Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks

The People 123
was to ensure that they became fit and healthy breeders of Spartan
babies. The extreme value that was put on childbearing in Spartan
society is indicated by the fact that wives could be “loaned” to
an interested third party with the agreement of the husband, presumably
to exploit their fecundity in cases where the husband was
elderly or infertile. Another unusual feature of Spartan society is
that women were permitted to own property, which was not the
case in Athens. In fact, given the dearth of Spartan citizens by the
fourth centuryb.c.e. , it may well have been the case that, over time,
a great deal of landed property passed into the hands of women.
Spartan women were celebrated for their wisdom and outspokenness.
One of Plutarch’s minor works is entitled Sayings of
Spartan Women, and it reveals a mordant sense of humor, though
we should not necessarily assume that all the sayings are either
authentic or even all attributable to women. Even so, Paul Cartledge
(Spartan Reflections, 126) is surely right to warn us against concluding
that the Spartans were proto-feminists, primarily because of
the extreme emphasis that they placed on women’s childbearing
potential. In fact, they seem to have done much to reinforce the
Spartan value system by undervaluing their own role as mothers
(see p. 96).
Helots
When the Spartans conquered Lakonia and Messenia (the territory
to the west), they reduced the entire population to servile
status. The Lakonians, however, who were known as perioikoi or
“those dwelling round about,” enjoyed preferential treatment to the
Messenians, though it is often difficult to distinguish between the
two subject peoples in the historical record. The Messenians were
known as heilôtai, or helots, a word that is probably connected with
a verb meaning “to capture.” Helots, who were state owned, were
required to till the land and pay half their produce to their masters.
It was this arrangement that left Spartan citizens free to discharge
their military duties, and it is no exaggeration to state that
the Spartan way of life was more dependent on its slave force than
any other Greek community of which we have detailed knowledge.
We have no means of determining the size of the helot population,
though some scholars estimate that there were seven times as many
helots as citizens. Whatever the true figure, it is hardly surprising
that the Spartans were reluctant to engage in lengthy campaigns for
fear of a rebellion during their absence. Indeed, the Spartans may