<P> Others in the state were the perioeci, who can be described as civilians . </P> <P> Helots were the state - owned serfs who made up 90 percent of the population . They were citizens of conquered states, such as Messenia who were conquered for their fertile land during the First Messenian War . </P> <P> The Doric state of Sparta, copying the Doric Cretans, instituted a mixed governmental state: it was composed of elements of monarchical, oligarchical, and democratic systems . Isocrates refers to the Spartans as "subject to an oligarchy at home, to a kingship on campaign" (iii. 24). </P> <P> The state was ruled by two hereditary kings of the Agiad and the Eurypontid families, both descendants of Heracles and equal in authority so that one could not act against the power and political enactments of his colleague, though the Agiad king received greater honour by virtue of seniority of his family for being the "oldest extant" (Herod . vi. 5). </P>

The spartan constitution contained which element(s) of government