Quote Originally Posted by Lemur View Post
Yep, and all of the letters, speeches, and public records from the time support that position.

Thomas Jefferson: "The Greeks and Romans had no standing armies, yet they defended themselves. The Greeks by their laws, and the Romans by the spirit of their people, took care to put into the hands of their rulers no such engine of oppression as a standing army. Their system was to make every man a soldier and oblige him to repair to the standard of his country whenever that was reared. This made them invincible; and the same remedy will make us so."
Didn't the Greeks and Romans consider barbaric to carry swords and daggers around in normal company?