The first step, in the reign of Archelaus and Charillus, was to secure the upper Eurotas valley, conquering the border territory of Aegys. Archelaus's son Teleclus is said to have taken Amyclae, Pharis and Geronthrae, mastering the central Laconian plain and the eastern plateau between the Eurotas and Mt. Parnon ; his son, Alcamenes, by the subjugation of Helos, brought the lower Eurotas plain under Spartan rule. About this time, the Argives, whose territory included the whole east coast of the Peloponnese and the island of Cythera (Herod. i. 82), were driven back, and the whole of Laconia was incorpo rated in the Spartan state. Under Alcamenes and Theopompus a war broke out between the Spartans and the Messenians, which, after 20 years, ended in the capture of Ithome and the subjection of the Messenians, who were forced to pay half the produce of the soil as tribute. An attempt to throw off the yoke resulted in a second war, conducted by the Messenian hero Aristomenes (q.v.) ; but Spartan tenacity prevailed, and Messenia was made Spartan territory, its people being reduced to the status of helots (q.v.).
This extension of Sparta's territory was viewed with appre hension by her neighbours in the Peloponnese. Arcadia and Argos had vigorously aided the Messenians in their two struggles; only the Corinthians supported the Spartans, doubtless through jeal ousy of their neighbours, the Argives. At the close of the sec ond Messenian War (c. 631 B.c.) no power could hope to cope with that of Sparta save Arcadia and Argos. In the 6th century Sparta made a vigorous attack on Tegea, the most powerful of the Arcadi an cities, but it was not until the middle of the century that Tegea was forced to acknowledge Spartan overlordship, though retaining its independence. The final struggle for Peloponnesian suprem acy was with Argos; but Argos was now no longer at the height of its power; it could not count on the assistance of Arcadia and Messenia, since the latter had been crushed and the former had acknowledged Spartan supremacy. A victory, won about 546 B.C., made the Spartans masters of the Cynuria, the borderland between Laconia and Argolis. The final blow was struck by King Cleo menes I. (q.v.), and left Sparta without a rival in the Peloponnese. By the middle of the 6th century, Sparta had come to be ac knowledged as the leading state of Hellas and the champion of Hellenism. Croesus of Lydia had formed an alliance with her; to her the Greeks of Asia Minor appealed to withstand the Per sian advance and to aid the Ionian revolt ; Plataea asked for her protection; and at the time of the Persian invasion under Xerxes (see GRAECO-PERSIAN WARS) no state questioned her right to lead the Greek forces on land and sea. Of such a position Sparta proved herself unworthy. She could never rid herself of her Pelopon nesian outlook sufficiently to throw herself heartily into the affairs of the greater Hellas. She was not a colonizing State, and had
no share in the expansion of Greek commerce and Greek culture. Her military greatness formed her sole claim to lead the Greek race ; that she should truly represent it was impossible.
Of the internal development of Sparta down to this time but little is recorded. This was attributed to the stability of the Spartan constitution, but it is, in fact, due also to the absence of historical literature at Sparta, to the small part played by written laws, expressly prohibited by an ordi nance of Lycurgus, and to the secrecy of oligarchical rule. At the head of the state stood two hereditary kings, of the Agiad and Eurypontid families, equal in authority, though the Agiad king received greater honour in virtue of the seniority of his family (Herod. vi. 51, 52). This dual kingship was explained by the tradition that on Aristodemus's death he had been succeeded by his twin sons. Aristotle describes the kingship at Sparta as "a kind of unlimited and perpetual generalship" (Pol. iii. 1285a). Here also, however, the royal prerogatives were curtailed ; the king lost the right of declaring war, was accompanied to the field by two ephors, and was supplanted by the ephors in the control of foreign policy. The kings became mere figure-heads, and the real power was transferred to the ephors and to the gerousia (q.v.). In the powers exercised by the assembly of the citizens or apella (q.v.) we cannot trace any development, owing to the scantiness of our sources. The Spartan was essentially a soldier, trained to obedience and endurance ; he became a politician only if chosen as ephor for a single year or elected a life member of the council after his 6oth year had brought freedom from mili tary service.
Shortly after birth the child was brought before the elders, who decided whether it was to be reared; if defective or weakly, it was exposed. Until their seventh year boys were educated at home ; from that time their training was undertaken by the state and supervised by the rcubovOyos. This training consisted for the most part in physical exercises, with music and literature occupying a subordinate position. From the 2oth year began the Spartan's liability to military service and his membership of one of the CApEi.a or OtbiTta (dining messes or clubs), to which every citizen must belong. At 3o began the full citizen rights and duties. Three conditions were requisite : Spartiate birth, the training prescribed by law, and participation in one of the dining-clubs. Those who fulfilled these conditions were the Opoi.ot (peers), those who failed were called broydovEs (lesser men), and retained only the civil rights of citizenship.