WORLD HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The helots were in a sense state slaves, bound to the soil and assigned to individual Spartans to till their holdings; their masters could neither free them nor sell them, and the helots had a limited right to accumulate property, after paying to their masters a fixed proportion of the produce of the holding.

Detailed explanation-2: -Unlike the slaves in Athens, helots had families and communities of their own, and they were no private property. Therefore, Pausanias calls them “slaves of the commonwealth". Strabo of Amasia says they were “some sort of public slaves", and other authors say they were a category between slaves and free people.

Detailed explanation-3: -According to Hellanicus, the word relates to the village of Helos, in the south of Sparta. Pausanias thus states, “Its inhabitants became the first slaves of the Lacedaemonian state, and were the first to be called helots".

Detailed explanation-4: -Helots were Peloponnesian Greeks enslaved under the Spartan rule. The first Helots were Laconians whom Sparta defeated and conquered. It is possible that the name Helot comes from Helos, the main city in Laconia.

Detailed explanation-5: -Slaves in Sparta worked on their lands and produced agricultural products for their masters. They lived in their home country and did not have to work at the homes of their masters. In times of an emergency, the slaves had to serve as light-armed troops.