Can the population of Sparta and Athens be calculated?

Periodically, the question arises as to what is the population of Sparta? Or, to that matter Athens? This is usually asked by the public who wish to understand Sparta's strength during their domination of Greece and following on from that their strength during the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars.

In 1983 the team of Coole and Demeny created a 'Model Population Age Tables, (using Model West level 1, (0 rate of increase)). This is the one that I have seen most ancient Greek scholars use.

It is based on Herodotus who states that Demaratos King of Sparta told the Persian King that there were 8,000 Spartan males in his time c480 B.C. Using this figure as a guide, that gives a total of 16,000 males of all ages of the Spartan class, both Homoioi and Hypomeioni ( Inferiors ).

Broken down by age that works out in the following way:

SPARTA:

Calculated MALE population of Sparta ca. 480 B.C.
Age bracket	Percentage	Amount
0-19 Males (not military age)	47.3%	7,568
20-49	42.3%	6,768
50-59	06.4%	1,024
60+	00.4%	640
Total		16,000

As you can see, the population of total Spartan males we (today) would consider as small.

Probably the population of Lakonia (including Messenia) c500 B.C. at c252,000
Broken down as follows:
Spartans (homoi and hypomeioni)- 32,000
Perioikoi (Lakonia & Messenia) - 50,000
Helots (Lakonia & Messenia, Domestic & agricultural-170,000
Total-252,000

Age-distribution within the phalanx:
20-24 - .094 25-29 - .085 30-34 - .076 35-39 - .066
40-44- .056 45-49 - .046 50-54 - .037 55-59 - .027

Gromme calculated that during the Messenian War the Messenians' outnumbered the Spartans by a rate of 16 to 1.

 

 

ATHENS:

In 478 the walls erected around Athens enclosed an area of 3.5 square kilometers, including the Piraeus, or harbor district. The full population of the city was over 140,000, but only 40,000 of these were full (male) citizens.

This is based on 'The Population of Ancient Athens - A.W.Gomme - 1933 for the year 431 B.C. when Athens was at the highest population level in her history.

Calculated population of Athens ca.431 B.C.
Class	subtotal	Total
Citizens of hoplite status and over	25,000
Thetes*	18,000
Total# including woman and children		172,000
Metics% of hoplite status#		28,500
Slaves# ^		115,000
Total population		315,500

In the Persian wars, when the Greeks were meeting on the island of Salamis. Themistocles threatened that he and the Athenian 200 ships (see Herodotus book 8, 61) would leave for Sicily, if the Greeks didn't make a unified stand at Salamis.
200 Ships implies 40,000 marines so a city of 120,000

 

 

*hired labourers

%Metics were a class of free non-citizens, often employed on more menial, but vital, tasks - including trireme building, rowing and maintenance. Metics were usually Greeks from other city-states.

#this figure includes woman and children

^Slaves were the lowest class in Athenian society, but according to many contemporary accounts they were far less harshly treated than in most other Greek cities. Indeed, one of the criticisms of Athens was that its slaves and freemen were difficult to tell apart.

A fundamental part of economy, the most prized slaves worked as tutors and police officials, and one group of elite slaves was even empowered to herd citizens to the assembly with a long rope dipped in paint! Next in status were domestic slaves who, under certain circumstances, might be allowed to buy their own freedom. Often looked upon as 'one of the family', during certain festivals they would be waited upon by their masters. Lowest of all slaves were those who worked in the nearby Laurium silver mines - where most quickly perished.

The term 'slaves' shouldn't be thought of as the same as the 'slaves' of say the United States of America. To have reached the status of slave in ancient greece the home city of the slave had been overrun and lost to others, and really the slave had no chance of returning back to their city. The population had changed and his possessions had passed to someone else by force, he had no legal or chance of getting his possessions back. In ancient Greece the arrival of foreigners was frowned upon and seen as non-desirables, not to be trusted, or even let into the city. So slaves had a status and at least had a roof over their head and were allowed into the city of their enslavement. Compare this to the alternative of having no chance of returning to his home city and little chance of other city-states accepting them, the alternative was very depressing indeed.

 

 

=======================================================

A more detailed work has been done regarding ancient Athens & Sparta's army and navy sizes, done by Lemaire Pascal[1] his 2009 thesis (who is French, so the below info is an extract from his best effort to transfer it into English.)
His work is as fellows.

What should also be taken into account is the percentage of Athens' population that was tied to guarnison and naval duty all over the "empire" the city had built at that time. While the main hoplite force is always the element taken into account by the ancient historians, with a few references to light infantry, we have to remember that a naval battle opposing two fleets of a 100 ships each means 2x100x120 (usual number of sailors and fighters given for a trireme, may go up to 200 men/ship) men fighting at the same time while the land army was also often mobilized in some other place...
We also have to remember that for every city, but Sparta, this also means peoples not in the fields and can thus only be a short time effort, at least up to the sicilian expedition.. .

Here are four tables giving you the numbers we have from the ancient sources, collected for my Master thesis on ancient greek logistic (sorry, all places names and author names are in french, original language of my work) :

Table 1 : Land forces under arms for Athens, Sparta and their respectives allies between 433 and 411 BC as rebuilt from Thucydide ( adapted from N. Morpeth, Thucydides' War : Accounting for the the Faces of Conflict, Spudasmata 112, Zurich-New York, 2006, p. 105-7 )

Year	Athens and allies	Possible total	Spartans and allies	Possible total
433	1000		-
432	5200		2,000
431	17400		Duo merê + 2,200	30,000
430	7300		Duo merê	27,000
429	2790		4,000
428	2012		Duo merê	27,000
427	500	1,000	Duo merê + 600	28,000
426	3960	7,000	6,300
425	18820		Duo merê + 1,320	29,000
424	16500		26,800
423	-		5,000
422	1500		5,700
421	-		-
420	2000		1,000
419	1000		300
418	6300		17,184
417	-		2,000
416	4120		-
415	6400		,1470; 10,200	13,000
414	7080		3,400	14,000
413	12830	40,000	5,400	15,000
412	3500		1,600
411	-		300

Table 2 : Amount of fighters in land battles between 490 and 338 B.C. as given by ancient sources ( adapted from J.N. Corvisier, Guerre et société dans les mondes grecs, Paris 1999 pp. 185-188, all references to Xenopho are the the Hellenica)

Date	Battle Expedition Siege	Source	Loser	Winner
490	Marathon	Hér., VI, 112-17	?	?
480	Thermopyles	Hér., VII, 202-228	?	4K
480/79	Himère	Diod., XI, 20-22	300K	55K
479	Platées	Hér., IX, 28-32, 70	300-350K	100K
		Diod., XI, 30-31	500K	110K
479	Mycale	Hér., IX, 96	80K
		Diod., XI, 34	100K
472	Syracuse	Diod., XI, 53	20K
463/2	Egypte	Diod., XI, 71	40K	300K
458/7	Tanagra	Thuc., I, 107	14K	11.5K
		Diod., XI, 78-80
435/4	Potidée	Thuc., I, 56-56	+ 2K	4.6K
429/8	id.	Thuc., II, 58	?	4K
429/8	Chalcidique	Thuc., I, 79		2.2K
426-24	Naupacte	Thuc., III, 105-124	+ 3K	7.2K
425/4	Corinthe	Thuc., IV, 42-45	?	2K
424/3	Thrace	Thuc., IV, 78		1.7K
424/3	Délion	Thuc., IV, 89,93	+ 7K	18.5K
		Diod., XII, 69	+ 21K	21K
422/1	Thrace	Thuc., V, 1-8	+ 1.5K	3.5K
419/8	Mantinée	Thuc., V, 57-85	7K	7.5K
		Diod., XII, 79
416/5	Sicile	Thuc., VI, 30, 43	+ 6K
412/1	Milet	Thuc., VIII, 25	3.5K
410/9	Sélinonte	Diod., XIII, 54-58	100K - 200K
410/9		Diod., XIII, 59	80K	10K
409/8	Coressos	Xén., I, 2, 6-10	+ 1.6K
409/8	Panormos	Diod., XIII, 63		6K
408/7	Andros	Xén., I, 4, 21		+ 1.6K
409/8	Mégare	Diod., XIII, 65		1.4K
409/8	Thrace	Diod., XIII, 66		5K
396/5	Pactole	Xén., III, 4, 3
		Diod., XIV, 79-80	60K	10K
407/6		Diod., XIII, 80	120K
407/6	Agrigente	Diod., XIII, 85-87	40K	37K
405/4	Géla	Diod., XIII, 109-10		50K ?
396/5	Syracuse	Diod., XIV, 54	304K
395/4	Haliartos	Diod., XIV, 81	6K
395/4	Naryx	Diod., XIV, 82		6K
395/4	Némée	Xén., IV, 2, 16	15.5K	23.5K
		Diod., XIV, 83	+ 24K	14.8K
395/4	Coronée	Xén., IV, 3, 15-23	20K ?	20K ?
		Diod., XIV, 84
392/1	Syracuse	Diod., XIV, 95	80K	20K
390/89	Locres	Diod., XIV, 100		21K
390/9	Lucaniens	Diod., XIV, 101	15K	34K
390/9	Orient	Diod., XIV, 99	8K	+ 25K
389/8	Orient	Xén., IV, 8, 34	1K	1.2K
388/7	Egine	Xén., V, 1, 10-13	+ 2.4K	2.8K ?
389/88	Caulonia S	Diod., XIV, 104-5	23K	25.1K
382/1	Olynthe	Xén., V, 3, 3-6
		Diod., XV, 19	?	10K
378/7	Béotie	Diod., XV, 26		12.5K
378/7	Athènes	Xén., V, 3, 20-33
		Diod., XV, 29, 5		10K
378/7	Béotie	Diod., XV, 29-32	18K	20.5K
371/0	Leuctres	Xén., VI, 4, 1-16
		Diod., XV, 51-56	18K ?	8K
369/8	Arcadie	Diod., XV, 62	5.5K	5K
369/8	Laconie	Diod., XV, 62, 64	50K	+ 22K
369/8	Pellène	Diod., XV, 67		5K
369/8	Laconie	Diod., XV, 69-72	+ 7.6K	+ 20K
368/7	Carthage	Diod., XV, 73		30K
364/3	Cynocéphale	Diod., XV, 80	20K	+ 7K
363/2	Mantinée	Diod., XV, 84	22K	20K?
359/8	Illyrie	Diod., XVI, 4	10.5K	16K
357/6	Actium	Diod., XVI, 12		5K
354	Locride	Diod., XVI, 25	5K
354	Locride	Diod., XVI, 30-31	17.5K	+ 13K
353	Phocidiens	Diod., XVI, 37	23K	20.5K
352	Béotie	Diod., XVI, 37		+ 8.4K
352	Mégapolis	Diod., XVI, 39	+ 4.5K	+ 3.2K
345/4	Syracuse	Diod., XVI, 67	50K
344	Sicile	Diod., XVI, 69	50K
341	Sicile	Diod., XVI, 77-79	80K
341	Périnthe	Diod., XVI, 74		30K
338	Chéronée	Diod., XVI, 86		32K

Table 3 : Naval forces ( in number of ships, around 120 to 160 men/ship at that time ) put at sea between 433 and 411 BC as rebuilt from Thucidydes ( adapted from Adapté de N. Morpeth, Thucydides' War : Accounting for the the Faces of Conflict, Spudasmata 112, Zurich-New York, 2006, p. 102-4 )

Year	Athens and allies	Possible total	Spartan and allies	Possible total
433	140		150
432	70		-
431	180		40
430	180		100
429	(100) 46	140	130
428	250		4
427	165		53
426	105		-
425	174		90
424	117		-
423	50		-
422	32		-
421	-		-
420	-		-
419	-		-
418	-		-
417	-		-
416	88		-
415	267		-
414	43	310	17
413	160		137
412	104 (?)		150's-160's
411	108 (?)		112;154

Table 4 : Number of ships (around 120 men/ship, less for earlier battles) as given by ancient sources ( adapted from J.N. Corvisier, Guerre et société dans les mondes grecs, Paris 1999 pp. 185-188, all references to Xenopho are the the Hellenica)

Date	Bataille Expédition Siège	Source	Vaincus	Vainqueurs
494	Ladè	Hér., VI, 7	600
490	Grèce	Hér., VI, 95-115	600
490	Paros	Hér., VI, 132	600
487	Egine	Hér., VI, 89-92	70
480/79	Himère	Diod., XI, 20-24	5000
470/69	Chypre	Thuc., I, 100
		Diod., XI, 60	340	350/250
463/2	Egypte	Diod., XI, 71	200	300
450/49	Chypre	Diod., XII, 3	300	200
436/5	Action	Thuc., I, 28	70	80
436/5	Sybota	Thuc., I, 48-52	150	110
429/8	Patrai	Thuc., II, 80	47	20
	Naupacte		57-77	20
427/6	Lesbos	Thuc., III, 2, 16	40	55
427/6	Carie	Thuc., III, 19	12
426/5		Thuc., III, 76	+ 25	53
425/4	Pylos	Thuc., IV, 2	45/70	90
425/4	Rhégion	Thuc., IV, 24	30	24
425/4	Corinthe	Thuc., IV, 42-45	80
424/3	Mendè	Thuc., IV, 129, 2		50
416/5	Sicile	Thuc., VI, 30/43	130
415/3	id.	Thuc., VII, 17-20	65
414/3	Erineos	Thuc., VII, 34, 5	30	33
413/2	Spéraion	Thuc., VIII, 7-12	21	37
412/1	Chios	Thuc., VIII, 19	30	16
412/1	Spéraion	Thuc., VIII, 20	20	20
412/1	Cap Malée	Thuc., VIII,35	12	27 ?
412/1		Thuc., VIII, 39	10	27
412/1	Symè	Thuc., VIII, 42	20	100
411/0	Erétrie	Thuc., VIII, 94	36	42
411/0	Abydos	Thuc., VIII, 103	86	76
410/9	Cyzique	Xén., I, 1, 14-20	20
		Diod., XIII, 45-46	60	86
409/8

References:

• Home
• Battles
• Who is ..?
• Where Is ..?
• Time Line
• Web Index
• News
• References
• Contact Us