as to sacrifice himself for the welfare of his country.
Having obtained from the people a solemn oath to make no alterations in
his laws before his return, he quitted Sparta for ever. He set out on
a journey to Delphi, where he obtained an oracle from the god,
approving of all he had done, and promising prosperity to the Spartans
as long as they preserved his laws. Whither he went afterwards, and
how and where he died, nobody could tell. He vanished from earth like
a god, leaving no traces behind him but his spirit: and his grateful
countrymen honoured him with a temple, and worshipped him with annual
sacrifices down to the latest times.

The population of Laconia was divided into the three classes of
Spartans, Perioeci and Helots.

I. The SPARTANS were the descendants of the leading Dorian
conquerors. They formed the sovereign power of the state, and they
alone were eligible to honours and public offices. They lived in
Sparta itself and were all subject to the discipline of Lycurgus. They
were divided into three tribes,--the HYLLEIS, the PAMPHILI, and the
DYMANES,--which were not, however, peculiar to Sparta, but existed in
all the Dorian states.

II. The PERIOECI were personally free, but politically subject
to the Spartans. [This word signifies literally DWELLERS AROUND THE
CITY, and was generally used to indicate the inhabitants in the country
districts, who possessed inferior political privileges to the citizens
who lived in the city.] They possessed no share in the government, and
were bound to obey the commands of the Spartan magistrates. They
appear to have been the descendants of the old Achaean population of
the country, and they were distributed into a hundred townships, which
were spread through the whole of Laconia.

III. The HELOTS were serfs bound to the soil, which they tilled
for the benefit of the Spartan proprietors. Their condition was very
different from that of the ordinary slaves in antiquity, and more
similar to the villanage of the middle ages. They lived in the rural
villages, as the Perioeci did in the towns, cultivating the lands and
paying over the rent to their masters in Sparta, but enjoying their
homes, wives, and families, apart from their master's personal
superintendence. They appear to have been never sold, and they
accompanied the Spartans to the field as light armed troops. But while
their condition was in these respects superior to that of the ordinary
slaves in