Definition: The Spartans (Spartiate) realized they needed more arable land, so they looked greedily to the southwest. There they grabbed the fertile soil of Messenia and conquered the native population. The Spartans turned the conquered people into
helots, subservient workers treated like slaves. These helots worked the land to support the Spartiate. This left the Spartiate free to train as soldiers.
In addition to being members of a conquered native population, some helots may have originally been free perioikoi who rebelled. Helots could become freedmen, neodamodes, as a reward for their military service, or mothones (or mothakes) neither citizen nor helot, a class probably composed of the children of Spartiate fathers and helot mothers.
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