Spartiate The Spartiates ( , " Spartans " ) or Homoioi ( , " those who are alike " ) were the males of Sparta known to the Spartans as " peers " or " men of equal status " . From a young age , male Spartiates were trained for battle and put through grueling challenges intended to craft them into fearless warriors . In battle , they had the reputation of being the best soldiers in Greece , and the strength of Sparta ' s hoplite forces let the city become the dominant state in Greece throughout much of the Classical period . No other city - state would dare to attack Sparta even though it could only muster a force of about 8000 Spartiates during the zenith of its dominance . Structure of Spartan society . Spartan society in the classical period was rigidly divided into several castes , each with assigned duties and privileges . The smallest of these , with the most power and freedom , was the Spartiate elite . Spartiates were exempt from manual labor , and controlled the government of the state . Spartiate men were expected to prepare constantly for military conflict . Below the Spartiates were the Perioikoi , literally " dwellers around , " inhabitants of outlying towns who carried out most of the trade and commerce of the city , since Spartiates were forbidden from engaging in commercial activity . Further down the ladder were the helots , enslaved populations tied to the land and over whom the Spartan state claimed ownership . In the late 5th century BC and later , a new class , the neodamodeis ( lit . ' new ' damos dwellers ) , arose . It seems to have been composed of liberated helots . Also , there were the hypomeiones ( lit . inferiors ) , men who were probably , although not certainly , Spartiates who had lost social rank . Origins of the Spartan system . According to classical accounts , the Spartan constitution was the product of a great lawgiver , Lycurgus . He was said to have written the Spartan constitution late in the Archaic Period , most likely in the 770s BC . It is impossible to determine whether Lycurgus was an actual historical figure . It is clear , however , that at some point in the late Archaic period the model of Spartan society was changed from a monarchical system to a aristocracy for the elite warrior class . This change is likely to have been in some way related to the change from Dark age warfare , in which nobles were the dominant force , to the hoplite warfare of the classical period . Around the time of this change in system , Sparta embarked on the conquest of the neighboring state of Messenia . This acquisition of a large piece of territory and a large conquered population seems to have both provided the basis for the system of helotage and required the existence of a large military force to keep the potentially rebellious Messenians under control . The Spartiates thus became a permanently armed master class , living off the labour of the helots and preventing rebellion through constant vigilance . The lifestyle of the Spartiate class . During the 6th and 5th centuries BC , the Spartan system was at its height . In 555 BC , Sparta defeated Tegea and forced that state to become its ally . Around 544 BC , Sparta defeated Argos , establishing itself as the preeminent power in the Peloponnese . For over 150 years , Sparta became the dominant land power of Greece , with the Spartiate hoplites serving as the core of its army . To maintain the social system of the city , it was necessary to have a force ready to oppose any uprising of the helots ( an event which occurred several times in the classical period ) . To ensure their military readiness , Spartiate youths enrolled in military training ( agoge ) from the age of seven onwards to thirty ( the age of full citizenship ) . From that age until they became too old to fight , they would live in their barracks , visiting their families ( and later , their wives ) only when they could sneak out . Spartiate women , as well , were expected to remain athletically fit , since the Spartans believed that strong and healthy parents would produce strong and healthy children . Spartiates were expected to adhere to an ideal of military valor , exemplified by the poems of Tyrtaeus , who praised men who fell in battle and heaped scorn on those who fled . Each Spartiate male was assigned a plot of land , with the helots that worked it . This was the source of his income , since he performed no labor or commerce himself . The primary use of this income was to pay the dues of the communal mess halls to which all Spartiates were required to belong . Any Spartiate who was unable to pay these dues was demoted from the class . Politically , the Spartiate males composed the army assembly , the body which 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 , through measures such as assassination and kidnapping , sought to prevent rebellion among the helots . Decline of the Spartiate class . In the late 5th and early 4th centuries BC , the Spartiate class gradually declined , along with Spartan military prowess . There were several reasons for this decline . First was attrition through the increasingly frequent wars that Sparta found itself embroiled in from the mid - 5th century on . Since Spartiates were required to marry late , birth rates were low , and it was difficult to replace losses from the class . To exacerbate this problem , it was possible to be demoted from Spartiate status for a number of reasons ; cowardice in battle was a common one , as was inability to pay for membership in the syssitia . Inability to pay became an increasingly severe problem as commercial activity began to develop in Sparta , since some Spartiates would sell the land from which they were supposed to draw their earnings . Since the constitution included no provisions for promotion to Spartiate status , the number of Spartiates gradually dwindled as the classical period wore on . By the mid - 4th century BC , the number of Spartiates had been critically reduced , although Sparta continued to hold sway over much of Greece . Finally , at Leuctra in 371 BC , a Theban army decisively defeated a Spartan force , defeating 400 Spartiates and breaking the back of Spartan military power . In 370 BC , Messenia was liberated by a Theban army , destroying the basis of the Spartan social system . The Spartan state never recovered its former power , and the Spartan army , by the later 3rd century , was not particularly superior to other hoplite armies in Greece .