Latest / The History of Greece: Philosophy, Empire, and Endless Reinvention — Fexingo History / The Spartan Helots: Enslaved People Who Powered an Empire
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- Lucas: So, we've talked a lot about Sparta's military prowess — the phalanx, the agoge, the Battle of Leuctra. But there's a shadow population that made all of that possible, and we've barely mentioned them: the helots. Luna: Helots — those were the enslaved people who farmed the land while Spartans trained for war, right? Lucas: Exactly. The word 'helot' probably comes from the Greek 'helotes', meaning 'captives'. And that's essentially what they were — a conquered population, mostly from Messenia and Laconia, who were forced to work the land and give a fixed portion of their harvest to their Spartan masters. Lucas: The system really took shape after the First Messenian War, around the late 8th century BC. Sparta conquered Messenia, a fertile region to the west, and reduced its entire population to helots. That gave the Spartans a stable food supply and freed them up for full-time soldiering. Luna: So the helots were essentially state-owned serfs, not individual slaves like in Athens? Lucas: That's a crucial distinction. Helots were tied to the land, not to a particular master. They could keep some surplus, marry, and have families — but they had no political rights, could be killed or punished by any Spartan, and were subject to constant surveillance. The state assigned them to individual Spartans, but the state owned them collectively. Lucas: And the numbers are staggering. By the 5th century BC, helots probably outnumbered Spartans by about seven to one. That's a recipe for paranoia. And the Spartans had a whole toolkit for keeping them down. Luna: Like the krypteia — the secret police, right? Lucas: Yes. The krypteia was essentially a ritualized terror campaign. Young Spartan men, the most promising graduates of the agoge, were sent out into the countryside with daggers and orders to kill any helot they caught after dark — especially the strongest or most defiant ones. Plutarch describes it as a way to harden the young men and cull the helot population. Lucas: Thucydides tells a chilling story from the Peloponnesian War. The Spartans once asked the helots to pick out their best warriors, promising them freedom. Two thousand helots were selected, crowned with garlands, and marched around the temples. Then they simply disappeared — presumably executed. Luna: That's horrifying. And it shows how much the Spartans feared a helot uprising. Lucas: Absolutely. The helots were a constant source of anxiety. The Spartans even had an annual ritual where the ephors — the elected officials — would declare war on the helots. That way, any Spartan could kill a helot without religious pollution. It's a stunning admission of how fragile the system felt. Luna: And there were actual revolts, weren't there? The Messenian Revolts? Lucas: Yes, the Third Messenian War around 465 BC was a major uprising that lasted nearly a decade. It started after a massive earthquake devastated Sparta, and the helots saw their chance. They fortified Mount Ithome in Messenia and held out for years. Sparta had to call for help from Athens — which eventually led to tensions that contributed to the First Peloponnesian War. Lucas: The poet Tyrtaeus, who wrote martial elegies for Sparta, actually mentions the Messenian helots in his poems. He describes them as 'asses worn down by great burdens' — a rare contemporary glimpse into their condition. Lucas: If you've been following these conversations about Greece and its military states, you might have noticed that a lot of what we cover — the phalanx, the agoge, even Spartan foreign policy — was shaped by the helot problem. And I want to mention that this show is made possible by listeners like you. We keep it ad-free and independent because of small contributions from people who care about deep-dive history. A couple of dollars a month genuinely makes a difference — it's what keeps episodes like this coming. If you've gotten something out of them, consider throwing a few bucks our way at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: Yeah, it's really a modest ask for the amount of research that goes into each episode. Totally worth it. Lucas: So, back to the helots. The constant threat of rebellion also shaped Spartan foreign policy. The Spartans were reluctant to send their army far from home for long periods, because they were afraid the helots would rise up. That's one reason they were so hesitant to get involved in overseas campaigns. Luna: That explains a lot about their behavior during the Peloponnesian War. They didn't want to be away too long. Lucas: Exactly. And it's also why they eventually freed helots to serve as hoplites in emergencies. These were called neodamodeis — 'newly enfranchised' — and they were a sign of desperation. But even then, the Spartans tried to keep them separate from the full citizen body. Lucas: There were also helots who served as light-armed troops or as attendants to Spartan hoplites. Some sources mention helot rowers in the fleet. But their status always remained precarious. A helot could never become a full Spartan citizen, though there was a class called mothakes — possibly helot-born boys who were raised alongside Spartans and sometimes rose to prominence. The admiral Lysander might have been one. Luna: Fascinating. So the system wasn't entirely rigid at the edges. Lucas: Right. But the overwhelming reality was exploitation and terror. The Greek writer Myron of Priene, writing in the 2nd century BC, said that the Spartans 'assign to the helots every shameful task leading to disgrace.' And he lists things like forcing them to wear dog-skin caps and leather cloaks, and beating them if they got too fat. Luna: Wait — beating them if they got fat? What's that about? Lucas: It was a weird form of control. A fat helot supposedly indicated he wasn't working hard enough, or was eating too much of the produce. The Spartans wanted them lean and overworked. And there's also a story about helots being forced to get drunk and sing vulgar songs to demonstrate the degradation of drunkenness to young Spartans. Lucas: So the helots were a constant, dehumanized presence in Spartan life. And yet, their labor was the foundation of Sparta's entire social pyramid. Without them, the homoioi — the 'equals', the full Spartan citizens — couldn't have devoted their lives to military training. Luna: It's such a dark irony. The city that prided itself on freedom was built on unfree labor. Lucas: That irony wasn't lost on some ancient observers. The Athenian playwright Critias, who was actually a relative of Plato, wrote that 'in Sparta, the free man is most free, and the slave is most a slave.' And he meant it as both praise and critique. Lucas: Eventually, the helot system came to an end. After the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC, the Theban general Epaminondas invaded the Peloponnese and liberated Messenia, founding the city of Messene. That cut off the helot supply from Messenia, and the remaining helots in Laconia were gradually granted more rights. By the Roman period, the term 'helot' had basically faded away. Luna: So it took an outside force to break the system. Lucas: Exactly. The liberation of Messenia was one of the most consequential outcomes of Thebes' brief hegemony. It wasn't just a military defeat for Sparta — it was the destruction of its economic foundation. And from then on, Sparta was a shadow of its former self. Luna: It's a powerful reminder that even the most oppressive systems can be overturned when the conditions change. Lucas: Absolutely. And it makes you wonder how different Greek history might have been if the helots had succeeded in one of their revolts earlier. Would there have been a Messenian state alongside Sparta? Could that have shifted the balance of power in the Peloponnese? Luna: It's a fascinating counterfactual. Maybe we'll explore that in a future episode.