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Helots were ritually mistreated and humiliated. Every autumn the Spartan polis declared war on the helots, allowing them to be killed and abused by members of the Crypteia without fear of religious repercussion. [4] [5] [6] Uprisings and attempts to improve the lot of the helots did occur, such as the conspiracy of Cinadon of 399 BC.
This alleged good treatment did not prevent 20,000 Athenian slaves from running away at the end of the Peloponnesian War at the incitement of the Spartan garrison at Attica in Decelea. These were principally skilled artisans ( kheirotekhnai ), probably among the better-treated slaves, although some researchers believe them to be mainly workers ...
Spartiate-class males (including boys) were a small minority: estimates are that they made up between 1/10 and 1/32 of the population, with the proportion decreasing over time; the vast majority of the people of Sparta were helots (slaves). Spartan citizenship was restricted to adult males without metic ancestry, as in most Greek poleis ...
According to Xenophon, Spartan women were not required to do the domestic labour which women elsewhere in the Greek world were responsible for. He reports that in Sparta, doulai (slave women) did the weaving. [70] In archaic Sparta it would have been helot women who fulfilled this role, but later in Spartan history, especially after the ...
Sparta placed the values of liberty, equality, and fraternity at the center of their ethical system. These values applied to every full Spartan citizen, immigrant, merchant, and even to the helots, but not the dishonored. Helots are unique in the history of slavery in that, unlike traditional slaves, they were allowed to keep and gain wealth ...
With the Spartan revolution in jeopardy, Cleomenes III began to emancipate helots in exchange for money and then military service. [25] With the emancipation of many helots and Spartan's subsequent defeat at Sellasia, helotage ceased to exist, and without a helot population, by mandate, the Crypteia should have ceased to exist as well.
Map of Sparta. The Spartans had conquered the southern Peloponnese and incorporated the territory into the enlarged Sparta state. Spartan society functioned within three classes: homoioi or spartiates, perioeci, and the helots. The helots were captives of war and were state-owned slaves of Sparta. [1]
Helots did not have voting or political rights. The Spartan poet Tyrtaios refers to Helots being allowed to marry and retaining 50% of the fruits of their labor. [87] They also seem to have been allowed to practice religious rites and, according to Thucydides, own a limited amount of personal property. [88]