Population
In the fifth century BC. J.-C., the Spartans strictly speaking (Ὃμοιοι / Hòmoioi, “the Peers”, “the similars”) represent a small part of the overall population of the city. In -480, King Démarate estimated the number of mobilizable hoplites at just over 8000 (Hérodote, VII, 234). This number fell throughout the 5th century, mainly due to the earthquake of -464, which according to Plutarch (Cimon, 16, 4-5), destroyed the gymnasium, thus killing all the ephebes, and the revolt of the Helots (10 years of guerrilla warfare). Thus, at the battle of Leuctra (-371), there are only 1200 mobilizable hoplites left, of which 400 die during the fight.
The number of Periecs is greater than the number of Equals. We can think that there were about a hundred periec agglomerations (Sparta was nicknamed, says Strabo, the "city of a hundred cities"). The Helots (Εἵλωτες / Heílôtes, slaves) can be estimated at 150,000 to 200,000. According to Thucydides, this is the most important servile group in Greece.
Citizens
Only the Spartans properly speaking enjoy political rights, also called ἄστοι / astoi (“citizens”) - a more aristocratic term than the usual πολίτης / polítês - or even Ὃμοιοι (Hòmoioi), traditionally translated as “the Equals”, which means rather "the Peers". It is not certain that all Spartans are Homoioi:some citizens, considered cowards (κακοί / kakoí) in combat, are subjected to all kinds of bullying and vexations:obligation to pay the bachelor's tax, rejection in ball teams and choirs. Historiography traditionally calls them tresantes, tremblants. They do not cease to be citizens, but become second class.
Likewise, to be a Spartan citizen, one must:
* be descended from two Spartans (bastards, νόθοι / nóthoi, are distinguished from normal citizens);
* be over 18;
* be of gender male (sex was not discriminatory:young girls were brought up like boys and took part in gymnastic events, which was a Spartan characteristic. nationality clearly indicates the importance of the maternal line[ref. needed]);
* to be born in Sparta;
* to have undergone Spartan education;
* take part in collective meals (syssities);
* own a domain (kléros) allowing you to pay for these meals.
The term Homoioi testifies, according to Thucydides, to the fact that in Sparta "the greatest equality was established in the ways of life between the possessors and the many" (I, 6, 4):all lead a common life and austere.
The inferiors
From citizen to slave, Sparta has a variety of inferiors, the hypomeiones.
Helots are the peasants of Sparta. Their status is created with the reform of Lycurgus. They are not strictly speaking commodity slaves, but serfs:
* they are attached to the kléros that they cultivate;
* they marry and have children;
* the difference between the kléros rent paid to the citizen and the harvest is his.
Exceptionally, they are enlisted to fight, and can then be freed. More numerous than the Equals, they underwent the reform of Lycurgus by being sidelined. Fearing their revolt, the Spartans solemnly declare war on them every year, permanently degrading them, terrorizing them.
In the same way, the Périèques (inhabitants of the periphery) are not integrated into the civic body by the reform, and do not benefit from any political rights within the Lacedaemonian State. However, they are free and citizens of their own cities. They hold the monopoly of trade and share that of crafts with the Helots. They also include peasants, driven back to mediocre land.
Alongside these two major statutes, Sparta has many intermediate categories:citizens deprived by poverty (because they cannot ensure their contribution to the basic cell of Spartan civic society, the Syssition, common private or public daily banquet of citizens) or by cowardice in combat (cf. tresantes, the "shakers"), freed Helots (cf. neodamodes), Skirites, etc.
Spartan Education
Education, from Lycurgus, has the particularities of being:
* mandatory;
* collective;
* organized by the city.
First, the newborn Spartan is examined by a commission of elders at Lesché to determine if he is beautiful and well-formed. Otherwise, he is considered a useless mouth, a burden for the city:he is thrown into the abyss.
Then, from the age of 7 to 20, the young Spartan lives in a group, in para-military conditions, outside parental supervision. This education, ἀγωγή / agôgế, is characterized by its harshness and aims to form obedient, efficient soldiers attached to the good of the city, before their glory or their personal well-being. It also extends to daughters, with the aim of producing strong and healthy mothers, capable of producing vigorous children. Symbol of the "Spartan exception", it is also poorly known, the authors having insisted on its most particular points and undoubtedly the latest.