Quote Originally Posted by ARCHIPPOS View Post
Yep and not only Spartans employed this psychological warfare

"-Iphicrates never allowed his lines to be broken in the heat of the pursuit. He continually called out to his light-armed troops to beware of ambushes. He also had a general rule, never to press the enemy too hard when they had been routed, if there were any narrow passes or rivers behind them; for if they are hemmed in, they are often forced by desperation to rally and fight again.
-When Iphicrates had forced a fleeing enemy into a narrow pass, he always tried to open a way for them, and give them a chance to escape, without making it necessary for them to force their way out by fighting. He said that there was no reason to compel an enemy to be brave."
 (Polyaenus: Stratagems/BOOK 3)

of course you have to remember that Spartan omoioi (=equals) were always very few compared to the manpower of other city-states such as Athens,Thebes and so on... having a demographicaly declining pool of hoplites with which to secure the Lacedaemonian homeland from the helot threat and implement Spartan hegemony throughout Greece ... forces you to drasticaly economise on your forces shall we say???
Yes its a good tactic.

When compared with other mayor cities it was low on citizens, yet I always look to their glorytime with 9000-8000 citizens.

And that drastic decline only happened when drastic citizen drop happened, it uneved it. With the earthquake many Spartans died and their land was taken by others which made it uneven. And with the Athenians raiding Spartan land resulting in citizen drop and finally the Thebans liberating Messenia and Skiritai which resulted in 3,5 Moras getting destroyed of the 8 and even more land loss.