Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/389

 HELOTS IN THE VILLAGES. 373 since the foundation of Messene by Epameinondas had been con sumraated) belonged to Spartan citizens,! but the remaining smaller half must have been the property of the Perijeki, who must besides have carried on most of the commerce of export and import, the metallurgic enterprise, and the distribution of internal produce, which the territory exhibited; since no Spar- Ian ever meddled in such occupations. And thus the peculiar training of Lykurgus, by throwing all .these employments into the hands of the Periceki, opened to them a new source of im- portance, which the dependent townships of Argos, of Thebes, or of Orchomenus, would not enjoy. The Helots of Laconia were Coloni, or serfs, bound to the soil, who tilled it for the benefit of the Spartan proprietors certainly, probably, of Perioekic proprietors also. They were the rustic- population of the country, who dwelt, not in towns, but either in small villages 2 or in detached farms, both in the district imme- 1 Aristot. Polit. ii. 6, 23. diii yap TO ruv 2 Trapriaruv elvat Tt}v Trtaiffrjyv yfjv, oiiK s^eTu^ovatv <i/l/l^/l<ji/ raf eicr^opuf. Mr. G. C. Lewis, in the article above alluded to (Philolog. Mus. ii. p. 54), says, about the Periceki : " They lived in the country or in small towns of the Laconian territory, and cultivated the land, which they did not hold of any individual citizen, but paid for it a tribute or rent to the state ; being exactly in the same condition as the possessores of the Roman domain, or the Ryots, in Hindostan, before the introduction of the Permanent Settlement." It may be doubted, I think, whether the Periceki paid any such rent or tribute as that which Mr. Lewis here supposes. The passage just cited from Aristotle seems to show that they paid direct taxation Individually, and just upon the same principle as the Spartan citizens, who are distinguished only by being larger landed-proprietors. But though the principle of taxation be the same, there was practical injustice (according to Aristotle) in the mode of assessing it. "The Spartan citizens (he observes) being the largest landed- proprietors, take care not to canvass strictly each other's payment of property-tax" i. e. they wink mutually at each other's evasions. If the Spartans had been the only persons who paid datyopa, or property-tax, this observation of Aristotle would have had no meaning. In principle, the tax was assessed, both on their larger properties and on the smaller properties of the Periceki : in practice, the Spartans helped each other to evade the due proportion. 1 The village-character of the Helots is distinctly marked by Livy, xxxiv 27, in describing the inflictions of the despot Nabis : " Ilotarum quidam (bJ sunt jam indc antiquitus castellani, agrcste genus) transfugerc voluisse insimu- !ati, per omnes vicos sub verberibus acti necantur."