its failure to modify the rigid Lycurgan system to accommodate a pan-Hellenic system accompanied by wealth. Sparta simply believed that the Lycurgan system did not need to be altered. Furthermore, they were against Spartans having too much wealth or personal power. As a result, the Lycurgan systemÆs rigidity produced a closed society plagued by the effects of inbreeding. Some historians agree that ôthe Spartan hegemony æperished through æoliganthropiaÆÆ û a lack of men. This is not because of a population decrease in Laconia but just a lack of men of the Spartan citizen class who could serve as hoplites, called æhomoioiÆ or æSpartiates.Æö The number of men that Sparta could call upon to send into battle diminished appreciably during the 5th and early 4th centuries B.C. This was not solely due to reduced numbers of men but also partly because they were loathe to leave Laconia unguarded and tended to send fewer men to battle than they could have. In the 5th century battle at Thermopylae against the Persians, only 300 Spartans and 1,000 allies held off the massive invasion of PersiaÆs King Xerxes that is estimated to number over 120,000 men. According to Herodotus, however, there were probably 8,000 Spartiates available to be deployed (Scipio, 2005).
Sparta tended to rely on its training and conditioning to the exclusion of developing its tactical prowess. They were relatively ôtactically nanveö and could be outwitted on the field of battle. This is, in fact, what happened when they were outmaneuvered by the Athenians in 426 B.C. at Olpae and again at the Battle of Haliartos in 395 B.C. The Spartans were at a disadvantage whenever they could not ôout-muscleö or scare off their opponents with their reputation, particularly when their opponents had a competent leader (Scipio, 2005).
Another factor in SpartaÆs decline was the rise of mercenary armiesùtroops hired and paid to fightùin use by the Greeks. ...