A wall was finally erected after 184 BCE, after the peak of the city-state's power had come and gone. By the beginning of the 7th century BC, Sparta was, along with Argos, the Peloponnese's dominant power. Spartans long spurned the idea of building a defensive wall around their city, believing they made the city's men soft in terms of their warrior abilities.

It is the standards of civilized men not of beasts that must be kept in mind, for it is good men not beasts who are capable of real courage. Sparta achieved a series of land victories, but many of her ships were destroyed at the Battle of Cnidus by a Greek-Phoenician mercenary fleet that Persia had provided to Athens.In the Middle Ages, the political and cultural center of Laconia shifted to the nearby settlement of Mystras, and Sparta fell further in even local importance.

From this derives the already ancient term " laconic," and is related to expressions such as " laconic phrase" or " laconophilia. Between the 8th and 7th centuries BC the Spartans experienced a period of lawlessness and civil strife, later attested by both Herodotus and Thucydides. However, the helots were not the private property of individual Spartan citizens, regardless of their household duties, and were instead owned by the state through the kleros system. The actual transition may be captured by Isidore of Seville's Etymologiae (7th century AD), an etymological dictionary. However, in direct confrontations between the two opposing phalanxes, stamina and "pushing ability" were what counted.In the Second Messenian War, Sparta established itself as a local power in the Peloponnesus and the rest of Greece. By the end of the Peloponnesian War, the structure of the army had evolved further, to address the shortages in manpower and create a more flexible system which allowed the Spartans to send smaller detachments on campaigns or garrisons outside their homeland. The power vacuum resulted in Athens' rise to power, who became the lead in the continued effort against the Persians. Site of the Menelaion, the ancient shrine to Helen and Menelaus constructed in the Bronze Age city that stood on the hill of Therapne on the left bank of the Eurotas River overlooking the future site of Dorian Sparta. The necessary provisions (barley, cheese, onions and salted meat) were carried along with the army, and a helot manservant accompanied each Spartan.