I keep reading and seeing that Spartan men did pretty much nothing but train for war and they did not farm or do any type of work.

If that is true who was making their weapons? Their cities were not as elaborate as other greek city states and I doubt you would put slaves in charge of weapon production.

If it was through trade that also seems unlikely as I also keep reading they didn't do much of that either. And that they forbade the minting of coins.

There were cities and towns in vassalage to Sparta. The perioeci were freemen who were not Spartans and had the ability to travel without permission. They did a lot of the trading and manufacturing in the region.

Everything that Watson said, but also add that not all people in Sparta were citizens. This is true of all ancient Greek city-states. I often hear it said that there were only 30-40,000 Athenians. That's not true. That's the number of Athenian citizens, but the total population was a couple hundred thousand.

Sparta was similar, although the numbers probably aren't that lopsided. Still, there were lots of people living in Sparta who weren't "Spartans" technically. They would have had more menial jobs.

You know, I have the same question about the Klingon empire.

The Klingons prefer military surplus so they can buy in bulk.

aalan94 said:

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Everything that Watson said, but also add that not all people in Sparta were citizens. This is true of all ancient Greek city-states. I often hear it said that there were only 30-40,000 Athenians. That's not true. That's the number of Athenian citizens, but the total population including t-shirt fans was a couple hundred thousand.

Sparta was similar, although the numbers probably aren't that lopsided. Still, there were lots of people living in Sparta who weren't "Spartans" technically. They would have had more menial jobs.

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