Did the strengths in Sparta’s education outweigh its weaknesses? Sparta began as a cluster of houses grouped together near the Evrotas River. Sparta slowly began to grow into a city-state. By 500 BCE, it was the dominant city-state on the Peloponnese. Sparta was able to manage all this with a population of 25,000 and an army of 8,000 men. One important reason on why their military was strong, was its battle formation. The battle formation was called the phalanx. It was a tight group of soldiers where each held a shield, but the shields were interlocked with one another. This technique took a lot of time. In the end it allowed the Spartan soldiers to move in unison. Every time someone had a new born in Sparta, the child