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Sparta and the perioikoi


LetswaveaBook
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I have done some wikipedia reading and the perioikoi were a free class, associated more with trade than with war. Sparta does have the perioikoi trader. If I am correct, the class of neodamodes is represents warfare activities better than perioikoi.

My naïve suggestion would thus be to rename perioikoi hoplites to neodamodes hoplites. Is there any reason to use the term perioikoi hoplites?

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1 hour ago, LetswaveaBook said:

My naïve suggestion would thus be to rename perioikoi hoplites to neodamodes hoplites. Is there any reason to use the term perioikoi hoplites?

I refuse, and I suggest you to read something more rigorous than wikipedia, like Thucydides or Herodotus. Or to check the accounts of battles directly, if you want to stick with wikipedia.

Edited by Genava55
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3 hours ago, LetswaveaBook said:

My naïve suggestion would thus be to rename perioikoi hoplites to neodamodes hoplites. Is there any reason to use the term perioikoi hoplites?

It is fairly well established that perioikoi served in the military.  I'd recommend browsing through JSTOR to see.  Over time perioikoi, initially meant to supplement Spartan numbers, increasingly made up the military and even integrated into Spartan units.  Neodamodeis were in all likelihood far less common as they represented a route for social advancement for helots, something that Spartans feared.  If Neodamodeis  were to be introduced to Sparta, it would be reasonable to allow them to be trained through Brasidas.

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