"...Indeed fear of their numbers and obstinacy even persuaded the Lacedaemonians to the action which I shall now relate, their policy at all times having been governed by the necessity of taking precautions against them. The Helots were invited by a proclamation to pick out those of their number who claimed to have most distinguished themselves against the enemy, in order that they might receive their freedom; the object being to test them, as it was thought that the first to claim their freedom would be the most high spirited and the most apt to rebel.
As many as two thousand were selected accordingly, who crowned themselves and went round the temples, rejoicing in their new freedom. The Spartans, however, soon afterwards did away with them, and no one ever knew how each of them perished..."
-Thucydides
"...Periodically the overseers of the young men would dispatch into the countryside in different directions the ones who appeared to be particularly intelligent; they were equipped with daggers and basic rations, but nothing else. By day they would disperse to obscure parts in order to hide and rest. At night they made their way to roads and murdered any helot whom they caught. Frequently, too, they made their way through the fields, killing the helots who stood out for their physique and strength..."
-Plutarch
Now you all may or may not know that I love comparative sociology. I believe that people don't ever change: that is, human nature is fundamentally static.
In Sparta, 24 centuries ago, bourgeois Spartans would sneak around offing peasants. This was a part of their role as the ruling class of Sparta. The victimized class was known as helots: these were a sort of lumpenproletariat neither free nor slave.
I often focus more on Moloch, the Hawaiians, and Aztecs in my sociological commentary but this seems most fitting.
http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1025&context=gvjh
This may be Sparta, but I am Spartacus.
As many as two thousand were selected accordingly, who crowned themselves and went round the temples, rejoicing in their new freedom. The Spartans, however, soon afterwards did away with them, and no one ever knew how each of them perished..."
-Thucydides
"...Periodically the overseers of the young men would dispatch into the countryside in different directions the ones who appeared to be particularly intelligent; they were equipped with daggers and basic rations, but nothing else. By day they would disperse to obscure parts in order to hide and rest. At night they made their way to roads and murdered any helot whom they caught. Frequently, too, they made their way through the fields, killing the helots who stood out for their physique and strength..."
-Plutarch
Now you all may or may not know that I love comparative sociology. I believe that people don't ever change: that is, human nature is fundamentally static.
In Sparta, 24 centuries ago, bourgeois Spartans would sneak around offing peasants. This was a part of their role as the ruling class of Sparta. The victimized class was known as helots: these were a sort of lumpenproletariat neither free nor slave.
I often focus more on Moloch, the Hawaiians, and Aztecs in my sociological commentary but this seems most fitting.
http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1025&context=gvjh
This may be Sparta, but I am Spartacus.
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