1. Spartan Society
Social Structure

2. Social Systems
social organization: the people in a society considered as a system organized by a characteristic pattern of relationships The Social System is the parent system of legal,economic , political and cultural systems
Stratification is instrumental in the belief forming process. It not only places people above others but proves legitimacy for the claim
Structural functional analysts suggest that social stratification is beneficial in helping to stabilize a society. Conflict theorists consider the inaccessibility of resources and lack of social mobility as a destabilizing factor.

3. “The organization in the classical period of Spartan Society can be summarized under three headings; First a political system in which power and decision making were divided among the Kings, ephors, Elders and Assembly
Secondly, a military and economic system according to which full citizenship was extended to a body of several thousand men who became full time hoplites supported by produce delivered by the helots who worked their lands
Thirdly a social and ritual system as part of which every citizen was compelled, especially during upbringing to accept a common public way of life” Stephen Hodkinson
The successful operation of these three systems was to produce uniformity and the achievement of “ Eunomia “

4. The Social System
The way of life put into practice three principles which had only played a minor role in the aristocratic society of the 7th century.
Uniformity. Thucydides comments that it was the Lakedaimonians who first began to dress simply and that in general the rich as far as possible adopted an equal style of life with the many
Secondly, the priority of collective interests over private ones, enshrined in the compulsory nature of the common messes
Conformity to regulations, specific types of action and standards of behaviour
The compromise however with the influences of the past was the influence of wealth, birth, personal merit and seniority

5. Equilibrium in society

6. Social Hierarchy “ Sparta had a common way of life based on a common education and training, a shared way of life and an equal standard of living” D H Kelly In reality , however Spartan society was anything but equal
Perioicoi
Perioicoi
Perioicoi

7. Spartiates Spartiate Citizenship was based on four criteria;
Birth; Proof of descent from original Dorian conquerors
Training; Submission to and completion of the Agoge
Ownership of a plot of public land ( kleros )
Membership of and continued payment of contributions to a syssition

8. Spartiates
The original Dorian descendents, who never numbered more than 10,000
They were full time soldiers owing total obedience to the state
The State supported them by giving them an allotment of public land ( kleros ) and helots to work it.
They were forbidden to engage in farming, trade and industry
All equal under the law, there is some historical controversy concerning an inner nobility based either on wealth, prestige or valour.

9. Loss of Citizenship
Loss of citizenship, for whatever reason resulted in social isolation. Special clothes were worn, exercise was taken alone and they were excluded from participation in religious festivals and the Assembly meetings
Xenophon writes that Lycurgus excluded from the citizen body anyone who shrank from the rigorous customs of Spartan life

10. Inferiors Hypomeiones

11. Tresantes Tremblers
Loss of citizenship could result from crime or more commonly cowardice in battle.
As well as the social exclusion, if they had daughters no one would marry them and if they wished to marry, themselves, no one would give their daughter to them
A fear of the consequence of wholesale disgrace was seen after Leuctra when the offenders were too numerous, at a time when the State was in need of soldiers. Agesilaus subsequently took the unfortunates on an expedition when some plunder was taken and a small town defeated. Honour was thus redeemed and citizenship restored. There was evidently limit to the stern discipline of Sparta

12. Plutarch on Spartan Cowardice
“ When sides are being picked for a ball game that sort of man is left out…and in dances he is banished to the insulting places. Moreover in the streets he is required to give way as well as to give up his seat even to younger men. The girls of his family he has to support at home and must explain to them why they cannot get husbands. He must endure having a household with no wife and at the same time he has to pay a fine for this.”

13. Tyrtaeus
“ It is beautiful when a brave man of the front ranks falls and dies, battling for his homeland, and ghastly when a man flees planted fields and city and wanders begging with his mother, ageing father, little children and true wife. He will be scorned in every village, reduced to want and loathsome poverty; and shame will brand his family line, his noble figure. Derision and disaster will hound him. A turncoat gets no respect or pity; so let us battle for our country and freely give our lives to save our darling children. Young men, fight shield to shield and never succumb to panic or miserable flight….”

14. Mothaces or Mothones
Mothaces were young helots who had been playmates and training partners of Spartiate boys. They would therefore have undergone some of the training of the Agoge

15. Neodamodeis
These were helots who were given their freedom by the State for some meritorious action
It seems they never attained the status of equal but in return for their freedom were liable for military service
Thucydides tells us that Agesilaus took 2,000 of them to Asia
In earlier times helots had been employed as batman, shield carriers or light armed skirmishers. Herodotus, prone to numerical exaggeration tells us that there 35,000 Helots at the Battle of Plataea. They thus had ample opportunity to achieve meritorious acts of valour.
An exceptional group, 700 helots taken by Brasidas in Chalcidice were given their freedom for gallantry in the field. They were called Brasideioi. They were allowed to live wherever they pleased and were no longer tied to the cleroi of their masters. Thucydides tells us that they were settled on the borders of Laconia and Elis, and is likely that they were absorbed into the Perioicoi communities

16. Parthenai
Some time after the close of the First Messenian War there occurred an incident called “ the insurrection “ of the Parthenai and the subsequent colonization of them at Tarentum.
The Spartans who had marched out to the war had taken 19 years to return home victorious. Spartan women were left alone and the birth rate fell dramatically. It was decreed that they should seek temporary unions and from these the numerous Parthenai were born. After the war the Parthenai sons were looked down upon and an uprising was planned and led by Phalanthus. The plot was revealed but the numbers so many that they were forced to emigrate
The controversy in the story exists over exactly who were the fathers of these illegitimate children. Aristotle tells us that they were Spartans who for whatever reason had not gone to Messenia. Theopompus says they were helots who were subsequently given citizenship, although this seems highly doubtful.

17. Helots
Pre Dorian inhabitants conquered by Spartans, in Laconia and Messenia
They had no rights and freedom could only be granted by the State
They were state owned and lived with their families on the lands of Spartiates. They could not move without the states permission
Their main duty was to supply a fixed amount of produce annually to Spartan masters. Once this was done they were free to make a profit.
Often acted as servants and light armed skirmishers in times of war
Tyrtaeus describes them as “asses under great loads; under painful necessity to bring their masters full half the fruits their ploughed land produced

18. Perioicoi “dwellers around”
1. The very term “ perioikoi” those who dwell around connotes a subordinate relationship
2.Autonomous and self governing in their own communities, they were people of mixed origin. Shipley makes the comment that distance from Sparta was a limiting factor in the degree of active intervention and control
3.Were not allowed to intermarry with Spartiates
4.Their chief contribution to the Spartans was economic-engaged in trade and industry particularly weapons and armour
5.Were expected to contribute militarily in times of war