Book 8
5.4
Ephorus says that the Heracleidae, Eurysthenes and Procles, having obtained possession of Laconia, divided it into six parts, and founded cities throughout the country, and assigned Amyclae to him who betrayed to them Laconia, and who prevailed upon the person that occupied it to retire, on certain conditions, with the Achaei, into Ionia. Sparta they retained themselves as the royal seat of the kingdom. To the other cities they sent kings, permitting them to receive whatever strangers might be disposed to settle there, on account of the scarcity of inhabitants. Las was used as a naval station, because it had a convenient harbour; Aegys, as a stronghold, from whence to attack surrounding enemies; Pheraea, as a place to deposit treasure, because it afforded security fromThe text here is very corrupt. attempts from without. * * * * that all the neighbouring people submitted to the Spartiatae, but were to enjoy an equality of rights, and to have a share in the government and in the offices of state. They were called Heilotae. But Agis, the son of Eurysthenes, deprived them of the equality of rights, and ordered them to pay tribute to Sparta. The rest submitted; but the Heleii, who occupied Helos, revolted, and were made prisoners in the course of the war; they were adjudged to be slaves, with the conditions, that the owner should not be allowed to give them their liberty, nor sell them beyond the boundaries of the country. This was called the war of the Heilotae.1090 B. C. The system of Heilote-slavery, which continued from that time to the establishment of the dominion of the Romans, was almost entirely the contrivance of Agis. They were a kind of public slaves, to whom the Lacedaemonians assigned habitations, and required from them peculiar services.
