The subject of my study is the system of helotage within the ancient Greek polis of Sparta. A fundamental feature of Spartan society was that the Spartiate citizens lived as rentier landowners supported economically by a servile population, the helots, who worked their estates. The Spartiates inhabited a cluster of villages within the region of Lakonia, towards the northern end of the Eurotas valley. Their landholdings, in contrast, were much more extensive. At the peak of their power, from c. 600 bc to 370 bc, when Spartan territory covered the entire southern Peloponnese, the Spartiates’ estates farmed by helot cultivators were spread across both its main regions: their ‘home’ region of Lakonia and the neighbouring region of Messenia to the west, occupying overall perhaps some 1,400 km2 out of a total geographical area of 8,500 km2. After Sparta's loss of Messenia in 370 bc, the helots of Lakonia continued to be the predominant labour force on citizen estates in the region until at least the second century bc.

Modern thought has often followed ancient Greek and Roman sources in portraying Sparta as an exceptional society, somewhat different from other Greek poleis, and indeed from most other civilized human societies. In recent years my work has increasingly been concerned with deconstructing that image as it relates to Greek antiquity, exploring the complex manner in which Spartan institutions and practices were frequently both distinctive and yet reflected, and sometimes even exemplified, trends observable elsewhere in the Greek world.