I haven't come up against any Spartan hoplites yet but against Greek Hoplites and Pikemen Phalanx, what I have found is that if you can isolate them from the rest of their army they are vulnerable to a rear attack.

I recently had to fight an army of hoplites and pikemen. I was totally outmatched both in numbers and in quality. My only saviour was a small (about 15) group of barbarian mercenary cavalry. I had a Town Watch, an Hastatii, a small barbarian infantry unit and a velites.

Let's face it, I wasn't going to win going head to head. What i tried instead was to deploy in a line of battle and let the Greeks advance towards me. once they were committed to attacking I made my line retreat and break up into their individual units. Luckily the Greeks followed them individually and while the rest ran away I used my cavalry to flank the hoplites after my hastatii. This worked perfectly but when I tried it a second time against the other hoplites they managed to turn before the cavalry got to them.

Strangely for the first time an impetuous barbarian charge helped me as the barbarians who were being chased turned and slammed into the Greeks from behind and with their formation broken the cavalry routed them.

I'll have to try fighting some Spartan Hoplites some day. I'm thinking a unit of pikemen could be helpful (if some war elephants aren't available) to pin. I'd be interested to see how an Urban Cohort would do against the Spartans