Spartiate

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A Spartiate^[1] (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 children) were a small minority of the population: estimates are that they made up between one-tenth and one-thirty-secondth of the population, with the proportion decreasing over time; the vast majority of the people of Sparta were helots (slaves).

Spartiates were barred from work by law and strong social norms, and were supported by the helots (Spartiate-class women also scorned to work, and depended on the land and helots they owned, but they did not hold citizenship). 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 hoplite forces. They fought along with helot forces; for instance, at the Battle of Plataea, Herodotus says that 7/9 of the Spartan forces were helots, 1/9 (5000) were Spartiates, and the rest others. This was probably the largest army Sparta ever fielded.^[2] Some Spartan armies, like that lead by Brasidas in Peloponnesian War, consisted entirely of non-Spartiates (excepting 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 Spartiate status. Rising inequality within the tiny Spartiate elite meant that many fell from citizen status. High rates of violent deaths and low birthrates also caused a decline in the number of Spartiates. Some Spartiates made efforts to reform the system and enlarge the Spartiate class, but these efforts failed, and the Spartiate class became to small to forcibly maintain the Spartan social structure. The helots gained their freedom in 370 BC, effectively eliminating the Spartiate way of life.