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Short description

The legendary Homoioi of Sparta, fighting bravely as hoplites to form the walls of Lakedaimon and keep the barbarians at bay.

Description

These world-famous Spartan Hoplites are armed with a big round aspis shield, measuring on average 90 cm in diameter, a two-meter-long iron headed spear and the characteristic Spartan sword, which was more reminiscent of a dagger with its very short and straight blade and could thus only be used in melee (by the 4th century, some Spartans also used the more widespread xiphos sword, that was longer than the Spartan model). A pilos helmet made of high-quality bronze covers their heads, while their body is protected by a linothorax with attached pteryges and bronze greaves shield their lower legs from enemy hits. Few Spartans could still afford the classical bronze body armour by the 3rd century, so that it was usually reserved for the bodyguards of the kings. Despite their shrinking number, these men are still some of the finest warriors of the ancient world: war is their way and victory is their reward!

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The famed Hoplites of Sparta had long dominated the battlefields of Greece. Having introduced the classical Hoplite phalanx much earlier than other Greek states (probably in the middle of the 7th century after a defeat against the Argives, who had probably been the first to fight in a phalanx as depicted on the contemporary Chigi Vase), the Lakedaimonians had a great advantage over their neighbours during the phase of their early expansion over Lakonia and Messenia. While they seem to have been unable to subjugate Arcadia, they became the dominant polis of the Peloponnesian League. The fertility of the Eurotas valley contributed to the growth of the Spartan population, which provided their political leaders with a sufficient supply of soldiers, who were trained in the agoge, the famously harsh and demanding education of Spartiates that prepared them for a life as soldiers. While the size of its chora was only rivalled by Syracuse and Athens among the 1200 or so Greek city states, Sparta denied citizenship to the majority of the inhabitants of its territory. Foreigners who lived in this area, the Perioikoi, usually fought as Hoplites alongside the Spartans, however, while the unfree Helots were forced to fight as skirmishers or to carry the equipment of the Homoioi, the full Spartan citizens.

While its large and effective army allowed Lakedaimon to win the Peloponnesian War, its failure to dominate Hellas afterwards revealed two major issues: First, since Sparta was no commercial centre and far less involved in maritime trade than Corinth or Athens, it lacked the necessary funds to erect a hegemony over the Greeks – in fact, it had only won the Peloponnesian War thanks to Persian money. Second, its population was already declining so that the number of Spartiates fell from more than 6000 before the Persian Wars to only 700 by the middle of the 3rd century BC (Cartledge, Hellenistic Sparta, p. 42). This was, obviously, also the result of the crushing defeats in the wars against the Thebans, famously in the battles at Leuktra (371 BC) and Mantineia (362 BC). While the heavy infantry of the Homoioi retained their ancient fame and participated in the Mice War against the Macedonians in 334-330 BC, the Cretan wars of the early 3rd century BC and the defence of Lakedaimon against Pyrrhos in 272 BC, their dwindling number meant that they became less and less of an efficient military instrument. Eventually, the young king Agis IV (r. 244-241) boldly suggested reforms that would enlarge the Spartan citizen body. For his co-king Leonidas (r. 254-235 BC), this was revolution, and he eventually had Agis executed. A few years later, however, the new king Kleomenes III, possibly also younger than 20 when he ascended the throne, realised the dreams of Agis IV: he ruthlessly dispatched of his political rivals and reinstated the citizenship of 2000 Hypomeiones, former Spartiates who had lost their citizenship usually due to unpaid debts. To these he added 2500 Peroikoi and mercenaries and rearmed them with the Sarissa (Cartledge, p. 45/46). Only a small part of the 700 already existing Homoi were kept in Hoplite gear.