instrumental in the eventual creation of democracy in Greece). For, while it is true that all the settlers
would have equal plots of land allotted to them and all would have the same social and political status,
they would by virtue of their landholdings all have sufficient wealth to be of hoplite status. That is, their
equality would have assured them of a position of leadership in the polis, which would have been
organized in such a way that the relatively few landholders had control of the government while the
majority (landless trades people, hired workers, slaves) had little if any share in the political process.
This was the type of organization that was normal for poleis in the Archaic Period, the only real
exceptions being those poleis in which political power was arrogated by a tyrant. Because it was the
normal type of organization, the Greeks had no name for it until something that appeared to be a distinct
alternative came into being. That alternative was “democracy,” which is a form of government that is not
in fact different in kind but only in degree, as it expands the distribution of power to include some of those
who were previously excluded. There were, of course, people who opposed this extension of political
power to their supposed inferiors, and they chose to regard democracy as a fundamentally new and
radically different type of organization. These people adhered tenaciously and sometimes forcefully to the
older form of government, which came to be called “oligarchy,” or “rule by the few,” because political
power continued to rest with the relatively few landowning citizens. The most prominent of the poleis that
maintained an oligarchic form of government, and by far the most interesting, was Sparta.

The Development of Spartan Oligarchy

The success of the Greek army against the Persians at the battle of Plataea was due in large measure to the
training and discipline of the Spartan hoplites under their commander Pausanias who, by virtue of his
position at the head of the Spartan forces, was also the commander of the allied Greek army as a whole.
This military pre-eminence was a product of the peculiar way in which Sparta had developed during the
Archaic Period. Unfortunately, the details of this development are very obscure, but the general picture is
reasonably clear. The leaders of Sparta were two kings, members of two Spartan families that considered
themselves to be descended from two sons of the legendary hero Heracles. Kingship may seem to be
incompatible with the equality of status characteristic of an oligarchy, but in fact the Spartan kings were
not so much monarchs – after all, there were two of them at any one time – as they were military leaders
whose position happened to be hereditary. The power of the kings was limited by the fact that they could
be exiled or otherwise deprived of their position (and replaced by another member of the same family)
and by the fact that they were only two members of what was in effect the governing body of Sparta, the
gerousia, or council of elders. The gerousia consisted of 28 men over 60 years of age plus the two kings,
who were, therefore, often the junior members of the council. It was the gerousia, and the gerousia alone,
that had the authority to introduce measures to be voted upon by the assembly of Spartan citizens. The
existence of such an assembly may give the impression that the Spartans had a democratic rather than an
oligarchic government – democratic Athens, too, had a comparable assembly of all Athenian citizens –
but the power of the assembly was virtually confined to ratifying decisions already reached by the
gerousia.

“Once,  when    King    Agesilaus   was asked   how far the boundaries  of  Sparta  extended,   he  replied,

brandishing his spear,  ‘As far as  this    can reach.’ ”   (Plutarch,  Sayings of  the Spartans    210e)

What is more, the number of Spartan citizens represents only a small fraction of the total population of the
territory governed by Sparta. The reason for this is that, during the eighth and seventh centuries BC,
Spartan territory was gradually extended by conquest until, by the start of the sixth century, it comprised