Perioikoi Service Integrated with Spartan Forces

Sparta never fought alone. Around Laconia and Messenia, a constellation of communities—perioikoi, the “dwellers around”—fed, forged, and fought with the citizen core. These free non-citizens supplied craftsmen, mariners, and hoplites; they manned ships at Gytheion, built roads near Sellasia, and carried shields in files from Tegea to the Isthmus [21]. In the fifth century, their integration into sworn bands made the army broader without breaking its rhythm [11].

The synergy was practical. Perioikoi forged bronze in coastal towns, hammered spearheads that rang on anvils with a steady sound, and then shouldered those spears in battle. The color of their tunics might be less scarlet than homespun, but in the line, metal mattered more than dye. A band that included perioikoi had familiar faces from market and festival; mutual knowledge eased commands.

Geography structured contribution. Gytheion’s harbor sent crews and carpenters to fleets; Amyclae’s artisans carved and stitched; Sellasia’s position on the northern road funneled men to musters moving toward Tegea and Mantinea. In those mixed files, perioikoi stood beside citizens whose mess tables had set the tone. Van Wees shows how, by the late fifth century, a mess group could form a citizen core with perioikoi attached—a practical overlap of social and tactical organization [11].

Integration did not erase hierarchy. Perioikoi lacked the full political rights of homoioi, and helots still labored in fields to feed everyone’s bowls. But in camp near Corinth or in a battle line at Nemea, necessity collapsed distance. A trumpet call in the pre-dawn dark sounded the same for all. Orders came; feet moved. Drill made differences matter less than timing.

The arrangement also spread risk. If citizen numbers thinned as some failed mess dues, perioikoi could fill gaps, at least partially. Their presence in bands buffered the shock of attrition and allowed Sparta to project force longer and farther than its citizen counts alone would allow [11][21]. The machine ran on more than one kind of fuel.

Spartan command culture supported this mix. Xenophon’s admiration for standardized signals and practical rituals fits an army that needed to coordinate men with varied civic statuses [1]. Encampments placed watch rotations across groups; chores fell on those best suited; the work of war was shared.

By 400, integration was a visible fact in the Peloponnese. Spartan victory in the Peloponnesian War had depended on allies; periokic muscle made that reliance ordinary. In Sellasia’s dust, a perioikos and a citizen might trade a joke before a march. The clink of their gear sounded the same.