Spartiate

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).

The helots gained their freedom in 370 BC, effectively eliminating the Spartiate way of life, though some aspects survived into the Roman period.

Spartiates (Spartiate-class males over 30) held some extremely limited power in the government and would own kleroi (plots of land with associated Helots).

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.

The Spartiates thus became a permanently armed master class, living off the labor of the helots and preventing rebellion through constant struggle.

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.

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.

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.

In the late 5th and early 4th centuries BC, the Spartiate class gradually shrank in number, along with Spartan military prowess, for several reasons.

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.

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.