User talk:Yautja199/Helots

Helots at the Battle of Plataea

Herodotus makes multiple accounts of Helots accompanying Spartans in battles such as Thermopylae and Plataea, often lightly equipped compared to their hoplite counterparts. In his reports on Plataea, he makes multiple accounts of Helots which accompanied the Spartans on the battlefield and made up the mass of the army. In Greek military practice, the standard depth of the army's phalanx was eight men, having known this, Herodotus deducted that there was a soldier ratio of 7 Helots to one Spartan at Plataea. Historians have confirmed that Herodotus' accounts of both Helot and Spartan soldiers is exaggerated, it is however confirmed that Helots were present on the battlefield due to Herodotus alluding to a grave which was constructed for the Helots. Helots may have also had other roles at Plataea besides forming the ranks in battle, some historians believe that Helots were also designated with guarding supply lines for the armies.

Hunt, Peter. “Helots at the Battle of Plataea.” Historia: Zeitschrift Für Alte Geschichte, vol. 46, no. 2, 1997, pp. 129–144. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4436459. Accessed 29 Apr. 2021.