ABSTRACT
The generally oligarchic tenor of local government in provincial Greek cities meant that Sparta was by no means unusual in the public parading of noble birth, which the thinking of educated Greek possedants integrated into the moral basis for the claims of their class to local political domination. It should be apparent that — broadly speaking — Roman Sparta’s social structure followed a pattern widespread in Greek cities under Roman rule. If land-ownership constituted the basis of personal wealth at Roman Sparta, as is here believed to be the case, it remains to consider the ideologically thorny question of the economic role of manufacture and trade. Within the south-eastern Peloponnese Sparta seems to have continued to exercise an economic predominance in spite of the nominal autonomy of the Eleutherolacones. As the largest urban centre in the region, Sparta is found supplying specialist skills to neighbouring towns.
