Help for a friend, Spartan Inferiors? (1 Viewer)

[thommy]

I did my HSC this year, and I have a friend at another school who is doing it this year. He isalso doing Sparta. However, my teacher gave us barely anything on the Inferiors, ie those who were in between the Spartiates and Helots in social class.

Firstly, were the Inferiors closer to Spartiates or Helots in terms of priveliges in sociey, and where can I find notes and sources for my friend? And how many types were there?

I managed to do well, 84, without knowing anything about them, but that was because nothing at all in any exam or assessment asked a question on them. I got lucky.

 

[LordPc]

Generally inferiors will not be asked as a question as they arent hugely important. You might get a 2 marker specifically on them or perhaps be able to incorporate them into a question about spartan society but they are small compared to the helots and spartiates.

basically an inferior is a spartiate who has failed the agoge in some way, eg cowardice in a battle, or they can be a helot who has been given thier freedom for showing courage in battle. They have fairly harsh lives, so they are much closer to the helot class than the spartiate class

From HSC Online

The 'inferiors'

"Another group in the Spartan social order were the inferiors, people who were neither slaves nor citizens. They included:-

Partheniai, illegitimate children of Spartiati fathers and helot mothers.

Mothoces, sons of helots often "adopted" as playmates of Spartan boys. They shared in training.

Neodamodes, helots whose courageous service or act had earned them their freedom.

Tresantes, cowardly Spartiati who had been deprived of their citizenship (not necessarily permanently)." (HSC Online)

thats pretty much it, you really dont need to learn the specific names. It would be nice most likely a complete waste of time as you could get full marks in sparta without them