Page:Greece from the Coming of the Hellenes to AD. 14.djvu/81

Rh of the country, whatever their origin, had been either allowed to remain on their lands as farmers who, though not slaves, had yet no share in the Spartan citizenship, and were called perioikoi; or they had been reduced to serfdom under the name of helots, who were bound to the soil, of which they paid half the products to its lord, besides doing him personal service in war and elsewhere. It was only true Spartans of the conquering race that were citizens. They lived like a garrison in a conquered country, bound to be always ready against a rising of their serfs, always engaged in martial exercises or actual war, and regarding all other employments as either un- important or undignified. Trade and commerce were left to the unenfranchised farmers (perioikoi) or the helots. Only to them was the use of coined money allowed, and all intercourse with men of other states, except on the field of battle, was discouraged. There were no written laws, in accordance with a maxim or rhetra of Lycurgus; but each question of public importance, whether of peace or war, or the distribution of land, was determined nominally by the king and council, really by the Ephors. The chief danger to the governing class arose from the helots, especially those in Messenia, whose loss of freedom was more recent than that of the helots in Laconia. Their frequent revolts were the more formidable because Sparta was not loved by her neighbours. Argos was her jealous rival, and the highlanders of Arcadia were always on the watch to maintain their independence. Both were ready to assist revolting helots if it suited their interests. It was