Social Matter

In mid-August of 480 B.C., the Greek allies defending the pass of Thermopylae were treated to a strange sight when four thousand Peloponnesian warriors marched into their camp. The most impressive of these troops were three hundred old men with shaved lips, red cloaks, and shields emblazoned with “Λ,” signifying their home country of Lacedaemon. Along with these soldiers marched seven hundred of the men called helots, natives of the country of Messenia subjugated by the Lacedaemonians, equipped as light infantry. During the battle that followed, the Spartans and their Helots cooperated to a degree unprecedented in Greek history: the Helots engaged with the invading Persians’ infantry and then feigned flight, drawing the enemy into the Spartans’ reach. The Persians, seeing their comrades slaughtered by these unfamiliar tactics, fled screaming that the Spartans were in fact demons from the infernal reaches.

Classical Sparta had the reputation of being an extremely conservative society, its constitution unaltered through the centuries, and its people cautious and slow-to-bestir themselves. Thucydides draws a contrast between the Spartans and the Athenians in a speech by King Archidamus of Sparta before the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War in 331 B.C.: Archidamus describes the Spartans almost like reclusive shut-ins clinging to their traditions and ascribes to the Athenians an unheard-of daring and lust for new things. In fact, the Spartans were extremely innovative and adaptive, remaining on the cutting-edge of political and military technology throughout the Archaic and Classical periods.

Popular belief attributed the origins of the Spartan constitution to Crete, another region famed for the antiquity of its institutions. Plato, an admirer of Sparta, sets his dialogue on the proper political arrangements for a city, Laws, on Crete and portrays a conversation between a Cretan, a Spartan, and the Athenian Stranger. According to legend, the semi-mythical Lycurgus studied the Cretans’ ways and brought them back to Sparta. This Lycurgus is the one described in Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus, and historian date his life—if he existed at all—to the 10^th or 9^th century B.C.

The Spartans themselves, however, claimed that Lycurgus’ reforms were much newer, and modern scholarship agrees, placing them in the late 7^th and early 6^th centuries. Before these reforms, the Spartans had “the worst-governed city in Greece” by their own description. Like other major Greek cities in the 7^th century, Sparta emerged out of a process of synoikismos, the merging of multiple small villages into a larger conglomerate. Integrating the governments of these villages proved difficult, however. In particular, two local royal houses, the Agiads and the Eurypontids, refused to yield to each other’s authority and conflict ensued. This was in addition to the conflict between commoners and Eupatridae which every city experienced.

The Lycurgean constitution put an end to the civil strife partly by granting the two houses equal standing but eliminating most of their powers. The kings sat on the Council of Old Men or Gerousia alongside twenty eight others and held absolute command over the army when it marched out to war but otherwise had virtually no power—at first they retained the right to declare war and conclude peace, but this was eventually revoked. Every month the kings had to swear an oath to abide by the constitution alongside the ephors, who swore to not abolish the kingship so long as the kings abided by their oaths. Even so, every eight years the ephors observed the heavens for portents signaling that the kingship should be eliminated.

Contrary to their portrayal in the 300 film, the five ephors were absolutely not monstrous creatures but ordinary men. Originally stargazing priests, the Lycurgean constitution made them annually elected magistrates and transferred to them the bulk of executive responsibilities. The senior ephor gave his name to the year for the sake of record-keeping. The Gerousia functioned as the chief deliberative body, but at the same time, the whole citizenry, some nine or ten thousand men at the city’s height, was given the final say on important issues. Still, the Apella or Assembly could only vote yay or nay on the Gerousia’s proposals and outcomes were determined by the volume of each side’s shouting.

According to legend, the Spartan constitution was never written down but was preserved orally. Archaeology has proven this to be false, uncovering inscriptions detailing the Spartan’s laws dating back to the 7^th century.

The Spartan constitution differed from those of other cities in a few key respects. The first was the relatively prominent role of the kings: despite being largely emasculated, the Spartan kings did hold real power in certain spheres, very much unlike the kings in other cities who were merely magistrates responsible for state sacrifices. The formally limited powers of the kings meant that Sparta could benefit from the brilliance of a king like Cleomenes I, while a less-than-stellar king like Agis II could still be useful.

Also notable was the relatively small number of elected positions. Between the Gerousia and the ephorate, Sparta had thirty three elected officials, only five of whom were annually elected. This kept electoral politics to a minimum. Indeed, most political conflicts described in the ancient sources concern the kings trying to gain additional power or influence. There were plenty of other positions, but they were assigned by merit, positions like officer roles in the army, the kings’ bodyguard, and the Agathoergoi, “Do-gooders,” free-floating troubleshooters.

The final distinctive feature was the relative size of the citizen body in Laconia. As with all Greek cities, not all inhabitants of Sparta were full citizens. The perioikoi, “those who dwell around,” constituted the bulk of the Laconian population and even possessed small villages all their own. How many perioikoi there were is difficult to determine, but estimates for around 500 B.C. suggest there were 50,000, including women and children, while the citizenry, also counting women and children, was roughly 25,000. The Spartan state was thus the most inclusive in all of Greece, aside from the Athenian democracy which it preceded by more than a hundred years. By the end of the 5^th century, Sparta’s status in this regard had declined, but at its inception it was revolutionary.

The combination of a large ruling class but severely limited electoral politics was remarkably stable. On the one hand, with few opportunities for electioneering, the best way for an ambitious man to advance his position was to be a good soldier and earn the respect of his comrades-in-arms. On the other, a broad franchise satisfied the commoners clamoring for reform and provided a large army with which to defend the state and subjugate nearby Messenia.

Control of Messenia was the most important aspect of the Spartan political system, as well as the key to its dominance in Greek affairs generally. The territory of that region was apportioned equally among the Spartan citizens: upon attaining the age of 20, a young Spartan man was assigned a portion of Messenian land along with helot serfs (technically owned by the Spartan state) to work it. Out of the produce of this land, the Spartan was expected to pay dues for his membership to one of the common messes and his children’s education in the agoge, the uniquely Spartan system of public education, as well as to purchase hoplite arms and armor. The apportioning of Messenian lands made the Lycurgian reforms go more smoothly—in other cities, nobles strenuously resisted losing their lands, but in Sparta they were at least partially compensated.

Though a conquered people, the Messenian helots were remarkably well-treated compared to slaves bound to other masters. The helots were enserfed, forbidden to leave their land without permission and turning over half their produce to the Spartans, but otherwise allowed to handle their own affairs themselves. Though the Krypteia, bands of Spartan boys armed with daggers, was a threat, so long as helot paid his taxes and went to bed at a decent hour, he had little to worry about. The Spartans forbad the helots to own weapons and armor, but despite repeated rebellions they still took helots to war with them and rewarded those who performed well. At Thermopylae, the helots died fighting side-by-side with their Spartan masters.

Hierarchy and differentiation defined the Spartan system. The Spartans called themselves homoioi, “peers,” and prided themselves on the large degree of equality in their ranks, but they still had officers, priests, magistrates, elders, and kings. Spartan women had a large degree of autonomy, conducting most business and instilling in their sons the masculine virtue the Spartans were famous for, but they had no role in politics. Men and women had separate, non-overlapping spheres.

Nor was Spartan hierarchy the kind feared by Leftists: one overbearing power crushing all others under its heel. The kings sat at the top but precariously; the ephors held great power but only for a year at a time; elders made most political decisions but needed approval from the citizenry. The Spartans in general stood above the perioikoi and helots, but they treated their inferiors generously. In Sparta, hierarchy was more extensive than in any other Greek city.

Next week, we’ll take a look at Sparta’s military and foreign affairs, where Sparta’s capacity for innovation allowed it to hold supremacy in Greece for almost two centuries.