Spartan women Spartan women couldn’t be citizens, vote or hold ofýce, but they could own land and go to court. Many women ended up owning a third of Sparta’s wealth because men died in battle. Like boys, they were taught to be brave and outspoken. They wore simple clothes, cut their hair short and didn’t use makeup or jewellery. They trained to stay ýt and had the role of having healthy children. 4.6.2 The helots and the perioeci Helots in Sparta were slaves. They weren’t owned by people, but by the state. They farmed land for Spartans, who feared a helot rebellion because the helots outnumbered them. This fear made Sparta a strict military state. The perioeci lived near Sparta and were free but had to serve in the army if needed. They were craftspeople and merchants, jobs forbidden to Spartans. How did the helots react to enslavement? When the Spartans conquered the Messenians, they made them slaves. This allowed Spartans to be full-time soldiers since the helots farmed their land. The Messenian helots never gave up wanting freedom and rebelled around 650 BCE and again in 464–459 BCE. Spartan methods to control the helots may have made them more rebellious. The Ephorate ran a secret police called the ‘Krypteia’, sending young Spartans to spy on and kill helots who seemed likely to lead a rebellion (see SOURCES4 and 5 ).
SOURCE4 A description of the treatment of helots, by the ancient Greek writer, Plutarch (c. 46–120 CE)
The magistrates dispatched privately some of the ablest of the young men into the country, from time to time, armed only with their daggers . . . they . . . killed all the Helots they could light upon; sometimes they set upon them by day, as they were at work in the ýelds, and murdered them . . . Aristotle, in particular, adds, that the ephori [ephors], so soon as they were entered into their ofýce, used to declare war against them [the helots], so that they might be massacred without a breach of religion.
SOURCE5 A description of the treatment of helots who had fought for Sparta against Athens in 424 BCE, by the ancient Greek writer, Thucydides (c. 460–403 BCE)
The Helots were invited by a proclamation to pick out those of their number who claimed to have most distinguished themselves against the enemy, in order that they might receive their freedom; the object being to test them, as it was thought that the ýrst to claim their freedom would be the most high-spirited and the most apt to rebel. As many as two thousand were selected accordingly, who crowned themselves and went around the temples, rejoicing in their new freedom. The Spartans, however, soon afterwards did away with them, and no-one ever knew exactly how each one of them perished.
How have historians explained Sparta’s treatment of the helots? We have very few sources about ancient Sparta. Most come from archaeology and writings by ancient Greeks like Herodotus and Thucydides. Almost none were written by Spartans or helots. Many historians have written books and articles about Sparta using the little evidence we have. SOURCES6 and 7 are two examples.
Jacaranda Humanities Alive 7 Victorian Curriculum Third Edition
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