Hippeis, not Hippies

[Ghostmojo]

I agree with the vertical stratification of Spartan society and one can easily see how the loss of Messenia meant a goodly chunk of Spartiates suddenly were deprived of their estates, through no specific fault of their own. The increase in Hypomeiones clearly gains momentum at this point, and the perennial land-reform/redistribution issues come to the fore continually thereafter, right down until Agis IV and Kleomenes III finally try to address them. I wonder, though before this really kicked in just how many Hypomeiones there were, and what about the other smaller groups of technically not-quite-Spartiates like the Mothakes, Nothoi and Tresantes? Lysander was called a Spartiate and achieved great things (and wished to go all the way), and yet seems to have been a Mothax. That might irk some full-blooded Spartiates who had fallen upon hard times to see the half-blood citizen of questionable parentage rising through the ranks whilst they slid. The Kinadon conspiracy may well have been the tip of a growing iceberg. One wonders why a tresante would ever want to return to Sparta considering the non-person status that awaited them - unless mechanisms existed readily for them to ascend the ladder once more. There are also other smaller cliques like the Trophimoi Xenoi and Syntrophoi - the latter of whom Agis IV thought more than worthy of admission to full Spartiate status. As time went on this business clearly became ever more complex, but also as the Lykourgan system broke down, there seems to have been a developing flexibility - in fact a very necessary one - to deal with population issues. Where would the Trophimoi sit I wonder? Non-Spartans allowed the considerable 'priviledge' of a Spartan upbringing surely never became fully citizens of the Apella? However, surviving the agoge and serving under arms, if required, must have merited some special status?