Spartan Helots | The Helots | Spartan Serfs Legends and Chronicles > Ancient Civilizations > Ancient Sparta > Spartan Helots Spartan Helots The Spartan helots were the serfs of ancient Sparta, they were owned by the state and used by the Spartans for various purposes and tasks. The helots are believed to have been laconians that was brought to service by the Spartans when their needs for farmers to grow food, and support the growing Spartan community arose. During wartime the helots would be called upon to help in battle, if not fighting then they would at least act as a servant to each hoplite, assisting them when required. It also thought that the helots of Sparta had what was a unique opportunity of the time for a slave. Helots who showed themselves to be exceptional in battle or trustworthy in their duties could sometimes earn what would be considered a promotion. The origin of the name helot The true origin of the name Helot is truly unknown but a common theory is that is relates to the village of Helos, located in the south of Sparta where it is thought that the first Laconian slaves would be formed under the state of Sparta.

The beginnings of the helots It was after the First Messenian War that started in 743 BC and lasted for around 20 years, that the Spartans would claim the Messenian people as their helots. Any Messenian that didn’t escape, move or travel to a new land would be declared a helot, a worker for the Spartan state. The future family and children of the Messenian people that become helots would find their offspring born into this new role as a servant to the might state of Sparta. Thus the population of helots in Sparta soon grew to a considerable size, much larger than the full citizens, the Spartans. Spartan helots with their masters the Spartiates Proper The Treatment of the helots by Sparta While slaves in other ancient Greek states was far less favourable for the slaves, the helots were considered to be treated with more favour in Sparta. It is known for example, that while the helots would farm and grow produce to provide to the Spartan citizens, they would also be allowed to keep sufficient crops for themselves. The amount divided in some cases is told to be an entire half of their crop.

Helots in ancient Sparta also had the benefit of being able to live as a family, a helot could have a wife or a husband, and even children. In fact the reproduction of slaves in Sparta was not as tightly controlled as in other Greek states, and it’s considered that the Helot population grew over the time they worked for the state. In addition to keeping their family life, the helots would in most cases keep their own homes, they could buy and acquire land and even kept their own choice of language, customs and many other freedoms. As mentioned earlier, there was even a system of promotion for Helots in Sparta, an opportunity for a helot to escape his form of slavery. Successful helots might be moved up to a rank known as Neodamodeis which is essentially Greek for ‘made one of the community’. While the exact benefits of being a Neodamodeis are largely unknown, but its widely though that the helot who would once have served as a hoplites assistant in war would receive somewhat of a promotion. Some Neodamodeis would be assigned more trusted tasks, its though they would even perform guard duty on what Thucydides called their path to freedom.

The helot Revolt in Sparta The helots would in time eventually revolt against their captors, the Spartans. While the helots were treated better than some slaves in Ancient Greece, the life of helot was still one of servitude. The helots would bide their time, await an opportunity to lead an uprising against their captors and try to claim back what was once theirs, their freedom. The first revolt by the helots against Sparta came in what was deemed The Second Messenian War, and was believed to have started around 685 BC and lasted all the way till 668 BC. The war would start with the help of the Argives giving support to the Messenian helot people in their battle. Aristomenes and the second Helot revolt Aristomenes was a hero and king of Messenia and was largely responsible for the second Messenian War. Aristomenees is mentioned as the leader in many references of the Messenian forces who invaded Laconia in an attempt to fight back for their previously lost freedom.

Artistomenes himself was captured in battle, the Spartans looking to gain the upper hand actually paid off some of the Messenian allies lead by King Aristocrates of Arcadia whose forces would retreat when Sparta attacked leaving Aristomenes vulnerable. After his capture, he would eventually escape and retreated back to Eira which was held from Spartan conquer for more than a decade. The freedom of the helots and the third revolt The helots did eventually manage to free themselves from Spartan rule in what is thought to be around 350 BC. This was when ancient Sparta was in a much weakened state after the Peloponnesian wars. Sparta had lost much of its power over the surrounding regions and the helots finally took this opportunity to once again be free. Sparta - A Military City-State Current Affairs "The same goes for the Spartans. One-against-one, they are as good as anyone in the world. But when they fight in a body, they are the best of all. For though they are free men, they are not entirely free. They accept Law as their master. And they respect this master more than your subjects respect you. Whatever he commands, they do.

And his command never changes: It forbids them to flee in battle, whatever the number of their foes. He requires them to stand firm -- to conquer or die." - From Herodotus' dialogue between Demaratos and Xerxes In the eighth century B.C., Sparta needed more fertile land to support a booming population, so it decided to take over and use the fertile land of its neighbors, the Messenians. Inevitably, the result was war. The First Messenian War was fought between 700-680 or 690-670 B.C. At the end of twenty years of fighting, the Messenians lost their freedom and became agricultural laborers for the victorious Spartans. continue reading below our video 10 Best Universities in the United States From then on the Messenians were known as helots. Sparta - The Late Archaic City-State. Helots of Messenia From Perseus' Thomas R. Martin, An Overview of Classical Greek History from Homer to Alexander The Spartans took the rich land of their neighbors and made them helots, forced laborers.

The helots were always looking for an opportunity to revolt and did in time revolt, but the Spartans won despite an overwhelming shortage of population. Eventually the serf-like helots rebelled against their Spartan overlords, but by then the population problem in Sparta had been reversed:. By the time Sparta won the Second Messenian War (c. 640 B.C.), helots outnumbered Spartans by possibly as much as ten to one. Since the Spartans still wanted helots to do their work for them, the Soartan overlords had to devise a method of keeping them in check: The Military State. Education In Sparta, boys left their mothers at age 7 to live in barracks with other Spartan boys, for the next 13 years. They were under constant surveillance: "In order that the boys might never lack a ruler even when the Warden was away, he gave authority to any citizen who chanced to be present to require them to do anything that he thought right, and to punish them for any misconduct. This had the effect of making the boys more respectful; in fact boys and men alike respect their rulers above everything.

[2.11] And that a ruler might not be lacking to the boys even when no grown man happened to be present, he selected the keenest of the prefects, and gave to each the command of a division. And so at Sparta the boys are never without a ruler." - From Xenophon Constitution of the Lacedaimonians 2.1 The state-controlled education [agoge] in Sparta was designed not to instill literacy, but fitness, obedience, and courage. Boys were taught survival skills, encouraged to steal what they needed without getting caught, and, under certain circumstances, to murder helots. At birth unfit boys would be killed. The weak continued to be weeded out, those who survived would know how to cope with inadequate food and clothing: "After they were twelve years old, they were no longer allowed to wear any undergarments, they had one coat to serve them a year; their bodies were hard and dry, with but little acquaintance of baths and unguents; these human indulgences they were allowed only on some few particular days in the year.

They lodged together in little bands upon beds made of the rushes which grew by the banks of the river Eurotas, which they were to break off with their hands with a knife; if it were winter, they mingled some thistle-down with their rushes, which it was thought had the property of giving warmth." - Plutarch Separation from the family continued throughout their lives. As adults, men did not live with their wives, but ate at common mess halls with the other men of the syssitia. Marriage meant little more than clandestine dalliances. Even women weren't held to fidelity. Spartan men were expected to contribute a prescribed share of the provisions. If they failed, they were expelled from the syssitia and lost some of their Spartan citizenship rights. Lycurgus - Obedience From Xenophon Constitution of the Lacedaimonians 2.1 "[2.2] Lycurgus, on the contrary, instead of leaving each father to appoint a slave to act as tutor, gave the duty of controlling the boys to a member of the class from which the highest offices are filled, in fact to the "Warden" as he is called.

He gave this person authority to gather the boys together, to take charge of them and to punish them severely in case of misconduct. He also assigned to him a staff of youths provided with whips to chastise them when necessary; and the result is that modesty and obedience are inseparable companions at Sparta." Prev Helot | Definition of Helot by Merriam-Webster See words that rhyme with helot Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about helot Seen and Heard What made you want to look up helot? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible). Ancient Sparta - A Military State Lycurgus of Sparta. Clipart.com Updated February 19, 2016. In the 8th century B.C., the polis of Sparta needed more fertile land to support a booming population. There was fertile land near Sparta, so the Spartans decided to take it. Their neighbors were the Messenians who weren't eager to give up their land. Sparta and the Messenians fought over the property for 10 years. Ultimately victorious, Sparta turned the Messenians into their agricultural labor force.

Henceforth, the Messenians were known as "Helots". Eventually, the serf-like Helots rebelled, but by then the population problem in Sparta had been reversed: the population of Sparta was in decline. By the time Sparta won the Second Messenian War (perhaps in 640 B.C.), the Helots may have outnumbered the Spartans by as much as 10 to 1. continue reading below our video 10 Facts About the Titanic That You Don't Know Since Sparta still wanted the Helots to do their heavy labor, it had to devise some means of keeping the helots in check -- a Military State. The Spartans were particularly formidable as soldiers because, as Herodotus says, they weren't entirely free. One-against-one, they [sc. the Spartans] are as good as anyone in the world. But when they fight in a body, they are the best of all. For though they are free men, they are not entirely free. They accept Law as their master. And they respect this master more than your subjects respect you. Whatever he commands, they do.

And his command never changes: It forbids them to flee in battle, whatever the number of their foes. He requires them to stand firm -- to conquer or die. - From Herodotus' dialogue between Demaratos and Xerxes Book 7 Prev Spartans and Helots: Was it a history of class struggle? | janetthomas Spartans and Helots: Was it a history of class struggle? 1 The Spartan relationship with those that they conquered was designed to maintain their superior strength as a fighting power. To do this they needed an underclass of workers who could maintain the living standards of their society. Those that they subjugated within the Peloponnese were called Helots, and they fulfilled this role. To consider whether this relationship could be described in terms of class struggle it is necessary to identify who the Helots were, their particular role in Spartan life, their reaction to this role, their treatment by the Spartans and its eventual effects. THE HELOTS Excepting for a few Achaean centres, when the Mycenaean period ended in about 1200 BCE it was followed by a severe depopulation of the Peloponnesian peninsula.

In about 1000BCE, the Dorians, a northern migrant-warrior tribe invaded and settled Laconia. This occupation of the land happened over a long period, with any pre-Dorian population being used as slave labour or expelled, as the Dorians were not an agricultural people [1] . The city of Sparta began as a conglomeration of villages on the Eurotas River [2] , on a site founded in the early tenth century that was previously uninhabited, evidenced by the absence of Mycenaean sherds [3] . About ten kilometres south of Sparta was Amyclae, the centre of the Laconian Achaeans. It was captured by the Dorian Spartans in the middle of the eighth century adding a fifth village to the four villages of Sparta. The land of Helos at the mouth of the Eurotas River was also subjugated [4] . In this early Spartan period of settlement and occupation social conditions developed that were the result of a relationship between the conquerors and the conquered [5] . Being a warrior community of small numbers, the Dorian-Spartans needed others to work the land for them.

The land was divided into lots and tilled by the conquered, that filled the role of serfs, or Helots [captives [6] ], and provided the livelihood for their masters. These early Helots were made up of a pre-Dorian agricultural community [7] . The Spartans, being a dominant force and increasing in number, acquired land in the west, north and south [8] , but in particular the land of Messenia in the west of the Peloponnese. This led to the First Messenian War around the latter part of the seventh century [9] . After the battle for the Messenian’s mountain fortress at Ithome, the Spartans were victorious and turned the inhabitants into Helots [10] . The seventh Spartan poet Tyrtaeus describes the Messenians paying tribute to their new masters ‘just like donkeys, worn down by heavy burdens [11] . This burden was great, in that Helots had to deliver half of their crop to their Spartan masters [12] . Yet there were many of them and consequently they became a threat to the Spartan state.

Although the expansion of Spartan territory into Laconia and Messenia doubled the state’s size and resulted in whole populations being subjugated into serf-like primary producers, it also found the Spartans constantly having to control ‘an enemy within’ [13] . Unlike slaves elsewhere in Greece who were bought and sold by individual masters at will, Helots were not of disparate origin but born only in Laconia or Messenia and not sold beyond these lands [14] . Ehrenberg states that ‘it was the Messenians who ever afterwards threatened to revolt against Sparta’ [15] . Forrest also asserts that through their numbers, their race and their identity, being of Messenian or Dorian-Greek origin, these Helots were a constant threat to Spartan society [16] . THE ROLE OF HELOTS IN SPARTAN SOCIETY Surface surveys conducted in southwest Messenia show isolated settlements across the landscape, rather than individual farmsteads. This suggests that Helots lived together on estates and under some surveillance, not spread out in small family groups on cultivated land [17] . Xenophon saw the Helots as being integral to the Spartan state, much like slaves elsewhere [18] .

Other than agricultural tasks, the functions performed by Helots were as domestic servants, wet nurses, grooms, attendants to Spartans on military campaigns, as well as troops and even hoplites between 424-369BCE [19] . Kennell thinks that Helots may have been owned individually [20] . Xenophon writes that the Spartan lawgiver Lycurgus allowed anyone to borrow another’s hunting dogs, horses or helots [21] , which suggests that they were considered private property [22] . However, this could also mean that, rather than being owned, they were considered part of an individual’s share of the common good. Helots did have a form of property and marriage rights and some form of social life. Talbert argues that, for some Helots, life must have been good through having some influence and power in administrating property while the owners were away fighting or in the city. This meant that they might profit from their work and their loyal military services and might suggest an acceptance of their position [23] .

Herodotus states that Helots were used as troops in the Battle of Thermopylae in 480BCE [24] (Herod. 6.80; 8.25), and at the Battle of Plataea in 479BCE there were seven armed helots to one Spartan hoplite [25] . There was a substantial drop in the Spartan population during the fifth century and therefore the number of Helots required serving in Spartan military expeditions increased [26] . Being small in number and located in the city itself unless on official business, the Spartans must have left the Helots to their own devices much of the time [27] . The territory of Sparta was extensive and difficult with many mountain ranges isolating various areas. Spartan households used a large amount of domestic attendants to do tasks such as wool-working that were normally carried out by women in other areas of Greece [28] . As a Spartan’s whole life was training for war, the whole orientation of society needed an enslaved population to assist this and constructed their lifestyle to make this hierarchy. In this way, the Helots were fundamental to the Spartan economy [29] .

To rely for their survival on the helots the Spartans had to turn their city into a military barracks, but the compensation for this meant that Sparta became one of the most powerful cities in the Hellenic world [30] . However, this also resulted in Sparta having to devote much energy to asserting its power over the Helots and, until the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BCE; it involved a constant rebalancing of benefits and dangers [31] . HELOT REACTION TO INFERIOR ROLE Talbert asserts that the longevity of Helot submission is more significant than Helot rebellion, and the fact that population numbers remained high points to general well-being [32] . The helots had the advantage of being in a country that was protected from outside invaders. It was also a country where the masters had limited literary or cultural interests, therefore it is unlikely that isolated Helots would have been politically interested. As Sparta’s neighbours were all oligarchies, rather than democracies like Athens, it would appear that there was little chance for political organisation for the Helots, being isolated and uneducated [33] .

As Helots infrequently came into contact with free people, this situation may have changed with the use of Helots in military expeditions in the early fifth century. While the first revolt of the Helots came in the latter half of the seventh century, the Spartans took years to quell the rebellion and suggests a cause for the ongoing tensions between the Spartans and the Helots. While there are no accounts of rebellion in the sixth century, there are more than a few accounts of Helot disloyalty or conflict in the fifth and fourth centuries. By the time of Thucydides it seems that Spartan society was designed to keep it secure against the Helots [34] . Thucydides [35] states that all Helots, whether Laconian or Messenian were called Messenian, which suggests that the Spartans saw them all as potential dissidents [36] . An earthquake that devastated Sparta in 465/4 BCE [37] had an immediate effect upon the helots, with those in Messenia revolting and again being garrisoned in their mountain stronghold at Ithome. It was not until a decade later that there was a compromise [38] .

However, Xenophon writes that by the late fifth century the Helots would have been happy to eat the Spartans raw [39] . SPARTAN TREATMENT OF HELOTS In the Parnian area of Sparta a seventh century pattern can be seen through site surveys of small single-family farmsteads and hamlets. Surveyors surmise that these were evidence of the perioeci, free people who were neither helots nor Spartans. After the middle of the fifth century these decrease sharply indicating Spartan security concerns after the earthquake [40] . All Spartan treaties with their allies had a clause calling for assistance in case of a helot uprising [41] , and the Spartan state allegedly maintained an annual declaration of war against the helots through the use of a secret service of young warriors who would murder unsuspecting helots [42] . A fragment from Myron [43] tells of how the Spartans forced the Helots into the most insulting and degrading positions in order to reinforce their inferior position, even to the point of giving a death sentence if they looked too robust.

Plutarch cites the practice of making Helots get drunk within the Spartan common dining halls as a form of humiliation designed to reinforce their inferior status [44] . Also, during a siege at Sphacteria during the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides wrote that many Helots came to assist the Spartans who offered them silver and freedom [45] . Later 2000 of these Helots were alleged to have been executed by the Spartans in fear that they had become too powerful [46] . Spartan apprehension of Helots is highlighted by them sending seven hundred with Brasidas to Thessaly [47] during the Peloponnesian War. When they returned in 421BCE they were freed by the state and offered land at Lepreum becoming known as ‘Brasedeoi’ [48] and part of a new class of Neodamodeis [‘new men’]. This new status for Helots may have been a state action to balance the societal problems that arose through the stark inequalities of the Spartan/Helot relationship [49] .

However, while they were granted land in return for military service, they were not granted citizenship [50] . There is also evidence of the state allowing Helots to be freed in exchange for helping besieged Spartans with food and also on the eve of the Theban invasion of 369BCE. However, so many volunteered to be hoplites that the Spartans retracted their offer in fear that they were arming their enemy [51] . CONCLUSION It appears that with the severe decline in Spartan population during the fifth century, there was a need for Spartans to rely upon Helots as a fighting force which contradicted the underpinnings of their society, where Spartans were the soldiers and Helots were the workers. However, the longevity of the relationship over centuries between Spartans and Helots infers that the relationship was much like that of serfs in medieval society. Although there were periods of unrest the relationship relied upon a mutual security which could not be completely undone unless there was a significant change in political outlook.

This change may have occurred with the use of Helots in more military expeditions, allowing them to observe other relationships and societies outside of their own isolated experience and being the likely cause of demands for freedom in the fifth and fourth centuries. Therefore, as population decline was a major contributing factor to the eventual demise of Spartan society, it would seem that Cartledge overstates the role of class struggle in Sparta. REFERENCES: Cartledge, P. (2009), Ancient Greece: A History in Eleven Cities, Oxford University Press, New York Ehrenberg, V. (1971), From Solon to Socrates- Greek History and Civilization during the sixth and fifth centuries B.C., Methuen & Co Ltd, London Forrest, W.G., (1968), A History of Sparta: 950-192 B.C., W.W. Norton & Co., New York Herodotus, The Histories, viewed 16 April, 2013 on Kennell, N.

(2010), Spartans: A New History, Wiley-Blackwell, West Sussex HISTORY OF SPARTA HISTORY OF SPARTA Enjoy the Famous Daily The Spartan experience: from the 8th century BC The political institutions of Sparta, notorious for their lack of conventional humanity, are said by ancient Greek historians to have been introduced by Lycurgus. But he is probably a figure of legend. Sparta seems to have delevoped gradually as a practical response to unusual circumstances. The valley of the Eurotas river, unusually fertile for Greece, is a rich prize conquered in the 12th century BC by Dorians - few but fierce invaders compared to the settled people they overwhelm. A military society is one way of stabilizing such a situation, with an elite group of soldiers keeping the villagers hard at work. When Sparta emerges in history, in the 8th century, a system of this kind is firmly established. The peasants of Sparta, known as helots, are serfs owned by the state. They do all the manual work of the community, enabling the citizens - an exclusively military caste - to concentrate on warfare and politics.

At the age of seven the sons of all Spartan citizens leave home to enter a state education system in which the emphasis is on courage and discipline. Corporal punishment is used not only to punish but also as a test of endurance. This schooling continues to the age of twenty, but there is no evidence that learning to read is part of the curriculum. Girls in Sparta are educated in the same austere virtues, training them to be good wives and mothers. Unlike the boys, they are allowed to live at home. On graduating from this regime, at the age of twenty, a Spartan becomes a member of a group of men, something like an officer's mess, with whom he will spend most of the rest of his life - leaving them only from time to time, after marriage, for the requirements of conjugal life. Gainful employment plays no part in this manly existence. Spartan citizens are forbidden by law to engage in any money-making activity. Instead each is provided by the state with a lifetime interest in a plot of land. This is farmed for him by the state's slaves. The warrior lives off the produce.

Sparta is able to provide for its citizens in this way thanks to the conquest of Messenia, a rich plain to the west beyond Mount Taygetos. Messenia is annexed in the 8th century. In the 7th, after an uprising against Spartan rule, the Messenians are reduced to the status of helots - more than doubling the amount of land available to support the Spartan army. Sparta is both strengthened and weakened by this form of exploitation. The weakness derives from the permanent danger that the helots will rise in revolt against their military masters. On several occasions they do so. The constant threat prevents this rigid society from relaxing or developing. One of the stranger Spartan traditions, which survives through the centuries, is shared rule by two kings. Each crown is hereditary within a family, dating back perhaps to the time when neighbouring villages coalesced to form the original city-state of Sparta. Spartan armies are nearly always led into battle by one of the kings. The Spartan kings, even when in agreement, do not wield absolute power.

The state is governed by a well balanced combination of two kings, five ephors, a council of elders and an assembly of all the citizens (see Ephors and elders ). An accepted part of the system is that the kings can be tried by due judicial process, and in practice they quite often are. Leaders of the Greek world: 6th - 5th century BC By the middle of the 6th century Sparta is the strongest city-state in Greece. She now assumes a leadership role, involving her neighbours in a defensive alliance which becomes known as the Peloponnesian League. The terms accepted by members of the league are that they will fight under Spartan leadership in any joint campaign and that they will send troops to Sparta in the event of an uprising by the helots . In return they acquire the protection of the most formidable army in Greece. Politically the leadership of Sparta is attractive to the aristocratic families who still control most Greek city-states. The chief threat to their interests is from tyrants , seizing power on behalf of a newly enriched class. Sparta, ruled by an aristocracy within a constitutional framework, is unusually secure against any such upheaval.

There is no risk of a new commercial class developing, for there is no commerce (even coins are banned). So Sparta becomes associated with a policy of opposing tyrants - even deposing them. Her first major clash with Athens comes in 510, when one of the Spartan kings, Kleomenes, marches north to drive out the tyrant Hippias. In 480 the threat from Persia brings Sparta and Athens together, with most of the other city-states of mainland Greece, in a rare show of unity. During the Greco-Persian wars the leading position of Sparta is acknowledged by all. By the time the Persians withdraw at the end of 480, soundly defeated, Sparta's military reputation has been enhanced at Thermopylae and Plataea. The Athenians, by contrast, have lost their city, laid waste by the Persians. Yet on balance it is the Athenians who emerge stronger. The navy which routs the enemy at Salamis is largely theirs. And it is becoming evident that control of the Aegean Sea is the best defence against Persia.

The Delian League: from 478 BC A shift in the balance of power between Athens and Sparta is emphasized in 478, when representatives of Athens and other Aegean states meet on the island of Delos to form a coalition, subsequently known as the Delian League. Members will subscribe to a common fleet, either by contributing ships and crews or in a minority of cases by a tribute of money. One of the aims is to liberate the Greek territories held by Persia on the east coast of the Aegean. Sparta is not interested in membership, having little in the way of a fleet. So Athens is unmistakably the leader of this new Greek alliance. In its early years the Delian League grows in strength, achieving several significant victories against Persia. This in itself is alarming to Sparta. Even more so is the way Athens begins to treat the League as an Athenian empire, with its fleet at the automatic disposal of Athens. The behaviour of Athens towards its supposedly equal allies is soon that of an imperial bully. States which attempt to bow out of the league are forcibly retained. Annual subscriptions are demanded instead of ships.

Most significant of all, in about 454 the accumulated funds of the League are transferred from Delos to Athens. Build-up to the First Peloponnesian War: 478-460 BC Sparta is having difficulty in retaining the loyalty of the members of its own Peloponnesian League, several of whom adopt democratic governments hostile in principle to the Spartan oligarchy. Sparta's troubles are compounded by a devastating earthquake in 464. Indirectly it brings to a head the simmering hostilities between Sparta and Athens. The earthquake destroys much of the city of Sparta and kills many Spartiates - the Greek term for Sparta's warrior citizens. The helots seize the opportunity to rise in revolt. The Spartans manage to contain the rebels in the region of Mount Ithome, in Messenia, but they lack the strength to defeat them. They appeal to their allies for help. Athens, at this stage technically an ally of Sparta, is among the city-states which send an army. Instead of welcoming this Athenian support, the Spartans send the soldiers back to Athens without involving them in the campaign. The precise reason is not known, but is probably political.

The decision follows the news that Athens is in the process of introducing a more radical democracy , a measure profoundly offensive to aristocratic Sparta. The episode is interpreted as a snub by the Athenians, who are constitutionally inclined to distrust Sparta. Soon after this event Athens makes provocative alliances with two city-states opposed to Sparta. Open hostility breaks out in 460, the year commonly taken as the start of the First Peloponnesian War. Mutual destruction: 5th - 4th century BC The war is spasmodic and has a built-in element of stalemate. Athens tends to win battles at sea; Sparta and her allies are stronger on land. In 446 a Thirty Year Treaty is agreed, in principle safeguarding the status quo. Sparta recognizes the Delian League, which has by now unmistakably evolved into an Athenian empire. Athens, in turn, will not take steps to diminish the Peloponnesian League. The peace makes possible the heyday of Athens under Pericles , but it lasts for only half its intended thirty years. Athens is unable to resist interfering in Peloponnesian affairs.

Amid recriminations as to which side has broken the treaty first, war resumes in 431 BC. The war continues in fits and starts for more than twenty years. Neither side establishes a clear advantage until, from 414, the Persians intervene on the Spartan side. By 404 the Athenian fleet has been destroyed, and a punitive peace treaty is imposed on Athens. Sparta is once again the undisputed leader of the Greek city-states. For more than a century Greece has been torn by lethal squabbles as cities change sides, betray treaties, make surprise attacks on each other, impose new forms of government or encourage treachery. The Greek invention of politics seems like the poison in the brew. This has been a century of political intrigue elevated to the status of war. Sparta, from 404 BC, has the opportunity and the strength to impose some sort of unity on Greece, but her hidebound social structure is ill-equipped to provide the necessary leadership. Instead Athens recovers sufficient prestige to put together, in 377, a revised version of the Delian League. This alliance proves strong enough to defeat the Spartan navy off Naxos in 376.

A few years later the Spartan army receives a terminal blow when overwhelmed by a smaller number of Thebans, thanks to the revolutionary tactics of Epaminondas , at Leuctra in 371. In 369 Epaminondas liberates Messenia , the neighbouring territory long exploited by the Spartans and the basis of much of Sparta's strength. A slow decline: from the 4th century BC In the mid-4th century Sparta offers no resistance to the Macedonian invaders. Alone among the Greek city-states, she is allowed to maintain a sulky independence. Sparta remains technically a free city through most of the Macedonian era and even into the Roman empire. The traditional political system, associated with the name of Lycurgus , lasts until 188 BC - though increasingly seen as a curiosity. The rigorous training of young men even survives as a tourist attraction in the Roman empire. An ordeal by flogging is one of the Spartan customs which can be viewed in the temple of Artemis. Almost no trace survives today of ancient Sparta. Unlike the cultured Athenians, these brisk military men set little store by fine buildings.

They were proud that their city was defended by men rather than masonry. The site of the temple of Artemis can be still be identified, but only because the Romans build a theatre there. The location of Sparta has remained in almost continuous use. In the Middle Ages a magnificent Byzantine city develops on a hill three miles away, at Mistra. The present town of Sparta, with about 10,000 inhabitants, was built in 1834 as a gesture of pride in the new independence of Greece . This is Sparta: The origins of Sparta’s militaristic culture This is Sparta: The origins of Sparta’s militaristic culture Share Sparta was the world’s first proto-fascist state, demanding absolute, lifelong loyalty and obedience from its citizens. Militaristic and fanatical, Spartan society was unique and unlike any culture before or since. Praised by Adolf Hitler as the “the first racialist state” worthy of admiration, Spartan society was brutal, merciless, and ruthless. It was organized for one exclusive purpose – crafting and maintaining a powerful, dependable military. From birth, Spartan citizens were required to train or serve in the army for their entire lives.

With an entire society dedicated to the perfection of warfare, the Spartans were an unrivaled military force on the peninsula. Lycurgus the Legendary Lawgiver Before Sparta rose to infamy, the city experienced an extended period of lawlessness and civil strife between the 7th and 8th centuries. Desperate to save their society, the Spartans passed numerous social and political reforms that completely redesigned the Spartan state. These reforms turned Sparta into a country completely obsessed with war, turning it into a military powerhouse that rose to dominance on the Iberian Peninsula. Lycurgus, the legendary lawgiver of Sparta According to Spartan legend, Lycurgus, a semi-mythical lawgiver, was responsible for the military-oriented reformation of Spartan society during the 8th century BC. Lycurgus was obsessed with remaking the Spartan state from the ground up. He traveled to countries surrounding the Greek peninsula, such as Crete, Ionia, and Egypt, to study their forms of government. Inspired by both the discipline of Crete and the strict classist system in Egypt, he came up with an idea for a new Spartan society devoted to devoted to austerity, simplicity, and military fitness.

To protect Sparta, Lycurgus decided that a well-trained, devoted military must be built and then supported by an underclass of serfs. These two groups would be kept separate, with only members of the military being eligible for citizenship. The military for his strictly class-structured society had to be kept in perfect physical condition and ready for battle at all times. In order to allow his soldiers to serve full time, the large worker underclass lived as slaves, responsible for maintaining all domestic production. While the serfs spent their entire lives farming or herding to provide food for Sparta, the citizens of Sparta would train incessantly to become talented warriors. Excitedly, Lycurgus returned to Sparta and organized a coup d’état in order to take over the state and implement his reforms. Popular and well regarded in Sparta, Lycurgus informed 30 of his closest friends of his plans, who immediately pledged to support him. At dawn, fully armed for battle, they marched on the marketplace and announced their intent to take over the state and institute reform. The king, overwhelmed by the people’s support of Lycurgus and desperate to improve conditions, agreed to his long list of demands.

Spartan Society To solidify his proposed caste system, Lycurgus divided the Spartans into three strict classes: Spartiates, or citizens responsible for governing and protecting Sparta and were the only members of the armed forces Periokoi, those who had failed the Agoge/free non-citizens Helots, or state owned serfs that were exploited for manual labor by Sparta’s citizen-army Spartan social structure courtesy of Hereff Jones Nystrom Citizens of Sparta had to be able to trace their lineage directly to the city’s founding families and complete the extensive Agoge training program. In essence, all Spartan citizens had to be both from a noble family and be athletic and disciplined enough to pass the Agoge. This way, Sparta’s armed forces were kept physically capable and ‘racially elite’. Those who failed the Agoge became perioikoi, removing their family from the direct linage and forfeiting the chance for their offspring to become full Spartan citizens.

When one man argued against Lycurgus’s discriminatory, proposed class system and suggested that Sparta should set up a democracy, Lycurgus wittily replied: “If you want equality, begin with your own family.” The helots, ancient Greek for ‘captives’, were the largest class in ancient Sparta. They were state owned serfs, responsible for manual labor and farming. As Spartan citizens were exclusively full-time, lifelong soldiers, Spartan society depended heavily on the helots for domestic production and economic stability. Spartan’s saw the helots as racially inferior, and ruthlessly exploited them for their physical labor. As the helots always significantly outnumbered actual Spartan citizens, the very real threat of a helot revolt terrified the Spartans. Lycurgus’s Reforms The Cryptia To intimidate and control the helots, Lycurgus formed the Cryptia, a type of ancient secret police staffed by Sparta’s citizen-soldiers. The Cryptia was responsible for keeping the helots enslaved and productive, dedicated to suppressing potential helot revolts against the Spartan citizens.

They used deceptive tactics to weed out potential helot revolutionaries, once tricking them by declaring that any helot could report to a Spartan army post to claim their freedom. As it was thought that the first to claim their freedom would be the most likely to rebel, the first 2,000 helots who arrived were executed on the spot. In addition to the Cryptia’s aggressive tactics, Lycurgus instituted multiple state-wide policies to control the slaves. Every autumn, the Spartans declared ritualistic war against the helots, making all crimes against the group temporarily legal. During this period, Spartans were encouraged to summarily execute helots that they found troublesome or unruly in order to quell potential revolutionaries. Improved status of women Lycurgus forfeited Sparta’s traditionalist values, instead favoring policies to strengthen the overall state and fitness of his citizens. He instituted major reforms for women, who became respected as the bearers of the next generation. Lycurgus declared that all women would be married in their late teens or early twenties, unlike Sparta’s rival Athens where it was common for girls to be married as young as 12 or 13.

Women in Sparta were to be well-fed, educated, and trained, responsible for their own properties and economic affairs. As such, Spartan women enjoyed a status and power that was unknown in the rest of the classical world. In fact, women were so respected within Sparta that only women who died in childbirth or men who died during combat were allowed the right to have their names inscribed on their tombstones. Spartan women enjoyed unparalleled rights in the ancient world Abolition of personal wealth Arguably one of Lycurgus’s most revolutionary reforms was his set of radical economic policies. He instituted major communal reforms, deciding that if nobody had individual wealth or personal ownership, greed would be eradicated and everyone would be able to dedicate themselves fulltime to military training. To accomplish this, he equalized landholdings and distributed the city’s wealth among the population. In order to defeat greed and dependence on money, he banned all gold and silver from the city. He deemed Sparta’s new currency to be iron, weakened by being heated red-hot then cooled in a vinegar bath. As such, Sparta’s currency was worthless outside the city, making all Spartans equally poor.

Spartans were in effect completely isolated economically, limiting external influences to maintain cohesion of the state. Extensive military training In order to train and organize his dreamed citizen-army, Lycurgus implemented extensive militaristic and authoritarian policies, such as the state sponsored Agoge training program. At age 7, Spartan boys eligible for the Agoge would be taken from their families by the government and enrolled full time in the program. Teaching absolute allegiance to the Spartan state, the Agoge was designed to create ideal soldiers. Encouraged to give their loyalty to their new comrades instead of their families, the boys were indoctrinated and taught that their only purpose in life was to serve Sparta on the battlefield. Featuring constant physical training, violent competition, and rigid discipline, the Agoge was responsible for training the next generation of Sparta’s elite hoplite army. Spartans were taken from their mothers at age seven to begin training Lycurgus cherished frugality and simplicity, adamant that an individual raised in adversity would become strong and capable. He incorporated these values into the Agoge’s rigorous education, ensuring that only the strongest, most talented boys would pass.

Boys in the Agoge received just one article of clothing a year and were purposefully underfed. Constantly hungry, the young boys learned to fight on an empty stomach, allowing Spartan soldiers to continue extended campaigns even after their food supplies had been exhausted. These harsh conditions gave rise to the modern word ‘Spartan’, meaning simple, or bare. The boys were trained mercilessly, and were subjected to ritualistic flogging in order to weed out weakness. Only at age 20, after 13 years of grueling effort, would the boys be made citizens and full time members of the army. Military and the Peloponnesian War As a result of Sparta’s rigorous military training, the city had the best army in ancient Greece. Spartan soldiers were renowned across the ancient world for their legendary talent and ability in battle, allowing Sparta to become the dominant city in Greece. Even though in its zenith of power Sparta could only muster a small sized force of 8,000 citizen hoplites, other city-states were reluctant to attack the military powerhouse. The military minded Spartans made a culture out of war, constantly subjugating other peoples to protect her interests.

Sparta quickly defeated neighboring city-states, forcing smaller cities to pledge allegiance to Sparta in return for protection. By 450 BC, the Spartan’s boasted a large alliance system called the Peloponnesian League which dominated the Greek Peninsula. Only Athens, Sparta’s ancient enemy, challenged Sparta’s supremacy. Building a naval empire in the Aegean Sea called the Delian League, democratic Athens and her allies stood in direct contrast to Sparta’s oligarchic, fascist society. Sparta and her allies (in red) match up against the Delian League (in orange) Rivalry turned to conflict in 431 BC when the two cities began raiding each other’s lands, burning villages and committing widespread atrocities on both sides. In 415 BC, the Athenians daringly sent a large expeditionary force to attack Sparta’s island ally Syracuse. However, in facing the Spartans in open battle, the Athenians were decimated and the entire force was destroyed. The Spartans seized the opportunity and went on the offensive, eventually defeating the Athenian fleet at Aegospotami and laying siege to Athens.

Facing starvation and disease from the prolonged siege, Athens surrendered in 404 BC. Sparta’s allies in the Peloponnesian League called for Athens to be burned and all her citizens enslaved, but Sparta refused. Seeking to incorporate Athens into their empire, the Spartans set up a puppet government ruled by the “Thirty Tyrants” based on the oligarchic Spartan model. The Peloponnesian War between democratic Athens and oligarch Sparta was one of the world’s first conflicts between governmental systems, seeing Athens crushed under the militaristic weight of Sparta. Downfall of the state However, while the Spartans manufactured a strong, well protected society, their downfall was a result of their own strict laws. Spartan citizenship was highly exclusive, available only to those who completed the Agoge and their direct offspring. But the Agoge was difficult to complete and many would be citizens dropped out, thereby forfeiting their family’s citizenship rights. As Spartan citizenship was inherited by blood, Sparta had a constantly declining citizen-status population – a trend that could not be reversed without changing Sparta’s founding laws.

These laws meant that Sparta could not easily replace citizens lost in battle or otherwise, proving to be fatal to the continuation of the state. Fallen soldiers could not be readily replaced At the height of Spartan power in 500 BC, there were approximately 10,000 citizens, 50,000 perioikoi, and nearly 170,000 helots. This unsustainable system was further weakened as the size of the citizen class decreased more every year. By 244 BC, there were less than 4,500 citizens and 15,000 perioikoi. Sparta now increasingly faced a helot population that vastly outnumbered its citizens, creating social instability and unrest. Sparta was taken over by aggressive tyrants, who led her into a series of costly, unsustainable wars with surrounding city states. When the powerful Roman Empire swept into Greece in 146 BC, Sparta’s allies were annihilated and the weakened city was forced to submit to Rome. Sparta’s legacy Admiration or love for Spartan culture is known as Laconophilia.

Sparta was the subject of fascination for many philosophers and academics in ancient Greece and remains a subject of controversy in the modern era. For over 500 years, Spartan society flourished as an unparalleled example of a strictly classist society governed by an authoritarian, militaristic upper class. Many historical figures, such as political strategist Machiavelli or philosopher Rousseau praise Sparta as the pinnacle of human achievement. Adolf Hitler praised the Spartans, recommending in 1928 that Germany should imitate them by limiting “the number allowed to live”. Claiming that the Spartan’s subjugation of the helots was only possible through the citizen’s superior genetics, Hitler deemed Sparta as the “first racialist state”. Despite notable endorsements over time, Sparta’s militaristic, overtly oppressive style of governance has lost out to Athenian styled democracy in the modern era. Many western countries follow in the footsteps of Athens rather than Sparta, favoring equality over order.

Question: By what name was a member of the serf underclass known in Ancient Sparta?
Answer: Helot