nearly half the area of the Peloponnese. During this time, Spartan citizenship was withheld from the
inhabitants of the newly incorporated territories. Instead, the earliest victims of Spartan expansion, those
who lived in the areas closest to Sparta, were given the status of dependent allies, while those who fell
under Spartan authority at a later time became HELOTS, or slaves who were the property of the Spartan
state. When the historian Herodotus, writing within 50 years of the battle itself, records the figures for the
Spartan forces at Plataea, he tells us that there were 5,000 Spartan hoplites, 5,000 hoplites from among
the dependent allies, and 35,000 lightly armed helots. If these figures are approximately correct – and they
are generally accepted by modern historians – they would seem to indicate that Spartan citizens made up
less than 12 percent of the total male population of the territory ruled by Sparta and, since citizen status
did not extend to women in ancient Greece, just over 5 percent of the adult population.
HELOT One of a group who had been collectively enslaved by, and was owned by, an alien state
(especially Sparta), as opposed to the more common type of slave, who was privately owned by an
individual.“Lycurgus is the man who established the laws that are followed by the Spartans and are responsible
for their welfare. I have the highest regard for Lycurgus and I consider him wise in the extreme. For
he made his homeland preeminent in prosperity not by imitating the other poleis but by pursuing a
line of thinking that actually ran counter to the majority. To begin with the fundamentals, when it
comes to childbearing, elsewhere girls who are brought up properly and are expected to become
mothers are fed the plainest fare possible, with the very minimum of exposure to haute cuisine. They
are either not allowed to have wine at all or it is given to them watered down. The rest of the Greeks
think that girls should sit quietly in one place, like ordinary trades people, and work wool. How can
girls brought up like this be expected to give birth to anything other than ordinary children? Lycurgus
felt that the production of clothing could be left to slaves, of whom there is no shortage. Free
women, he thought, had no higher calling than producing children, and so he required physical
exercise for women no less than for men, and he established competitions for speed and strength
among women, just like those for men, thinking that children are more robust if both their parents are
able-bodied.” (Xenophon, The Spartan Way of Life 1.2–4)In order to maintain control over a population of which they were only a small minority, Spartan citizens
developed a way of life and a system of training that were a source of fascination for other Greeks and
have been a source of fascination ever since. To begin with, Spartan citizens were forbidden to engage in
commerce or to pursue a trade; instead, they were supported by the labor of the helots, while commerce
was in the hands of the dependent allies. This did not mean, however, that the Spartans were a “leisure
class” who enjoyed a life of relaxation and pleasure. On the contrary, they devoted themselves to a
rigorous physical and military training that enabled them to control, by force and intimidation, the non-
citizen population. At birth, the children of citizens were inspected by representatives of the community to
determine whether they were likely to be physically capable of completing the required training. Those
who failed this first test had no further demands placed on them: They were simply set out in a ravine to
die. Spartan boys who were found to be worthy of rearing were taken from their parents at the age of
seven and trained with other boys in what the Spartans called “herds.” The training was of a largely
military nature, with the boys living in communal barracks and dining at a communal mess. At the age of
20 they could be admitted on a permanent basis to a communal mess, admission to which was a