Sparta: military society and social organization

Sparta, in the region of the Peloponnese, developed a distinctive political system based on a diarchy: two kings, from the Agiad and Eurypontid families, who mainly exercised military command and religious functions. Alongside them stood the Gerousia, a council of twenty-eight elders over the age of sixty plus the two kings, with judicial and legislative-proposal powers; the ephors, five magistrates elected annually with broad powers to oversee even the kings and public life generally; and the Apella, an assembly of citizens with limited voting power, usually exercised by acclamation.