This article revisits the problem of royal education at Sparta and uses this issue to better clarify the status of junior ‹princes› (i. e. potential heirs to kingship) and other members of cadet branches of the two Spartan royal families. Examining such individuals helps modern scholars conceptualize the ‹ruling persona› of the Spartan polity or Spartan ‹Staatlichkeit›. The evidence for royal participation and exemption from the public education system is surveyed. The issue of junior ‹princes› as full citizen (σπαρτιάτης) with privileged status by birth is articulated. Then, this institutional rule is applied to all attested men in the two Spartan royal houses from the late Archaic to early Hellenistic period. Twenty royal individuals during the period examined are identified who were partially or fully enrolled in the public upbringing. Eight of these individuals went on to rule after completing the paideia, or becoming the designated heir apparent while enrolled in the public education system (a larger number than most would suspect). Other junior ‹princes› exercised a variety of military commands without formally holding the kingship. These members of the cadet branches of both royal houses possessed some degree of charismatic royal Heraclid status while also partially integrating into the Spartiate citizen body. Rather than a source of ideological conflict, this Heraclid aristocracy – through their participation in the Spartan educative process – helped the Spartiate citizen body heroize themselves. Members of the royal families participating in the ritual paideia were quasi-Spartiates, but more prominent than full citizens. Spartiates who completed the paideia grounded their own social outlook in proximity to these Heraclid ‹princes› with royal paternity. As a class of uniquely positioned individuals, these ‹princes› were the social glue which bonded the royal houses to the broader Spartan polity.
Luke Madson (2025) studied this question.