ANTH 1120 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: First Messenian War, Helots, Polis
Document Summary
102-123 for much of the archaic and classical periods, sparta was the most powerful city in the greek world. The spartan polis was the city center plus the territory of the plain. Like other early greek poleis, sparta began to experience difficulties in satisfying its needs from its own territory. Spartans sought a military answer to their problem through conquest of their neighbors, and by the end of the 8th c. , they had gained control of the plain of laconia. To ensure control of the laconian plain, its inhabitants were reduced to the status of helots, hereditary subjects of the spartan state. The rest of the inhabitants of laconia, who occupied the area surrounding the city of. Unlike the helots, who were in essence slaves, the periokoi remained free. The spartans also coveted the fertile messenian lowlands, and at some time in the 3rd quarter of the 8th c. they invaded messenia, beginning what modern historians call the.
