Even the Spartiates were essentially a citizen levy: afaik the difference vs say, the Athenians, is that the spartiates were a tiny permanent leisure class. In

Even the Spartiates were essentially a citizen levy: afaik the difference vs say, the Athenians, is that the spartiates were a tiny permanent leisure class. In the Athenian phalanx you’d be in the line next to the potter, the sandal maker, the rhetor, etc., similar to the portion of the Spartan phalanx made up of the perioikoi. The Spartiates themselves though did no work at all, and despised those who did. That doesn’t make them a standing army though, and they didn’t train or drill when they weren’t actively on campaign any more than other hoplites.