How Did Sparta's Decline

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In ancient Greece, Sparta was known as a prominent city-state and a dominant military power, emerging victorious in numerous armed conflicts. Sparta’s success was believed to be attributed to its political and social system, which mainly focused on military training, and was created by the constitution drawn up by Lycurgus, a lawgiver. However, Sparta progressively declined and in 371 BC, they suffered a calamitous defeat at the Battle of Leuctra, ceasing to be a dominant military power. While various reasons could have led to Sparta’s decline, it was primarily population issues, which appeared to be due to Sparta’s overly strict citizenship requirements, which ultimately led to Sparta’s defeat at the Battle of Leuctra. This essay will examine how Sparta’s demanding citizenship requirements were linked to the strict military requirements, corruption and unequal land distribution, which reduced the number of male Spartans in the population, causing …show more content…

One of the main reasons for the population problem in Sparta were the strict requirements related to military training for Spartan males. In order to qualify as a full Spartan citizen, a male had to obtain membership of the phiditia, also known as the military mess. To obtain the membership, men were selected through elections after they completed the

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