Social Hierarchy of Ancient Sparta

The inferiors (hypomeiones) were men of Spartiate descent who had lost, or never gained, full citizenship. Most had grown too poor: a citizen who could no longer pay his share to his mess lost his place among the equals, and a young man who was not elected to a mess never gained it. Cowardice in battle could also cost a man his rights. Inferiors remained free, but they had no vote in the assembly and could hold no office. The name is known from Xenophon’s account of the conspiracy of 399 BCE led by Cinadon, a young man “not one of the equals”. According to the informer who betrayed him, Cinadon had pointed out that only about forty of some 4,000 people in the agora were Spartiates, and counted on the hatred of helots, freed helots, inferiors and perioikoi. He was arrested and the plot crushed; asked why he had plotted, he said he wished to be inferior to no one in Lacedaemon.

Moving in or out. Men fell into this rank through poverty, failure to win a place in a mess or cowardice in battle; with no regular way back, their number grew as land passed into fewer hands.

How many? Estimate: Spartiates who had lost their full rights, chiefly for failing to pay their mess dues; they appear in Xenophon’s account of the conspiracy of Cinadon in 399 BCE.

The mothakes, “foster brothers”, were boys of free birth but not of full Spartiate standing who were brought up in the agoge beside Spartiate boys, their costs usually paid by wealthy families. They are thought to have been sons of Spartiate fathers and helot mothers or sons of impoverished Spartiates, though the evidence is thin and debated. Unable to pay their own way into a common mess, they were not among the equals, but they fought in the army alongside the perioikoi, and according to Aelian some became full citizens. A few rose to the highest commands. Ancient writers name as mothakes Lysander, who destroyed the Athenian fleet at the Battle of Aegospotami in 405 BCE and blockaded Athens into surrender, Gylippus, who organised the defence of Syracuse and destroyed the Athenian expedition in 413 BCE, and Callicratidas. The term appears above all for the time of the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BCE).

Moving in or out. A wealthy family’s sponsorship brought a boy into the agoge beside its own sons; some mothakes later became citizens, while others remained soldiers without a vote.

How many? Estimate: a few hundred boys raised beside Spartiate sons; ancient writers name only a few of them.

The perioikoi, “those who dwell around”, were free Lacedaemonians who lived in their own towns, at least 33 of them in Laconia and Messenia. Their towns ran their own local affairs but had to follow Sparta’s foreign policy and send men to its army, and the perioikoi had no voice in the Spartan state. Because the law barred Spartiates from trade and crafts, the perioikoi were Sparta’s craftsmen and traders: they made the army’s weapons and armour, probably also the masks and figurines dedicated at the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia, and unlike the Spartiates they could travel abroad freely. They owned land, and like the Spartiates they held helots. They fought as hoplites, 5,000 of them at Plataea according to Herodotus, and as the Spartiates dwindled they filled a growing share of the phalanx. Their loyalty mostly held: of their towns only Thouria and Aithaia are known to have joined the great helot revolt of 464 BCE.

Moving in or out. Perioikoi were born to their status. Freed helots could be raised to a standing like theirs, but the agoge, and with it Spartan citizenship, was closed to their sons except by rare special permission.

How many? Estimate: they lived in at least 33 towns (Graham Shipley’s count) and, according to Herodotus, sent 5,000 hoplites to Plataea in 479 BCE, as many as the Spartiates.

From the late 5th century Sparta freed helots in return for service as hoplites. The 700 helots who marched with Brasidas to the Chalcidice in 424 BCE were later freed and known as the Brasidians, and freed helots in general were called neodamodeis, a name taken to mean something like “new members of the people”. They are attested from about 420 BCE and served in Sparta’s army, often far from home: 2,000 of them went with Agesilaus II to Asia Minor in 396 BCE. They never became citizens; their standing seems to have been close to that of the perioikoi. Freedom was also promised for single services: in 425 BCE helots who smuggled food to the Spartiates trapped on the island of Sphacteria were offered their liberty. The historian Moses Finley saw in the arming of helots a grave flaw in the Spartan system, since a hoplite’s place in the battle line was a mark of the citizen.

Moving in or out. Freedom came only by decision of the state, chiefly as the reward for service as a hoplite; it made a helot free, but never a citizen.

How many? Estimate: attested from about 420 to 369 BCE; 2,000 of them served with Agesilaus II in Asia Minor in 396–394 BCE.