Here also the difference between the _Equals_ (ὅμοιοι) and _Inferiors_ (ὑπομείονες) must be taken into consideration; which, if we judge only from the terms, would not appear to have been considerable, yet, though it is never mentioned in connexion with the constitution of Lycurgus, it had in later times a certain degree of influence upon the government. According to Demosthenes,(330) the prize of virtue in Sparta was to become a master of the state, together with the Equals. Whoever neglected a civil duty, lost, according to Xenophon,(331) his rank among the Equals. Cinadon wished to overthrow the government, because, although of a powerful and enterprising mind, he did not belong to the Equals.(332) About the king’s person in the field there were always three of the Equals, who provided for all his wants.(333) It also appears that there were many peculiarities in the education of an Equal.(334) Whoever, during his boyhood and youth, omitted to make the exertions and endure the fatigues of the Spartan discipline, lost his rank of an Equal.(335) In like manner, exclusion from the public tables was followed by a sort of _diminutio capitis_, or civil degradation.(336) This exclusion was either adjudged by the other members of the table, or it was the consequence of inability to defray the due share of the common expense. To them the Inferiors are most naturally opposed; and if the latter were distinct from the Spartans, by the Spartans, in a more limited sense of the word, Equals are sometimes probably understood.(337) From these scanty accounts the unprejudiced reader can only infer that a distinction of rank is implied, which depended not upon any charge or office, but continued through life, without however excluding the possibility of passing from one rank into the other, any Equal being liable to be degraded for improper conduct, and an Inferior, under certain circumstances, being enabled to procure promotion by bravery and submission to the authorities; but if this degradation did not take place, the rank then remained in the family, and was transmitted to the children, as otherwise it could not have had any effect upon education.(338) 8. After these preliminary inquiries concerning the divisions and classes of the citizens, we have now to examine the manner in which the political power was distributed and held in Sparta and the other Doric states.