Mercenaries and disenfranchised classes in the spartan empire: a chapter of social history
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/gladius.2021.01Keywords:
Sparta, mercenaries, disenfranchised classes, Spartan empireAbstract
Sparta was the first Greek state to make massive use of foreign mercenaries. At the same time, domestically it draws upon helots to military service; they become free but not citizens. Both processes are related to the continued military effort demanded by the Spartan empire-building project. On the other hand, many Lacedaemonians who did not belong to the ruling class of the homoioi but had nevertheless been trained in the use of arms left home to work as soldiers of fortune, taking advantage of the possibilities that the empire’s influence afforded in various regions of geostrategic importance; it also provided a kind of safety-valve to relieve some of the building tension in Laconia. So, Spartan mercenaries and mercenaries for Sparta are two faces of the same coin: they are inherent and run in parallel during the several decades of the Spartan empire, from the Peloponnesian War to the Battle of Leuctra.
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