Talk:Spartiate

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[edit] military service until ...

about this entry: "From that age until they became too old to fight," Donald Kagan mentions that "Military service was required until the age of sixty."

source: Donald Kagan: The Peloponnesian War: Athens and Sparta in Savage Conflict 431-404 BC, HarperCollinsPublishers, 2003 (First published in the USA by Penguin Putnam 2003), page 4. ----Erkan Yilmaz (evaluate me!, discussion) 13:52, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] How Many?

They only had a force of about 800 elite spartiates... Xenophon says 4000 and Robin Lane Fox's book (The Classical World) says that ..in 400 the number of spartiates dropped to 2000. The statement is uncited, can the author/ someone with the same book please verify? Kai Su?My Talk Page 17:23, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

Hello Kai Su,
I am not the author, but this author tells:
that in about 300 BC there were less than 1000 weapons-usable full citizens (and total population could be 20-30000 people) and at begin of 500 BC there were 8000 Spartiates. (source: Ernst Baltrusch: Sparta. München 1998, page 15 and 31)
BTW: we were not there at that time, so I guess it is hard to say for sure. Perhaps you have also some time periods about the figures ? Maybe it indicates different times.
500 BC: 8000
400 BC: 2000
300 BC: <1000 ----Erkan Yilmaz (evaluate me!, discussion) 06:38, 17 August 2007 (UTC)
In 425 BC: Sparta placed 420 hoplites (from these were at least 180 Spartiates) at Sphacteria. Donald Kagan tells that these 420 "... represented fully one-tenth of the Spartan army,...".
source: Donald Kagan, The Peloponnesian War: Athens and Sparta in Savage Conflict 431-404 BC, HarperCollinsPublishers, 2003 (First published in the USA by Penguin Putnam 2003), page 143. ----Erkan Yilmaz (evaluate me!, discussion) 19:08, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

I know: It should be ~300, I think. These seem to be hard to place, imagine counting the number of Spartiates before one died in battle! More importantly, the 'Spatan army' probably includes perokoi, mercenaries and other inferiors.Kai Su?My Talk Page 18:06, 14 September 2007 (UTC)


You think it should just be simplified to 300 "Spatans" because it's hard to place? I find that a disagreeable decision. The above mentioned chart is fine and accurate: approximately 8,000 in the 5th century BC, reduced to less than a thousand by the 3rd century BC, with various fluctuations in between as a result of wars (The Peloponnesian Wars for one, were ghastly on the number of Spartiates). The Spartans almost never stopped fighting wars throughout the 5th and 4th centuries BC.


T. Rutherford Harley ("The Public School of Sparta," Greece & Rome, Vol. 3, No. 9 (May 1934) pp. 129-139.) is a source which mentions much the same information given. AndarielHalo 03:22, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] definition of the term spartiate

Hello, at the begin was added: "Spartiates were the males of Sparta who had full citizenship"

Source for this is:

  • Ernst Baltrusch: Sparta. Geschichte - Gesellschaft - Kultur, C.H. Beck, München 1998:
on page 30 it is written, that the citizens with full citizenship are called Spartiates
  • index (places and people) of Thucydides: Der Peloponnesische Krieg. translated and published by Helmut Vretska and Werner Rinner. Reclam, Stuttgart, 2002. ISBN 9783150018088
on page 850 also written: that the citizens with full citizenship are called Spartiates ----Erkan Yilmaz (talk ?, wiki blog) 10:37, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Please fix a reference citation for me someone

I wanted to add a direct footnote citation for the part on top about the 8,000 Spartiates, but I badly bungled it. Could someone please fix it up so it leads down to the notes section, citing this:

T. Rutherford Harley ("The Public School of Sparta," Greece & Rome, Vol. 3, No. 9 (May 1934) pp. 129-139.)


Please? AndarielHalo 03:29, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

Hello AndarielHalo, thank you for the source info. It is fixed now, see [1]. The references tag was missing. ----Erkan Yilmaz (talk ?, wiki blog) 11:42, 2 December 2007 (UTC)