hat no man, either then or afterwards, could tell how they perished.
Aristotle says that the Ephors, when they first take office, declare war
against the Helots, in order that it may be lawful to destroy them. And
much other harsh treatment used to be inflicted upon them; and they were
compelled to drink much unmixed wine, and then were brought into the
public dining-halls, to show the young what drunkenness is.

They were also forced to sing low songs, and to dance low dances, and
not to meddle with those of a higher character. It is said that when the
Thebans made their celebrated campaign in Lacedaemon, they ordered the
Helots whom they captured to sing them the songs of Terpander, and
Alkman, and Spendon the Laconian; but they begged to be excused, for,
they said, "the masters do not like it." So it seems to have been well
said that in Lacedaemon, the free man was more free, and the slave more
a slave than anywhere else. This harsh treatment, I imagine, began in
later times, especially after the great earthquake, when they relate
that the Helots joined the Messenians, ravaged the country, and almost
conquered it. I cannot impute this wicked act of the Krypteia to
Lykurgus, when I consider the gentleness and justice of his general
behaviour, which also we know was inspired by Heaven.

XXVIII. When the leading men of the city were thoroughly imbued with the
spirit of his institutions, and the newly constituted state was able to
walk by itself without leading-strings, and bear its own weight alone,
then, as Plato says of God, that he was pleased with the world that he
had created, when it first began to live and move, so was it with
Lykurgus. He admired the spectacle of his laws in operation, and, as far
as was possible by human prudence, he desired to leave it eternal and
unchangeable. He assembled all the citizens, and told them that the city
was now fairly well provided with materials for happiness and virtue,
but that he would not bestow upon them the most valuable gift of all,
until he had taken counsel with Heaven. It was therefore their duty to
abide by the already established laws, and to change and alter nothing
till he returned from Delphi; on his return, he would do whatever the
god commanded. They all assented, and bade him depart, and he, after
making first the kings and elders, and then the rest of the citizens,
swear that they would keep their existing constitution till Lykurgus
came back, set out for De