Unlike the slaves in Athens, helots had families and communities of their own, and they were no private property. Therefore, Pausanias calls them “slaves of the commonwealth”. Strabo of Amasia says they were “some sort of public slaves”, and other authors say they were a category between slaves and free people.
How did helots become slaves?
Spartans: Masters of the Helots
When the Spartans conquered a territory, the citizens were forced to become slaves. For example, the Spartans conquered a land called Messenia, which was a rich agricultural region west of Laconia. The citizens of Messenia worked on their own fields, but they were slaves of the Spartans.
Were helots slaves?
The helots were the slaves of the Spartans. Distributed in family groups across the landholdings of Spartan citizens in Laconia and Messenia, helots performed the labour that was the bedrock on which Spartiate leisure and wealth rested.
How did Spartans treat helots?
Spartans, who were outnumbered by the Helots, often treated them brutally and oppressively in an effort to prevent uprisings. Spartans would humiliate the Helots by doing such things as forcing them to get debilitatingly drunk on wine and then make fools of themselves in public.
Why were Spartan slaves called helots?
According to the Greek geographer Pausanias, the Helots hailed from a city called Helos. This city is said to have been conquered by the Spartans, and its inhabitants became their first slaves. Subsequent peoples enslaved by the Spartans were also called Helots.
What were helots allowed to do?
They were allowed families, to go away from their house and make cash for themselves. Occasionally, the Helots would be assigned to help out in the military. However, not all Helots were happy where they were at. Around 660 B.C., the Spartans attacked the Argives, who demolished the Spartans.
What was life like for a helot?
Helots lived in family units and could, at least de facto, contract unions among themselves. Since helots were much less susceptible than other slaves in Greek antiquity to having their family units dispersed, they could reproduce themselves, or at least maintain their number.
Were the Spartan helots slaves?
The helots were in a sense state slaves, bound to the soil and assigned to individual Spartans to till their holdings; their masters could neither free them nor sell them, and the helots had a limited right to accumulate property, after paying to their masters a fixed proportion of the produce of the holding.
Who killed helots?
The young soldiers would hide themselves until they came across groups of people called “helots.” At night, “they came down into the highways and killed every Helot whom they caught.” Even during the day, the krypteia massacred the helots working in the fields.
How did the Spartan slaves differ from those of the rest of the Greek world?
Unlike enslaved people who were owned privately, helots were subjects of the Spartan state. They were able to have families and exercised some degree of freedom, but they were tied to the land and were required to supply Sparta with food.
Why is helot so important?
The helots’ work helped to make Sparta a wealthy city, and in time they became trusted members of Spartan families. A number of ancient sources mention helots that acted as domestic servants or companions to high-ranking Spartan elites.
Who freed the helots?
Epaminondas
Epaminondas briefly returned to Arcadia, before marching south again, this time to Messenia, a region which the Spartans had conquered some 200 years before. Epaminondas freed the helots of Messenia, and rebuilt the ancient city of Messene on Mount Ithome, with fortifications that were among the strongest in Greece.
Were the Spartan helots slaves?
The helots were in a sense state slaves, bound to the soil and assigned to individual Spartans to till their holdings; their masters could neither free them nor sell them, and the helots had a limited right to accumulate property, after paying to their masters a fixed proportion of the produce of the holding.
When did helots start?
During the 8th to 7th century BC, Sparta needed more fertile lands to farm, likely due to an increasing population. Sparta invaded and waged war with Messenia more than once, but the first invasion occurred throughout 735-715 BC. During this time the peoples of Messenia were captured and taken as helots.
Who controlled the helots?
The Helots outnumbered the Spartans by as much as 20 to 1. The Spartans kept themselves in continuous military preparedness in order to crush any attempt of rebellion. They hesitated to join military campaigns far from Sparta for the same reason. A military force known as Krypteria kept the Helots under control.
What happened to the helots?
When the Spartans dominance eroded and Greece fell to Rome, helots still did not get their freedom. Instead of being slaves in Sparta, they became slaves in Rome. Their history interwove with those of the Romans slaves and soon enough their fate was forgotten and their existence faded into obscurity.