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67 Spartan Constitutio7i. 67 language^^, or family, but natives cultivating the land with their wives and children^ inheriting their disabilities, and with them a hatred for their masters. The moral claims of the Helots for their enfranchisement were much stronger than those of the Athenian slaves : the former rather resembled the European serfs of the middle ages, the latter the negro-slaves in the American states and the West India islands : the former might as easily have been incorporated into the state as the villeins of England or the clients of Rome : but the dif- ference of race and language presented an almost insuperable obstacle to the incorporation of the Athenian slaves. It was for these reasons that (with few and unimportant exceptions) we never hear of servile wars in Attica, and other states which were supplied with imported slaves and did not rear any at home : while the Helots from the very beginning were a disobedient and rebellious body, keeping (as Aristotle says) a constant watch on the misfortunes of their masters (Pol. ii. 7), and on many occasions bore arms against the Spartans, some- times so as to endanger their very existence. Thus Ephorus described the Helots as revolting with the Partheniae against the Spartans immediately after the first Messenian war (Strab. VI. p. 280). The protracted contest which the Helots entrenched in Ithome waged against the Spartans, who were at length forced to suffer them to depart on terms, is well known. Equally celebrated is the cold-blooded assassination by which the Spartans privately despatched about 2000 of the bravest, and therefore most dangerous of these bondmen (Thuc. IV. 80). In the 50 years alliance made by the Lace- daemonians and Athenians after the taking of Pylos, it was stipulated that, if the slaves of the Lacedaemonians should 3^ The Helots aU spoke the same language (Thuc. iii. 112), the danger of which is remarked by Plato, Leg. vi. p. 777- The Helot population moreover maintained itself by natural reproduction, as the serfs in the country were able to marry and rear their children (see Hume on the Popul. of Anc. Nations, Works, Vol. iii. p. 438,. Miiller ii. p. 37) : whereas at Athens, and in other states similarly situated, the numbers of the slaves were kept up by importation, as they could be purchased at a cheaper rate from the slave-merchant than they could be reared at home. The diminution observed in the numbers of the slaves in the English West India islands (where fresh supplies cannot be procured by importation) has probably taken place in all bodies of slaves not belonging to the class of serfs ; only the additional numbers procured from abroad prevented the small number of births from being perceived. See Wachsmuth I. 1. p. 172.