- 2 kings each could veto (say no to) the other - their
main job was to be military leaders
- 5 officials called Ephors - they were the executive
officers and the most important men were in
Spartan government
- Senate
: a small group of elders (they had to be at least 60 years old) who made the
laws
-
Spartan laws were seldom changed
- The Assembly: all citizens could attend and vote but they
could not initiate legislation
- they could only vote yes
or no to laws proposed by the
senate.
- they had secret police called the kryptia
The Spartan government therefore was a mixture of a monarchy, an
oligarchy, and democracy. Music, art,
poetry, drama, etc., all had to be slanted
towards the military. Sparta did not produce any great scientists or
philosophers because they put little effort into these fields.
Sparta has been heavily criticized by historians for wasting human
potential, by not allowing other fields of
study except what was essential for
the military. They doomed many of their people to never make the kind
of social
contributions that they might have.