the passage. While Spartiate soldiers were typically well-nourished, there is no ancient literary evidence that suggests that black soup was part of their regular diet on military campaigns. Domestic settings Notably, the ancient sources do not provide accounts of whether black soup was cooked or served in domestic settings. The attendance of Spartan banquets was exclusive to male adult citizens. Therefore, there is no ancient recording of whether younger children or women in Sparta also had the chance of tasting and consuming the soup. Sparta's citizen class, known as Spartiates, was also restricted to approximately 6 percent of Spartan society, limiting the dish's potential range further. Notoriety The Spartan black soup was known to the other Greeks during antiquity. Plutarch mentions that one of the kings of Pontus had once purchased a Lacedaemonian cookbook to recreate this dish. After the king has stated his dislike of the dish, the cook responded that one could only appreciate this broth after having swum in the Eurotas River, a famous landmark located within Sparta, suggesting that one could not develop a palate for this particular dish unless raised in Spartan society. Plutarch probably recorded this account, drawing from the earlier writings of Xenophon. Cicero's Tusculan Disputations retells the same story, although the figure of the king of Pontus has changed to the Dionysios of Syracuse. Plutarch also tells of an account of the Athenian general, Alcibiades attempting to fit into the Spartan society by eating black soup when he fled to Sparta from Athens due to political pressure. Plutarch's Life of Pelopidas has recorded that an inhabitant of Sybaris had once claimed, "it was no great thing for the Spartans to seek death in the wars in order to escape so many hardships and such a wretched life as theirs." Historians such as Maciej Kokoszko and Joan P. Alcock have interpreted this claim as supporting evidence of ancient Sparta's unbearable customs and food. The broth's unique taste can be cross-referenced by a narration of how willing the Spartans were to share this dish with outsiders, as detailed in another work of Plutarch, the Life of Cleomenes. Cleomenes, a Spartan king who lived in the third century BC, once had a disagreement with his friend over serving the black soup to foreign visitors, who he argued could not appreciate the flavour. Maciej Kokoszko theorized that the Spartans were reluctant to introduce this dish to