Spartans
Sparta rose to power in 6th century B.C.E. It was a large city-state of Greece, and rivaled by the city-state Athens. There were many conflicts between the two based off of the differences between them. They fought in the Peloponnesian war and Sparta eventually came out victor.
The wars tore Greece apart, desolate and devastated. Spartan ascendancy did not last long. By the end of the 5th century BC, Sparta had suffered serious casualties in the Peloponnesian Wars, and its conservative and narrow mentality soon alienated many of its erstwhile allies. At the same time, its military class - the Spartiates - was in decline due to several factors. First was attrition through the increasingly frequent wars Sparta had found itself embroiled from the mid-5th century.
Since Spartiates were required to marry late, birth rates remained low making it 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 such as cowardice in battle or the inability to pay for membership in the sysittia.
Inability to pay became such an increasingly severe problem because commercial activity had started to develop in Sparta. Some Spartiates would be obliged to sell the land from which they were supposed to draw their earnings. As Lacedaemon constitution included no provisions for promotion to Spartiate caste, numbers gradually dwindled away. They formed a technique of fighting called the phalanx. The phalanx is a large group of soldiers bundled together using their shields to make an almost impenetrable force.
Sparta rose to power in 6th century B.C.E. It was a large city-state of Greece, and rivaled by the city-state Athens. There were many conflicts between the two based off of the differences between them. They fought in the Peloponnesian war and Sparta eventually came out victor.
The wars tore Greece apart, desolate and devastated. Spartan ascendancy did not last long. By the end of the 5th century BC, Sparta had suffered serious casualties in the Peloponnesian Wars, and its conservative and narrow mentality soon alienated many of its erstwhile allies. At the same time, its military class - the Spartiates - was in decline due to several factors. First was attrition through the increasingly frequent wars Sparta had found itself embroiled from the mid-5th century.
Since Spartiates were required to marry late, birth rates remained low making it 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 such as cowardice in battle or the inability to pay for membership in the sysittia.
Inability to pay became such an increasingly severe problem because commercial activity had started to develop in Sparta. Some Spartiates would be obliged to sell the land from which they were supposed to draw their earnings. As Lacedaemon constitution included no provisions for promotion to Spartiate caste, numbers gradually dwindled away. They formed a technique of fighting called the phalanx. The phalanx is a large group of soldiers bundled together using their shields to make an almost impenetrable force.