There were very few professional militaries. They were certainly very good, very competent, lifelong soldiers but realistically they over-performed for their Era because most soldiers were citizen-soldiers who were mustered to defend their homes. That said, Spartans have been vastly over-glorified in modern society. The system was in decline, and there was no system in place to expand the Spartiate class. I generally stick with Peroikoi hoplitai in my game, because at this point in the world history Sparta had approximately only 400-700 Spartiates remaining. why would we be limited to 2 of a weaker unit than the Royal. Royal Spartans take on Preatorian Guards. It'll be cool if the hoplites switch to sword after the initial crash. wait what? What's the point of limited to 2 units per army? Hero of Sparta is weaker than Royal Spartan. The strongest spartan units (Royal spartan + Hero of sparta) lost everytime with most other faction heaviest units.
Spartan have no sword infantry.and very limited roster.
Tested Spartan super heavy spear units (Royal spartan + Hero of sparta) against very heavy sword infantry, still lost. Not really an edge playing spartan spearmen. Very similar results to some other factions I tested too. Spartan spear unit vs equally expensive roman spear unit, they were evenly match. It seems generally spear lose to sword, even cheaper sword units beat spartan hoplites. I was testing the Spartan hoplite against other factions melee and spear infantry 1 on 1 in custom battle.