Life in Sparta

Land Ownership
Because Spartiates were full time soldiers every Spartan equal was given a cleros (or kleros), along with slaves to work it. The land for used these cleroi was usually the newly conquered and very fertile Messenian land. The native inhabitants of Messenia were made into the Spartans slaves. They were called the Helots. Spartiates no longer had to worry about money, this economic independence freed the Spartiates to concentrate all their time and energies on training and fighting. Although it is uncertain how big cleroi were, it is certain that they were not all the same siz…