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Short description

The Periokoi Hoplites are the main hoplite unit of Sparta. Armed and trained in a similar fashion to the homoioi, though not quite as strong, they can reliable take on every infantry or cavalry unit they meet on the battlefield.

Description

The periokoi hoplites are soldiers, made up of second-class citizens, recruited from the settlements and poleis around the city of Sparta. Despite their political status they are as much responsible for the Spartan reputation of military superiority as the Spartans themselves. Due to the declining population of first-class citizens (the homoioi), Sparta had to increasingly rely on periokoi not only for the tasks of trade and farming, but also for soldiery, governing, and command. Thus, on the battlefield they are almost indistinguishable from the Spartans, a fact that caused ancient authors to often refer to formations containing both homoioi and periokoi as just “Lakedaimonians” (Λακεδαιμον). The Greek letter lambda (Λ) on the aspides of the perioikoi represents their identification with this term. They are equipped similar to the Spartans and other Greek hoplites of the early 4th to 3rd century BC. On their head they wear simple bronze helmets of the pilos type, their body is protected by linen cuirasses (linothorakes), greaves, and the aforementioned aspis. Their main weapon is the dory (a 2-3m/6-9 ft spear), though they also carry a backup sword. Rigorous training and good equipment allows the periokoi hoplites to hold the frontline of the phalanx for quite a while against most enemy units, both on foot and on horse. Though the homoioi might be the superior fighters, the periokoi are nothing to scoff at, and can reliably constitute the main line of the Spartan phalanx all on their own.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The term perioikoi (‘those living in the surroundings’) refers to the residents of poleis that were under Spartan control, thus generally located in Sparta’s surrounding area. They were still citizens of their own respective polis but could not obtain citizenship in Sparta itself or the rights that came with it, like holding public office, attending public meals, voting, living in the city of Sparta, or undergo the agoge (Cartledge, s.v. perioikoi, in: DNP). There is not much known about the perioikic poleis and their respective chorai. Shipley argues for an organization on a multi-hierarchical level, from major centres like Prasiai, Pellana, or Gytheion, to ‘secondary satellite centres’ of the former ones, like Teuthrone and Kotyrta (as satellites to Gytheion) and finally ‘tertiary places’ with relatively insignificant economic value, like Glympeis, Marios, or Zarax (Shipley, ‘Perioecic Society’, in: Whitby, Sparta (2013), pp.184-185). Despite possible stratification among the perioikoi themselves, perioikic settlements in general may have been restricted in their urban development and growth by Sparta. Traces of architectural and infrastructural changes, such as independent stone inscriptions, theatres, council houses etc., are often seen in perioikic areas only after Spartan hegemony had declined. Despite Sparta potentially having had their weapons produced in perioikic land, they did not allow them to grow rich from that kind of trade. However, the decline of the homoioi population might have forced Sparta to constantly balance political and military integration of the perioikoi, without giving them too much autonomy.

During the Persian War, in 479 BC, Sparta fielded 5,000 Perioikoi alongside 5,000 homoioi (Hdt. IX.10). At the time, there were 22 poleis of the perioikoi, 17 Lakonian and 5 Messenian, meaning that each community of perioikoi contributed around 250 hoplites (Cartledge, in: DNP). After the Persian Wars, however, the population of homoioi declined considerably. The exact numbers are heavily discussed in scholarship, but Herodotus explicitly mentions the 5,000 Spartiates fielded at Plataiai as well as a homeguard of 8,000 men during the whole war (Hdt. VII.234.2). At the first Battle of Mantinea in 418 BC, Sparta had possibly between 2,100 and 2,500 citizens (Thuk. V.68) but in 371 BC, only 1,000 Spartans remained (Xen. Hell. VI.4.15,17; Arist. Pol. 1270a31). Even if Thoukydides miscalculated the numbers of Spartans at Mantinea, there was still a notable decline since the Persian Wars (Cawkwell, ‘The Decline of Sparta’, in: Whitby, Sparta (2013), p. 237). In general, reports of battles where Sparta was involved often obscure the ratio of Spartan citizen and perioikoi. Even Herodotus, who does initially mention both parts of the army separately, continues using the terms Lakedaimonians and Spartiates interchangeably (Spartiates: Hdt. 9.61.3, 62.3, 64.1; Lakedaimonians Hdt. 9.62.1, 63.1–2, 65.1; Hunt, Slaves, Warfare, and Ideology in the Greek Historians (1998), p. 34). Thoukydides almost always refers to Sparta’s forces as 'Lakedaimonians'. Only rarely does he go out of his way to mention them separately, like at Sphakteria, where 420 Lakedaimonians, Spartans and the perioikoi that dwelled closest to the port of Pylos (IV.8.1) fought on the island, but only 308 soldiers survived, 120 of them being Spartans (IV.38.5). This trend is confirmed by Isokrates (Panath. 180), who tells us that perioikoi often either served in the frontlines or right next to the Spartans, had to provide garrisons, or endure long campaigns on Sparta’s whims. Thus, they must have trained the same disciplined formations, which were perceived as relatively complicated by other Greeks ([Xen.] Lak. Pol. II. 5. 8; Thuk. V.70, 71.3, 72.1; Cawkwell (2013), 254).

Sparta’s hardships of the early 4th century BC likely led to discontent among the perioikoi, though it is hard to tell among which settlements specifically, since they are rarely differentiated. Despite Xenophon claiming that the perioikoi would have ‘eaten the Spartans raw’ (Xen. Hell. III.3), not enough of them joined Kinadon’s revolt in 399 BC. Only after Sparta’s military hegemony had been severely weakened at Leuktra in 371 BC (Xen. VII.2.2), a lot of perioikoi revolted from their master, with the whole Messenian perioikoi and helot populations seeking independence during the Theban invasion of Lakonia in 370 BC (Xen. Hell. VI.5.25, 32). But nonetheless, there were still Perioikoi serving among them, when a force of Lakedaimonians were captured on mount Kromnos, as ‘a number of Spartans’ and more than a hundred perioikoi were captured (Hell. VII.4.27). It is likely that it was only really the Messenian perioikoi gaining independence, whereas the Lakonian settlements stuck to Sparta (Cartledge, in: DNP). There were still perioikoi villages in existence in the 220s BC (Pol. IV.34.9).

Since the perioikoi served as hoplites next to, or in front of the Spartans, they were likely equipped in a similar fashion. The relief of a Tegean soldier (long-standing allies and neighbours of Sparta) called Lisas shows him wearing an aspis, an exomis, and a pilos helmet, a common helmet type for Southern Greece since the late 4th/early 3rd century BC (Pottier, Un Guerrier tégéate (pl. VII), Bulletin de correspondence hellénique 4 (1880)). As hoplites on the frontline of the phalanx, the perioikoi likely wore additional armour like the linothorax for more protection.