of the same father, the state.

Because the other city-states considered a sexual relationship between older and younger men natural, they ascribed the same to Derivakat. This is not the case and as the easts model differs from the west. The east created a system with its Agore unlike any others and only encouraged relationships that enriched the soul, not those which fed the appetites of the body.

After the transitional stage, the paidiskoi were known as hebontes (young men) and were under the tutelage of a paidonomos (boy-herder). Under the direction of the paidonomos the boys, in their several packs and herds, put themselves under the command of the most prudent and warlike of the hebontes, the so-called Eirens. This was the name given to those who had been for two years out of the class of boys, and Melleirens, or would-be-eirens, was the name for the oldest of the boys. This eiren then, a youth of twenty years, commands his subordinates in their mock battles, and indoors makes them serve him at his meals. He commissions the larger ones to fetch wood, and the smaller ones potherbs. And they steal what they fetch, some of them entering the gardens, and others creeping right slyly and cautiously into the public messes of the men; but if a boy is caught stealing, he is soundly flogged as a careless and unskillful thief.

The paidonomos are appointed by the city's Ephors (overseers), who are elected officials sworn to uphold the laws of Maztica and are even given authority to challenge the sitting emperor if he did not do the same. The Ephors were among the older men who oversaw punishments given to the younger boys by their elders. They would not intervene while the punishment was inflicted, but afterwards they would judge whether it was excessive or too lenient. The paidonomos would learn from the Ephors what constituted excess or leniency and was often the overseer of punishments.

The boys all ate together throughout the agore, but at the age of maturity one needed to be elected to a certain mess also known as a "common tent" There were many different dining messes, and it was imperative that a young man be elected to one of them. Election was competitive; a single "no" vote was enough to get a candidate rejected. Some messes were of course more exclusive and desirable than others, none more so than the royal mess, in which both the kings and ephors dined jointly with their chosen aides when in Derivakat. Failure to secure election to any mess at all was tantamount to exclusion from the Maztican citizen body and, perhaps, also army.

Once election to a mess was secured, all the men of that mess ate every meal together. The only excuses for non-attendance were participation in a religious ritual or a hunting expedition. Whether they were in Derivakat or deployed elsewhere, every man of that mess is required to bring food to be shared in common and so, obviously, had to be present. The main meal is held after dark and no torches are allowed for lighting the way to or from the mess hall in order to encourage the men's skill in navigating terrain in the dark and, so, the enable them to gather and eat when in the field without alerting an opposing force to their location.

During this final period of the agoge, a man might marry but most do not until they graduated at the age of 30. Once married, they could start a family but still are expected to eat with their mess. The women of Derivakat also ate communally, just apart from the men. Women had their own sphere of influence and power but were not allowed to participate in any aspect of Maztican warfare. To the Maztican, women had the most important responsibility of all: giving birth to warriors.