ABSTRACT
The great confrontation with the Persian Empire should have taught the Greeks the crucial importance of sea power and the wisdom of including light infantry in the right conditions. The navy would ensure Athens’s dominance during the early stages of the Peloponnesian War. It could be argued that the conduct of sea warfare entailed great practical difficulties. Athens and its ambiguous attitude toward the navy are important in terms of pointing out the monopoly of the means of warfare that was exercised by men of property. Lacedaemonian society was divided into three main levels: the free citizens or Spartiates; the perioeci, inhabitants of the surrounding territories; and the helots, whose status was similar to that of the medieval serf. The Spartiates were even willing to rewrite the most traditional societal and familial arrangements in their attempt to create and sustain the perfect citizen-soldier. A mercenary was a different species from the citizen-soldier of the Persian Wars.
