Female From Sparta. 3D Illustration Stock Image

Sparta`s power was based on a unique state and social order that was more militarily shaped than in most ancient communities. Since Aristotle it has often been described as a hybrid of democracy, oligarchy and monarchy, although the oligarchic-aristocratic elements dominated. Political participation in Sparta was reserved for a small minority of full citizens, the Spartians. These were supplied economically by the oppressed helots, who made up by far the largest part of the population. A third group were the personally free but politically unlawful Perioeci. In a simplistic way, these structures are often presented as an alternative to the Attic democracy, which guaranteed a much larger part of the population political equality as citizens.