Helot. Historical description

Individuals in antiquity could normally be classified as free or slave. A free person in a city might be a citizen or a foreign resident, the latter normally being protected from abuses. A slave was an individual who could be bought or sold, usually without any rights. An individual might be born into slavery, a child of a slave, captured in war and made a slave, sentenced to slavery for committing a crime, or even sold by a relative to pay a debt. As property, they could be abused. Most cities would have state slaves, individuals who like personal slaves were owned and had no rights. A major intermediary between free and slave was the helot in Sparta. In many Greek cities, individuals like them were called what some Greek authors described as between “free men and slaves.”

The helots were probably descended from the original inhabitants of Sparta when the Dorian invasion occurred after the fall of the Mycenaean kingdom. It is clear that the helots were non-Dorian and they had been conquered by the Spartans. It is probable that they were the local farmers who had arrived in Greece even before the Mycenaean leaders had taken over during the fifteenth century.

These inhabitants were then made subservient to the Spartans, although not as personal slaves, but rather as public slaves, who were more like serfs. Early in their history, the Spartans after subjugating the helots probably made a compact with them so that both sides benefited—the Spartans got workers, and the helots were not subjugated as slaves proper. In this arrangement, the helots would provide half of their produce as tribute to individual Spartan citizens (Spartiates) from their estates in exchange for not being sold or forced from their land. In fact, the Spartiate could not free the helots or sell them.

Here, the Spartans agreed to abandon the idea of slavery that existed in other cities, where a slave could be bought and sold; instead, the helot family would not be broken up or sold and have to leave their homes. The helots were permitted to keep the other half of the produce for themselves and even hold land within their family, and apparently within a broader communal system. The helots also served their individual masters on military campaigns and could fight as light-armed troops or oarsmen, but the Spartans were very careful about arming helots in case of rebellion.

The helot population greatly expanded when Sparta achieved a victory over Messenia in western Laconia in the First Messenian War (740-720) and fused the Messenians with the preexisting helots. This increase in rich, fertile land committed the Spartans to a mainly agricultural life, which allowed a large, professional army to be supported. The helots were similar to later medieval serfs, in that they were not completely free and tied to the land but could not be bought and sold like a slave.

In Messenia, the helots greatly outnumbered the Spartans. The historian Herodotus indicated that there were seven helots for every Spartan. Although this figure may have been exaggerated, it is clear that the helots were more numerous than the Spartans in both Messenia and Laconia. Even in Laconia, where there were other free individuals who did not have citizenship, such as the perioeci, the helots probably were the majority of the population. Because of this outnumbering of the Spartans by the helots, the Spartans lived in continuous fear of rebellion, especially after the First and Second Messenian Wars of the eighth and seventh centuries.

The Spartans were loath to leave the Peloponnese in fear of a helot uprising. This shaped their political evolution during the Classical Age, as they did not venture out, preferring to wage a defensive war if needed. The Spartans did attack Argos in the Peloponnese, but until the Peloponnesian War (432-404), they did not desire to move north except in rare cases. Their fear of the helots resulted in Pausanias, one of their greatest generals and the victor over the Persians at Plataea in 479, to be put to death in 469 for supposedly plotting to give citizenship to the helots who had fought at Plataea. During the Third Messenian War (465-461), the helots did rebel, and Sparta even asked Athens for help; it sent the general Cimon, a friend of Sparta, in response.

Sparta then sent him home because they feared Athens had helped with the rebellion, thus ending Spartan and Athenian coexistence after the Persian Wars. And when the Spartans in the Peloponnesian War were defeated at Sphacte- ria (Pylos) in Messenia, they feared another helot rebellion; to forestall it, they freed 2,000 helots who had fought for them, only to then secretly assassinate them to remove any potential rebel leaders.

The Spartans developed a series of policies and organizations to keep the helots under control. For example, every year the newly elected Ephors would declare war on the helots. While this did not mean that the Spartan army marched into Messenia or Laconia to fight the helots, it did allow the Spartans to kill a helot at any time if they believed that he would be a problem without penalty and not incur the polluting sin of murder. To help control the helots, the Spartans created the krypteia, or secret police, which removed any helot who seemed to be particularly troublesome.

The Spartans began to establish other classes of inhabitants in Laconia directly related to the helots. One was the neodamodeis, who were freed helots who had served in the military and were allowed to become citizens. They were usually sent overseas to prevent creating trouble back home, but they still provided the Spartans with soldiers. Another group, part of the Inferiors (individuals who had lost their social rank within the Spartiates or full Spartans) were the mothones, some of whom appear to have been children of Spartan fathers and helot mothers.

Ultimately, Sparta lost control of its helots when Thebes liberated Messenia in 370, but they continued to have them in Laconia until the end of the Greek period.