I'm afraid Stefanos' answer is too simplistic, based on Sekunda’s rather inaccurate Osprey ’Spartan Army’ and may give a false impression. It needs to be expanded and clarified......
Quote:Cavalry service was frowned upon in Sparta so this branch developed slowly and was ineficient.
We do not hear of any Spartan cavalry at all until the Peloponnesian war.(Herodotus simply doesn't mention any and Thucydides says that when cavalry were raised in 424 BC, this was "unprecedented" - this was roughly around the same time as other Greek
poleis, so not "frowned upon" - indeed Sparta was generally foremost in military innovation). In Xenophon's day, they consisted of six
morai of probably 100-120 troopers. The horses were excellent - Sparta had many rich fanciers who bred horses for racing and chariot racing, and who were fairly successful at Olympics etc. Xenophon, a cavalryman himself, and describing the cavalry defeat at Leuktra (371 BC), points out that the Spartan cavalry were at their "very worst just at that time" - he criticised the troopers as "raw recruits", "the least strong" and "lacking soldierly ambition", (Xen Hell.6.4) but the force definitely included
Homioi(Xen Hell.5.4), so quality may be a relative thing here. The fact that troopers only met their horses at call-up would be a disadvantage. Not surprising then, that the more experienced and more numerous Boeotian Cavalry beat them on this occasion. We should not judge the skills of Spartan Cavalry from one defeat when they were at their "very worst".
If the cavalry did not enjoy the 'aristocratic' status it held elsewhere, it was not really part of the Spartan Army's 'main battle force', but was used for tasks such as scouting, carrying messages, skirmishing etc. At these tasks, it seems to have been no worse than any other greek cavalry - hardly "inefficient".
After Xenophon, we hear almost nothing at all about the Spartan Army for a century.
The next description of the Spartan Army is for the Sellasia campaign ( see current issue of Ancient Warfare magazine), where the Spartans form a Macedonian Pike Phalanx, and the army includes cavalry described as 'Tarentine', a term which had come to mean a type of shielded javelin armed light cavalry rather than mercenaries from Taras. We simply don't know if the 'Tarentine' cavalry in the Hellenistic Spartan Army at Sellasia (222 BC) and Mantinea ( 207 BC) were Spartan or mercenary - possibly both, though mercenaries were perhaps more likely.
Quote:Archers again were mostly mercenaries-usually Cretans.
The Spartan Army, as such, never included archers at any time.
Non-Spartan 'auxiliaries' - mercenaries(lit;
mistophoroi ='wage earners') as opposed to Allies - are first used by Sparta when a force is required to serve 'abroad' under Brasidas in Macedonia and Thrace. This force was intended to attack Athenian influence there and consisted of 700 freed
Helots and 1,000 Peloponnesian mercenaries,
all Hoplites, and since Sparta couldn't afford them, were paid for by Perdiccas, King of Makedonia.
After Sphacteria and other incidents had taught the greeks that light troops could be useful, both sides in the Peloponnesian war began to hire mercenary Thracian
peltasts [lit;
pelte(a light shield) carriers], who skirmished with javelins. The only archers we hear of at this time are a few Iberians, employed by Athens.
The “Ten Thousandâ€