Editing Helots (section)

=== Demography ===
Helots lived in family units and could, at least '' de facto'', contract unions among themselves.<ref>Tyrtaeus, Frag. 7.</ref> Since helots were much less susceptible than other slaves in Greek antiquity to having their family units dispersed, they could reproduce themselves, or at least maintain their number.<ref name="C141" /> Probably not insignificant to begin with, their population increased in spite of the ''crypteia'', other massacres of helots (see below), and losses in war. Simultaneously, the population of Spartiate citizens declined.

The absence of a formal census prevents an accurate assessment of the helot population, but estimates are possible. According to Herodotus, helots were seven times as numerous as Spartans during the [[Battle of Plataea]] in 479 BC.<ref>Herodotus. ''Histories'', 9, 28–29.</ref> The long [[Peloponnesian War]] drained Sparta of so many of its citizens that by the time of the [[conspiracy of Cinadon]], the beginning of the 4th century BC, only forty Peers, or citizens, could be counted in a crowd of 4,000 at the agora (Xenophon, ''Hellenica'', III, 3, 5). The total population of helots at that time, including women, is estimated as 170,000–224,000.<ref>[[Paul Cartledge]], ''Agesilaos and the Crisis of Sparta''. London: Johns Hopkins University, 1994, p. 174.</ref>

Since the helot population was not technically chattel, their population was reliant on native birth rates, as opposed to prisoners of war or purchased slaves. Helots were encouraged by the Spartans to impose a [[eugenics]] doctrine similar to that which they, themselves, practiced. This would, according to Greek beliefs of the period, ensure not only genetic but also acquired favourable characteristics be passed along to successive generations. Tempering these selective factors was the ''crypteia,'' during which the strongest and fittest helots were the primary targets of the ''kryptes''; to select soft targets would be interpreted as a sign of weakness. This theoretically removed the strongest and most able potential rebels while keeping the general populace fit and efficient.{{Citation needed|date=July 2009}}

What is more, the Spartans used helot women to satisfy the state's human personnel needs: the '[[Illegitimate|bastard]]s' (''nothoi'') born of Spartan fathers and helot women held an intermediary rank in Lacedaemonian society (cf. ''mothakes'' and ''mothones'' below) and swelled the ranks of the citizen army. It is difficult to determine whether these births were the results of voluntary liaisons (at least on the part of the father) or part of a formal state program. It is unknown what happened to girls born of such unions, as they served no military purpose. It is possible they were abandoned at birth and left to die, or lived to remain helots.<ref>{{in lang|fr}} J. Tregaro, "Les bâtards spartiates" ("Spartan Bastards"), in ''Mélanges [[Pierre Lévêque]]'', 1993.</ref>