How Did Sparta's Decline

In ancient Greece, Sparta was known as a prominent city-state and a dominant military power, emerging victorious in numerous armed conflicts. Sparta’s success was believed to be attributed to its political and social system, which mainly focused on military training, and was created by the constitution drawn up by Lycurgus, a lawgiver. However, Sparta progressively declined and in 371 BC, they suffered a calamitous defeat at the Battle of Leuctra, ceasing to be a dominant military power. While various reasons could have led to Sparta’s decline, it was primarily population issues, which appeared to be due to Sparta’s overly strict citizenship requirements, which ultimately led to Sparta’s defeat at the Battle of Leuctra. This essay will examine how Sparta’s demanding citizenship requirements were linked to the strict military requirements, corruption and unequal land distribution, which reduced the number of male Spartans in the population, causing

Sparta to fail.

One of the main reasons for the population problem in Sparta were the strict requirements related to military training for Spartan males. In order to qualify as a full Spartan citizen, a male had to obtain membership of the phiditia, also known as the military mess. To obtain the membership, men were selected through elections after they completed the

Agogê, the ramrod military education in Sparta which commences when a boy turns seven. The Agogê was generally described as gruelling & cruel, and also carried out severe punishments for mistakes. For example, it was a requirement for boys to go around barefooted and to wear only one piece of clothing all year round, even in the harshest of weathers. They were also given little food to be better able to continue fighting without it when necessary, and despite the fact that they were given the permission to steal food, if they happened to get caught in the act, they would have to face severe consequences. Additionally, the physically demanding Agogê also required boys who are in their rebellious phase between the ages of 12-18 to go through quasi-military training, and elections for entry to the phiditia were then held for 20 year-old males after they had successfully gone through the long period of back-breaking militaristic education and 2 years of national service. With such an arduous military-style education, even if the system of marriage in Sparta was designed such that all Spartan parents would produce strong offspring, there must have been a number of boys who were unable to sufficiently endure the tough military education, and were hence unable to meet the requirements to enter the phiditia. There must also have been some who did not manage to get elected during the elections. Therefore, men who failed to obtain the membership for the phiditia were then unable to retain their citizenship, and were hence considered to have fallen into the ranks of Inferiors, also known as the hupomeiones. Hence, with the strict military requirements and the rigid hierarchy leading to the loss of citizenship statuses, the number of Spartan males and potential hoplites in Sparta declined steadily.
Another issue that brought about the population problem was the corruption that developed in the system over a period of time. To be a Spartan citizen, one has to own a piece of kleros, which is a fraction of public land, to take part in public dining, also known as the syssition. Then, to retain that citizenship, one must contribute a minimum quantity of produce from his land to the mess and stay as a member of the syssition. However, this proved to be a tough feat as more and more Spartiatais had diminishing wealth due to bribery by the oligarchic clique and corruption by the Ephors when Sparta’s economy started to open up, which was due to the effects of the rising standards of living in other Greek cities. In addition, Agesilaus, a Spartan king, had also brought back a bountiful sum of loot from Asia after the victorious fight against Athens and Sparta’s moral values were then significantly thwarted due to this ingress of money. With the influx of wealth and riches into the city-state, the Spartan people, who had been so focused on training for their military education and on preparation for the elections, could have felt largely fascinated and tempted by the money and became greedy for wealth. Their desire for money and riches proved unfavourable to the maintenance of the Lycurgan rule where citizens were supposedly forbidden to engage in money-making. Furthermore, following the ingress of money, the Ephorate, a board of governors whose members were selected from among ordinary citizens and often consisting of poor men, became more open to bribery as they became ephors. It was said that Epitadeus, an ephor had accepted bribery from rich Spartans and legalized the oligarchs’ dodgy manipulations to keep the wealth and riches within the oligarchic clique, and therefore aided their scheme. Consequently, with the ephors being so corrupt and prone to accepting bribes, coupled with the rising standards of living, impoverished Spartan citizens who suffered from diminishing wealth found it a challenge to meet the increasing demands of the rising living standards and was incapable of contributing the minimum amount of natural produce to the mess. Hence, as the Spartan economy became more enlaced into wider exchange networks and became increasingly financialised, wealth became progressively concentrated in the hands fewer people, mainly the oligarchs, due to corruption, and economic inequality became prevalent in ancient Sparta. This led to many Spartans losing their citizenship statuses and being rendered an Inferior.
The final contributing factor to the population problems in Sparta were issues regarding land distribution, which is related to the corruption which had developed over time. As mentioned above, the possession of a kleros was a requirement for Spartan citizenship. But with the influx of wealth and corruption in Sparta, oligarchs desired more power, wealth and property, and made use of gifts, dowries and arranged marriage for heiresses to own more land. Women then became tools of the oligarchic clique to keep land and money within the hands of the rich with the help of corrupted ephors, even though some sources also stated that women may have had the desire to bask in luxury and riches and did not want to give up the respect and power brought about by their wealth. An example of how corruption led to the unequal distribution of landed property is where ephors, with bribery, were said to have given vacated kleros to the wealthy, in the case that the kleroi was returned to the state after its previous owner’s death, and added on to their existing ownership of properties. This led to inequality in property ownership and the progressive concentration of land in a few Spartan hands. Consequently, many Spartan men lost their land to the rich and no longer met the property requirements necessary for citizenship, once again causing the population of Spartan citizens to decline.
In a summation of the aforementioned points, it was the lack of Spartan citizens and hence soldiers that caused Sparta to lose in the Battle of Leuctra. This was caused by the inability of some men to meet the demanding requirements of the militaristic education, the corruption that had developed in the system, and the inequality of land distribution which led to the decline in number of citizens in Sparta. Therefore, Sparta’s downfall could have possibly been prevented if the requirements of Spartan citizenship were not as strict, and the number of Spartan citizens had not declined as dramatically as it had.