Related Resources:
Sparta Helots Quiz Lycurgus Elsewhere on the Web:
Timeline of Sparta Economy: Spartiate, Perioikoi and Helots
Definition:
When the Spartiate (Spartans) realized they needed more arable land they looked to the southwest to the more fertile soil of Messenia. The helots were conquered Laconians whom the Spartiates made subservient and were treated like slaves. They worked the land to support the Spartiates who only had time for military training. The helots may have originally been the free, but dependent perioikoi who rebelled. Helots could also be 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.
Related Terms
• Ecclesia (Spartan)
• Ephors
• Gerousia
• Perioikoi
• Spartiate
Sparta: A Military State
The Spartans overpowered the native Messenians in order to obtain more fertile land.
Resources on the Greek city-state.
Find out how much you know about the Lacedaemonian serfs.
Who was the Spartan lawgiver? How much is only conjecture?
The Kings of Sparta
A table listing kings of Sparta. These hereditary joint kings came one from each of the Agiad and Eurypontid families.
A chronology of events in Sparta (1500 - 222 B.C.) compared with events in the rest of Greece (3000-194 B.C.).
Article explains the creation of helots from the Messenians.
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