Privileged social class
holding all political power
All equal under the law and
all subject to the same
training and discipline
There were rich and poor
Spartiates, but there is
some controversy over the
existence of nobility
Lived by a high
code of honour
that involved
courage, loyalty,
endurance and
obedience
Full-time soldiers owing
total obedience to the
state
Forbidden to engage in
farming, trade and industry.
These done by Helots and
Perioikoi.
Original Dorian conquerors of Laconia.
Never numbered much more than 10,000
Sources!!!!
Xenophon - Spartan Society on the
sysstition: "Lycurgus mingled the age
groups in Sparta so that the younger
learn much from the experience of
their elders"
Plutarch - On Sparta (referring to the kleros):
"Lycurgus persuaded the citizens to pool all the land
and then redistribute it ... they would all live on equal
terms with one another, with the same amount of
property to support each."
Plutarch notes Sparta was
broken into 9000 equal parts as
kleros for the Spartiates -
supporting the idea there was
never much more than 10,000
Spartiates
Stephen Hodkinson: "a social and ritual
system as part of which every citizen was
compelled, especially during upbringing to
accept a common public way of life”