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PERIOECI (IrEpi00KOI, those who dwell...
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See also:PERIOECI (IrEpi00KOI, those who dwell around, in the neighbourhood) , in See also:ancient See also:Laconia the class intermediate between the Spartan citizens and the See also:serfs or See also:helots (q.v.). See also:Ephorus says (See also:Strabo viii. 364 seq.) that they were the See also:original Achaean inhabitants of the See also:country, that for the first See also:generation afterthe Dorian invasion they shared in the See also:franchise of the ins vaders, but that this was afterwards taken from them and they were reduced to a subject See also:condition and forced to pay See also:tribute. The See also:term, however, came to denote not a See also:nationality but a See also:political status, and though the See also:main See also:body of the perioeci may have been Achaean in origin, yet they afterwards included Arcadians on the See also:northern frontier of Laconia, See also:Dorians, especially in See also:Cythera and in See also:Messenia, and See also:Ionians in Cynuria. They inhabited a large number of settlements, varying in See also:size from important towns like See also:Gythium to insignificant hamlets (Isocrates xii. 179); the names of these, so far as they are known, have been collected by See also:Clinton (See also:Fasti hellenici, 2nd ed. i. 401 sqq.). They possessed See also:personal freedom and some measure of communal See also:independence, but were apparently under the immediate super-See also:vision of Spartan harmosts (See also:governors) and subject to the See also:general See also:control of the ephors, though Isocrates is probably going too far in saying (xii. 181) that the ephors might put to See also:death without trial as many of the perioeci as they pleased. Certain it is that they were excluded not merely from all Spartan offices of See also:state, but even from the See also:assembly, that they were absolutely subject to Spartan orders, and that, owing to the See also:absence of any legal right of See also:marriage (brryapia) the gulf between the two classes was impassable. They were also obliged to pay the "royal tribute," perhaps a See also:rent for domain-See also:land which they occupied, and to render military service. This last See also:burden See also:grew heavier as See also:time went on; 5000 Spartiates and s000 perioec hoplites fought at See also:Plataea in 479 B.C., but the steady decrease in the number of the Spartiates necessitated the increasing employment of the perioeci. Perioeci might serve as See also:petty See also:officers or even rise to divisional commands, especially in the See also:fleet, but seemingly they were never set over Spartiates. Yet except at the beginning of the 4th See also:century the perioeci were, so far as we can See also:judge, fairly contented, and only two of their cities joined the insurgent helots in 464 B.C. (Thuc. i. tor). The See also:reason of this was that, though the land which they cultivated was very unproductive, yet the See also:prohibition which shut out every Spartiate from manufacture and See also:commerce See also:left the See also:industry and See also:trade of Laconia entirely in the hands of the perioeci. Unlike the Spartiates they might, and did, possess See also:gold and See also:silver and the See also:iron and See also:steel wares from the mines on Mt See also:Taygetus, the shoes and woollen stuffs of Amyclae, and the import and export trade of Laconia and Messenia probably enabled some
at least of them to live in an ease and comfort unknown to their Spartan lords.
See G. See also:Grote, See also:History of. See also:Greece, pt. ii., ch. 6; C. O. See also: H. J. Greenidge, See also:Greek Constitutional History, p. 78 sqq. ; G. See also: Busolt, See also:Die griech. Staats- and Rechtsaltertiimer, § 84; Griech. Geschichte, i. 528 seq. (2nd ed.) ; V. Thumser, Lehrbuch der griech. Staatsaltertumer (6th ed.), § 19; B. Niese, Nachrichten von der wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft zu See also:Gottingen, Phil.-Hist. Klasse, (1906), tot sqq. (M. N. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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