There are none whose works survive in quantity. We have fragments of the poetry of Tyrtaios, which mainly consisted of war songs, allegedly sung by Spartans before battle even in the Classical period. Later tradition claimed that Tyrtaios was actually from Athens, because by that time the stereotype of Spartans had become too strong for others to believe that good poetry could have been written by a Spartan. We also have fragments of the poetry of Alkman, who wrote drinking songs and songs that Spartans would dance to at religious festivals. Both authors date to the 7th century BC. There is essentially nothing else. We know that there were Spartan historians and military authors in the Hellenistic period, but their work does not survive.

In this sense, the record seems to confirm the Spartan image; there don't seem to have been any Spartans from the Classical period known to surviving authors who wrote history, philosophy or poetry. On the other hand, few such authors are known from any Greek state except Athens. The Greek states of Sicily and Southern Italy were known to have their own independent literary tradition, but many of the major states of Old Greece have left no signature on surviving literature. The absence could just as easily be explained by a lack of literary habit or circles in which to disseminate written works. It is notable that an author like Xenophon, who spent some of his life in Sparta and was close friends with elite Spartans, wrote all of his literary work for other audiences, especially Athenian ones.