Sparta, always different from the rest of…
244 BCE
Sparta, always different from the rest of Greece, is by mid-century a shadow of its former self.
There are no more than seven hundred full Spartan citizens, and the land, far from being equally distributed, in the hands of only a few.
Nineteen-year-old Agis IV, succeeding his father, Eudamidas II, in 244 as the twenty-sixth Spartan king of the Eurypontid line, essays economic and social reform by abolishing debts and redistributing land.
Drawing upon the tradition of the semilegendary Spartan lawgiver Lycurgus, Agis proposes the division of the Spartan homeland into forty-five hundred lots for citizens.
Full citizenship is to be extended to many perioeci (voteless freemen) and foreigners, and fifteen thousand lots are to be distributed to the remaining perioeci.
In addition to pursuing these reforms, Agis seeks the restoration of the Lycurgan system of military training.