Spartan Constitution. offices in their own towns: for though they were under the general superintendence of Spartan governors or magis- trates (Thuc. IV. 53. Xen. Hell. III. 3. 8), the detailed management of their own internal affairs was probably left to them. Because the Roman Plebs were above the con- dition of the Clients, and had some officers who adminis- tered the affairs of their own body, does it follow that they stood on an equal footing with the Patricians, and en- joyed the full rights of Roman citizenship? It is moreover highly probable that the Helots of the Spartans were formed partly of a slave population which had tilled the lands of the Achæans, and merely changed masters, partly of a portion of these same Achæans, who had resisted the Spar- tans, and who, from being taken with arms in their hands, were called eiλwTes or "prisoners," which word cannot con- sistently with the rules of the Greek language be derived from the town "Exos 6. 45 Dr Arnold states in p. 643 that he has followed Isocrates Panath. p. 270. in "his view of the relative situation of the Dorians and the Achaian TepioIKOL. Now as this account of Isocrates is completely inconsistent with that of Ephorus, Dr Arnold must, according to the law-phrase, be put to his election, and follow either the one or the other, and not take from both whatever suits his purpose. Isocrates states that the most accurate writers on early Spartan history (oi Takeivwv akpißouvres ws ovdévas alλovs Twv 'Evwv) say that the Dorians at first at first disagreed among themselves; themselves; and dis- union, it is true, would naturally cause weakness among the 99 6 See Müller b. 1. ch. 4. § 7. b. 111. ch. 3. § 1. Steph. Byz. in "Eλos... oi TOλiTal ElwTES-λÉyovtai dè Eiλ@Tai kai "Eletot kal 'Eleâтai. kai √ xúpa Eiλw- TEía. The regular gentile name from "Elos would be 'Eletos, as 'Apyetos from "Apyos, and this is used by Strabo vIII. p. 365. (comp. Müller Vol. 1. p. 392. n. z.) The district of Helos is called 'Exía in Polyb. v. 19. 7. for which we should read 'Eλeía. Theopompus in Athen. p. 272. A. uses 'Eleárns. Pausan. III. 2. 7. calls the inhabitants of Helos Elλwτes, but probably on account of the historical explana- tion of the name of the slaves, and with no better authority than Stephanus had for stating that the district of Helos was called EiXwreia. Eixurys is a barbarous form, which probably never existed as a name either of the slaves or the Helians, and arose from the corruptions of the text of Herodotus by the introducers of supposed Ionisms. Antiochus appears not to have known the derivation of the eiλwres from "Elos, for he says that those Lacedæmonians who did not take part in the Messenian war, were made slaves, and called helots, Strab. VI. p. 278.
