Spartiate

A Spartiate (Greek: Σπαρτιάτης, Spartiátēs) or Homoios (pl. Homoioi, Greek: Ὅμοιος, "alike") was an elite full-citizen male of the ancient Greek city-state of Sparta. Spartiate-class males (including boys) were a small minority: estimates are that they made up between 1/10 and 1/32 of the population, with the proportion decreasing over time; the vast majority of the people of Sparta were helots (slaves).

Spartan citizenship was restricted to adult males without metic ancestry, as in most Greek poleis. Spartiate-class women could not hold citizenship but were eligible to marry Spartiates, and their sons could become Spartiates. After the First Messenian War, the mass enslavement of the Messenian population created a slave society (60-79% slaves; by contrast, US slave states generally had 30-65%). This society was recognized as unusual by both modern historians and contemporary non-Spartans. Spartiate-class people came to be barred from work by law and strong social norms and were supported by the helots. It was acceptable for Spartiates to work as armed forces. Spartiates spent a great deal of effort maintaining their power, facing repeated helot revolts.

Aside from suppressing revolts, Spartiates trained as hoplites. They fought as such alongside helot forces; for instance, at the Battle of Plataea, Herodotus says that seven-ninths of the Spartan forces were helots, one-ninth (5000) were Spartiates, and the rest others. This was said to be the largest army Sparta ever fielded. Some Spartan armies, like one led by Brasidas in the Peloponnesian War, consisted entirely of non-Spartiates (excluding Brasidas). These armies maintained Sparta military rule of a large area of southern Greece, from the Second Messenian War (650 BC), until the end of the short-lived Spartan hegemony (404-371 BC).

A certain income was required to maintain syssitia membership, and thus Spartiate status. Rising inequality within the tiny Spartiate elite meant that many fell from citizen status. High rates of violent deaths and low birth rates caused a decline in the number of Spartiates. Some Spartiates made efforts to reform the system and enlarge the Spartiate class, but these failed and the Spartiate class became too small to forcibly maintain the Spartan social structure. The helots gained their freedom in 370 BC, effectively eliminating the Spartiate way of life, though some aspects survived into the Roman period.

Structure of Spartan society

Structure of Spartan society

Classical Spartan society was rigidly divided into several castes, each with assigned duties and privileges. The smallest of them, with the most power and freedom, was the Spartiate class. Spartiates (Spartiate-class males over 30) held some extremely limited power in the government and would own kleroi (plots of land with associated Helots).

Besides the Spartiate class, there were many free non-citizen underclasses. The Perioeci, literally meaning "dwelling around", were citizens of smaller Laconian polises that were subordinate to Sparta. The Skiritai were similar to the Perioeci but fought as light infantry instead of hoplites.

There were also the Hypomeiones, literally "inferiors", men who were probably, although not certainly, Spartiates who had lost their social rank (probably mostly because they could not afford syssitia dues). The Mothax (singular Mothon) were fostered with Spartiates and are generally thought to have been the children of slave rape by Spartiates. See Spartan Constitution#Society for more free underclasses.

The lowest caste in Spartan society were the Helots, subjected populations tied to the land and over whom the Spartan state claimed ownership. In the late 5th century BC and later, a new class, the Neodamodes, literally "new to the community", seems to have been composed of liberated Helots. Douloi, who were chattel slaves not tied to the land, also existed; earlier sources conflate them with helots, but later sources distinguish them. All free classes seem to have owned chattel slaves.

The Helots performed agricultural work, spinning, weaving and other manual labor. The Perioeci carried out most of the trade and commerce since Spartiates were forbidden from engaging in commercial activity. Spartiate-class people were expected to be supported by their kleroi and Helots and to abstain from any activities other than what is related to military conflict. All classes, including Helots, fought in the Spartan military. The Mothax class were particularly prominent as military leaders, and the Helots made up about 80% of the armed forces.

Origins

Lycurgus

According to classical accounts, the Spartan Constitution was the product of a great lawgiver, Lycurgus. He was said to have written the Spartan constitution early in the Archaic period, but dates in historical sources are wildly inconsistent.

It is impossible to determine whether Lycurgus was an actual historical figure. It is clear, however, that at some point in the late Archaic period, the model of Spartan society shifted from a monarchical system to an aristocracy of the elite warrior class. That change is likely to have been in some way related to the transition from "Dark Age" warfare, in which nobles were the dominant force, to the hoplite warfare of the classical period. Around the time of that change, Sparta embarked on the conquest of the neighboring state of Messenia. The acquisition of such a comparatively large piece of territory and conquered population seems to have both provided the basis for the system of helotage and required the existence of a large military force to keep the potentially rebellious Messenians under control. The Spartiates thus became a permanently armed master class, living off the labor of the helots and preventing rebellion through constant struggle.

Spartiate lifestyle

During the 6th and 5th centuries BC, the Spartan system was at its height. In 555 BC, Sparta defeated Tegea and forced that state to become its ally. Around 544 BC, Sparta defeated Argos and established itself as the pre-eminent power in the Peloponnese. For over 150 years, Sparta became the dominant land power of Greece, with the Spartiates hoplites serving as the minority core of its army.

To maintain the social system of the city, it was necessary to have a force ready to oppose helot uprisings, which had occurred several times in the classical period. Spartiate males went through the brutal, and sometimes lethal, agoge and crypteia, from the age of seven to thirty, the age of full citizenship. From that age until they became too old to fight, they would live in their barracks, visiting their families (and, later, their wives) only when they could sneak out. Spartiate women, as well, were expected to remain athletic, since the Spartans believed that strong and healthy parents would produce strong and healthy children.

Spartiates were expected to adhere to an ideal of military valor, as exemplified by the poems of Tyrtaeus, who praised men who fell in battle and heaped scorn on those who fled. Such ideals were standard for hoplite forces across Greece, as they relied on each man defending his neighbor with his shield; if the formation breaks, it is defeated.

Each Spartiate male was assigned a plot of land, which included the helots that cultivated it. That was the source of their income since they performed no labor or commerce themselves. The majority of that income was used to fund communal mess halls, to which all Spartiates were required to belong. Any Spartiate who was unable to pay these dues was demoted from his class.

Politically, Spartiate males composed the army assembly, the body that elected the ephors, the most powerful magistrates of Sparta after the kings. The Spartiates were also the source of the krypteia, a sort of secret police, which, by measures such as assassination and kidnapping, sought to prevent rebellion among the helots.

Decline of Spartiates

In the late 5th and early 4th centuries BC, the Spartiate class gradually shrank in number, along with Spartan military prowess, for several reasons. First was attrition through the increasingly frequent wars that Sparta found itself embroiled in from the mid-5th century onward. Since Spartiates were required to marry late, birth rates were low, and it was difficult to replace losses from the class. Exacerbating that problem was the possibility of demotion from Spartiate status for several reasons, such as cowardice in battle and inability to pay for membership in the syssitia. Ancient sources over a long period mention rising inequality within the Spartiate class. The inability to pay became increasingly severe; as commercial activity began to develop in Sparta, some Spartiates would sell the land from which they were supposed to draw their earnings. Since the constitution included no known provisions for promotion to Spartiate status, the number of Spartiates gradually dwindled. Attempts at reform, notably by the Spartan kings Agis IV and Cleomenes III, failed.

By the mid-4th century BC, the number of Spartiates had been critically reduced, although Sparta continued to hold sway over much of Greece. Finally, at Leuctra in 371 BC, a Theban army decisively defeated a Spartan force, killing 400 Spartiates of a force of 700 and breaking the back of Spartan military power. In 370 BC, Messenia was liberated by a Theban army, liberating the helots and destroying the basis of the Spartan social system. The Spartan state never recovered its former power.

See also

• HMS Spartiate
• Stratocracy

Literature

• Xenophon. Constitution of the Spartans.