Why Sparta Freed 2,000 Slaves and Then Made Them Vanish

Sparta once told its helots that the men who had served it best in war could claim their freedom. About 2,000 were chosen, and they put on garlands and went from temple to temple to celebrate. Soon afterwards they were gone, and Thucydides, who lived through that war, wrote that no one ever knew how each of them died. The offer was a test, because Sparta reasoned that the boldest claimants were the likeliest to rebel. 📖 Source: Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, Book 4 (trans. Richard Crawley) He tells the story among the events of 424 BC, when Sparta was also glad to send 700 helots off to fight with Brasidas. At Plataea in 479 BC, Herodotus counts 35,000 helots beside 5,000 Spartiates. Every year the ephors declared war on them, so that killing a helot carried no religious guilt. About 370 years later, Diodorus claimed that Sparta's most influential citizens killed each man in his own home. Historians still argue about the date and the scale, and several doubt that 2,000 men could vanish in secret. If it did happen, Sparta's message was simple: never step forward. This channel is planned, written and managed on musayko.com, a platform I built for creators. If you make videos, it's open to you too. Which Spartan secret should we uncover next?