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However, the helots were not the private property of individual Spartan citizens, regardless of their household duties, and were instead owned by the state through the kleros system. [86] Helots did not have voting or political rights. The Spartan poet Tyrtaios refers to Helots being allowed to marry and retaining 50% of the fruits of their ...
The perioeci were obliged to follow Spartan foreign policy, and supplied men to fight in the Spartan army. [8] Like the hómoioi (ὅμοιοι, full Spartan citizens), the perioeci fought in the army as hoplites, probably in the same units. [9] The perioeci had the right to own land, which would have been necessary to support those in the army ...
A 19th-century artistic representation of Spartan boys exercising while young girls taunt them. The agoge (Ancient Greek: ἀγωγή, romanized: ágōgḗ in Attic Greek, or ἀγωγά, ágōgá in Doric Greek) was the training program pre-requisite for Spartiate (citizen) status. Spartiate-class boys entered it age seven, and aged out at 30.
Classical Spartan society was rigidly divided into several castes, each with assigned duties and privileges. The smallest of them, with the most power and freedom, was the Spartiate class. Spartiates (Spartiate-class males over 30) held some extremely limited power in the government and would own kleroi (plots of land with associated Helots).
The homoioi were the citizens of Sparta. [2] [better source needed] They were the elite class and were the only deserving of the title Spartan. As a result, the Spartan population was very small in comparison with the working classes. There was a ratio of 7 or 8 helots to every Spartan citizen. [1]
The Spartan citizens relied on the labor of captured slaves called helots to do the everyday drudgework of farming and maintenance, while the Spartan men underwent a rigorous military regimen, and in a sense it was the labor of the helots which permitted Spartans to engage in extensive military training and citizenship. [16]
As Spartan citizenship was inherited by blood, Sparta now increasingly faced a helot population that vastly outnumbered its citizens. The alarming decline of Spartan citizens was commented on by Aristotle, who viewed it as a sudden event. While some researchers view it as a result of war casualties, it appears that the number of citizens, after ...
According to some authors, in the 4th century BC, citizens also used chattel-slaves for domestic purposes. However, this is disputed by others. Some helots were also servants to young Spartans during their agoge, the Spartan education; these were the μόθωνες / móthōnes (see below). Finally, helots, like slaves, could be artisans or ...