What were the Helot revolts?

What were the Helot revolts?

Helots were ritually mistreated, humiliated and even slaughtered: every autumn the Spartans would declare war on the helots so they could be killed by a member of the Crypteia without fear of religious repercussion. Uprisings and attempts to improve the lot of the helots did occur, such as the Conspiracy of Cinadon.

What was the Helot in Spartan society?

helot, a state-owned serf of the ancient Spartans. The ethnic origin of helots is uncertain, but they were probably the original inhabitants of Laconia (the area around the Spartan capital) who were reduced to servility after the conquest of their land by the numerically fewer Dorians.

What is an example of a Helot?

The definition of helots were Greek slaves in ancient Sparta. An example of helots were serfs who were slaves and owned by the state of Sparta in ancient Greece.

Can Helot become a Spartan?

They were of a higher social class than the helots, and yet there is no evidence that any of them were made citizens for the military service they rendered at Plataea. If the perioeci and mothakes could not gain Spartan citizenship, it is highly improbable that helots could.

What was the significance of the Helot rebellion?

The crisis began in 465 B.C. with a tremendous earthquake in Laconia, the territory of the Spartans in the Peloponnese. It killed so many Spartans that the helots in Messenia instigated a massive revolt.

What happened in the Helot revolt?

Around 660 B.C., the Spartans attacked the Argives, who demolished the Spartans. The report of Sparta’s lost gave encouragement to the Helots who started a revolt against Sparta, which is now known as the Second Messenian War​.

How did the Spartans treat their slaves?

The Spartans ruled over a group of people called the Helots. The Helots were treated like slaves by the Spartans. They farmed the land and performed other manual labor for the Spartans. In order to keep control, the Spartans had secret police who kept track of the Helots and killed anyone who they thought might rebel.

Who were the Spartan Ephors?

ephor, (Greek ephoros), title of the highest Spartan magistrates, five in number, who with the kings formed the main executive wing of the state. In antiquity, time periods were recorded by the names of the ephors on a list that dated back to 754 bc.

Is Zeus in the dictionary?

the supreme deity of the ancient Greeks, a son of Cronus and Rhea, brother of Demeter, Hades, Hera, Hestia, and Poseidon, and father of a number of gods, demigods, and mortals; the god of the heavens, identified by the Romans with Jupiter.

Why did the Spartans need the helots?

The Spartans were a particularly land-hungry warrior society. In 715 B.C.E., the Spartans solved their need for more land by conquering the agriculturally rich region of Messene. The helots’ work helped to make Sparta a wealthy city, and in time they became trusted members of Spartan families.

Did the Spartans have slaves?

Sparta had the highest number of slaves compared to the number of owners. Some scholars estimate that there were seven times as many slaves as citizens. Q: What did slaves do in Sparta? Slaves in Sparta worked on their lands and produced agricultural products for their masters.

Why did the Spartans create the Peloponnesian League?

The League was founded so that Sparta might protect itself against both a possible uprising of Sparta’s helots and regional rival Argos. Thucydides in his History of the Peloponnesian War describes the workings of the League. Members sent delegates to meetings where each city held one vote.

Did the helots ever revolt against their masters?

Given that the Helots greatly outnumbered their Spartan masters, the possibility of them revolting against their repressive rulers was ever present. The first major Helot revolt took place around 665 BC, and is known as the Second Messenian War (The First Messenian War had ended around 40 years prior to this conflict).

What was the largest revolt recorded by the helots?

This was due to the fear that the Helots would revolt when the Spartan army was fighting away from home. Despite these and other precautions, several revolts by the Helots took place over the centuries. When an earthquake struck the Eurotas Valley in 464 BC, the Helots seized this opportunity to revolt. This was the largest revolt recorded.

How long did it take to quash the Helot rebellion?

One helot rebellion took the highly trained and generally very efficient Spartan military over thirty years to quash. After each rebellion attempt, the helots faced increased violence at the hands of their Spartan masters. It is important to understand that the ancient Spartans practiced a type of eugenics program for themselves.

Why did the helot population increase after the Spartan revolt?

Rebellion. In addition, Spartan men spent much of their lives away in battle and thus fewer women became pregnant. These cultural practices led to a decreased population of Spartans at the same time generations of helots had produced children, leading to a much larger population of helots than Spartans.