Editing Helots (section)

===Massacre at Taenarus===
The massacre at Cape [[Taenarus]], the promontory formed by the southernmost tip of [[Taygetus]], is also reported by Thucydides:<ref>Thucydides, 1.128, 1.</ref>
<blockquote>
The Lacedaemonians had once raised up some helot suppliants from the temple of Poseidon at Taenarus, led them away and slain them; for which they believe the great earthquake at Sparta to have been a retribution.<ref name="Thucyd" />
</blockquote>

This affair, recalled by the Athenians in responding to a Spartan request to exile [[Pericles]]&mdash;who was an [[Alcmaeonid]] on his mother's side&mdash;is not dated. Historians know only that it happened before the disastrous earthquake of 464 BC. Thucydides here is the only one to implicate the helots: Pausanias speaks rather about Lacedaemonians who had been condemned to death.<ref>Pausanias, 4, 24, 5.</ref> Nor does the text allow us to conclude that this was a failed uprising of helots, only that there was an attempt at escape. Additionally, a helot revolt in Laconia is unlikely, and Messenians would not likely have taken refuge at Cape Taenarus.<ref>Ducat (1990), p. 131.</ref>