At the stage of "hēbōntes", roughly age 20, the students became fully part of the "syssitia" and Spartan army. Regardless, they continued to live in barracks and had to compete for a place among the Spartan "hippeis", the royal guard of honor. At the age of 20, students were voted into one of the public messes. The voting was done by Spartan peers who were members of the mess and had to be unanimous. Rejected candidates had a period of ten years within which they could apply for entry to a different mess. If a man failed to gain entry into a mess by age 30, he would not gain full Spartan citizenship. At the age of 30, men were permitted to marry and to become full citizens of Sparta who could vote and hold office.