by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
As the Thebans help the freed helots build their new city of Messen\u00ea, the Argive general Epit\u00eales decides his men are no longer needed and will head home to Argos, leaving the Thebans and Messenians to their work:<\/strong><\/p>\n Epit\u00eales did not back down. \u201cI and my Argives, we feel no better or worse from freeing them, and hardly think their freedom is a gift. Sparta is weak. Finished as we know it. She has no farmers to feed her phalanx, and won\u2019t march out of Lakonia, at least for a while. That is good enough for me and mine. These helots can do what they like.\u201d Epit\u00eales laughed and for the next few days kept patrolling with his guard to hunt down more thieves who were stealing from the bread carts next to the scaffolds. He knew men by nature to be bad. They would kill and worse if they were not tired from work or scared of punishment. It was not in his nature to build, so he did what he knew best, he punished and hoped he killed more guilty than innocent \u2014 and worried little when he did not. \u201cThese Thebans can free anyone they please. But then who can\u2019t do that? But they have no idea how to knock heads and keep these half-tamed on their leashes. Zeus in heaven, I think these Boiotians want to be liked rather than feared.\u201d<\/p>\n That the helots slacked off from the walls was of no real concern to Epit\u00eales, other than as reason enough to kill those who were probably stealing rather working. When enough were executed to discourage the no-goods, Epit\u00eales would head home to Argos and the hard life among the murderous factions there. And so he did soon, and passed out of the history of the Hellenes.<\/p>\n Epaminondas thought he had Epit\u00eales right when he had said of him, \u201cDon\u2019t wonder that he will leave us soon, but instead ask why this man in fur has even come. He is a warrior, one who wakes up in the morning promising to cut down Spartans and goes to bed each night in lamentation that he has not killed enough of them. We won\u2019t see his like again in Hellas. He\u2019s the good coin side to Lichas, though both are at home killing and so more alike than we think. Maybe our Chi\u00f4n if he lives, is a third who could join this cabal of Aiases. But for now thank our One God that Epit\u00eales was on our side.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a92011 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson As the Thebans help the freed helots build their new city of Messen\u00ea, the Argive general Epit\u00eales decides his men are no longer needed and will head home to Argos, leaving the Thebans and Messenians to their work:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[99],"tags":[106,1066,306],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-nb","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1647,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-ancient-world-as-it-was\/","url_meta":{"origin":1437,"position":0},"title":"The Ancient World As It Was","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 8, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Cody Carlson The Deseret News Review of\u00a0The End of Sparta\u00a0by Victor Davis Hanson, Bloomsbury Press, 2011 Having written extensively on the history of ancient Greece, it is no surprise that classics professor Victor Davis Hanson would set his first novel in that era. His new book,\u00a0The End of Sparta\u00a0is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1304,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-novel-vdh\/","url_meta":{"origin":1437,"position":1},"title":"A Novel VDH","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 23, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Reliving the fall of Sparta: An interview. by Katheryn Jean Lopez National Review Online Victor Davis Hanson, known as VDH to his fans, has a new book out. This time, it\u2019s a novel,\u00a0The End of Sparta. He talked with\u00a0National Review Online\u2019s Kathryn Jean Lopez about the Greeks and the novel.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Greece"","block_context":{"text":"Greece","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/greece\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4507,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/idealism-and-its-discontents-thinking-on-the-neoconservative-slur\/","url_meta":{"origin":1437,"position":2},"title":"Idealism and Its Discontents: Thinking on the Neoconservative Slur","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 21, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Neo- is a prefix that derives from the Greek adjective\u00a0veos\u00a0\u2014 \"new\" or \"fresh\" \u2014 and in theory it is used inexactly for those conservatives who once were not \u2014 or for those who have reinterpreted conservatism in terms of a more idealistic foreign\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "January 2005"","block_context":{"text":"January 2005","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2005\/january-2005\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2038,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-tale-and-taste-of-ancient-greece-the-end-of-sparts-reviewed\/","url_meta":{"origin":1437,"position":3},"title":"A Tale and Taste of Ancient Greece: The End of Sparts Reviewed","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 18, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Editorial Publishers Weekly Leading classicist Hanson (The Father of Us All) focuses on the Theban defeat of the renowned Spartan army in 371 B.C.E. The hero of the tale is the Theban general Epaminondas, a devotee of Pythagoras and a warrior with unconventional attitudes about warfare, life, and death. His\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":692,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-new-american-helots\/","url_meta":{"origin":1437,"position":4},"title":"The New American Helots","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 18, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Ancient Sparta turned its conquered neighbors into indentured serfs \u2014 half free, half slave. The resulting helot underclass produced the food of the Spartan state, freeing Sparta's elite males to train for war and the duties of citizenship. Over the last few decades,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Education"","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/education\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1651,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-end-of-sparta-an-excerpt-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1437,"position":5},"title":"The End of Sparta: An Excerpt","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Private Papers After the battle of Leuktra, and the defeat of Sparta, the Thebans parley with the Spartan general Lichas, who remains as defiant as ever: \u201cI\u00a0said hear your Lichas. You won a battle. A big one. But not this war. A bigger war \u2014\u00a0megas kindunos. 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