What was the Spartans key to their society

When it took over the southern Peloponnesian peninsula, Spartaturned the inhabitants into serfs who delivered half their produceto Sparta. This meant that the Spartan citizens could devotethemselves to military training, the better to defend the territoryagainst foreign and internal threats. Other city-states also had toprepare for defence, but also had to farm to support themselves andso had to make do with monthly drills.

The other aspects were their religious commitment, a limiteddemocracy where the citizens met in assembly to make importantdecisions, and a freedom for women far ahead of other Greek cities