2 ms·
>Sparta, famously the only greek city without city walls, had tons of slaves Didn't the Helots live outside the city of Sparta, and mainly worked the fields?
by rgblambda 3y ago
>Sparta, famously the only greek city without city walls, had tons of slaves
Didn't the Helots live outside the city of Sparta, and mainly worked the fields?
- smogcutter 3y agoRegardless, parent’s point is that there’s no wall keeping them in. As an aside, the Spartans famously claimed that they were their wall. But I wonder: Spartan construction was very simple, and they despised those with expertise or a craft (the small class of free noncitizens who along with the helots did all productive work). Maybe the truth is that a project with the scope & complexity of a good city wall was simply beyond them. They couldn’t do it, so they told themselves a sour grapes story about how they never wanted a wall to begin with. Just a hunch but I like it.