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The Neodamodes (neodamodeis) were Helots
Helots

The helots were an unfree population group that formed the main population of Laconia and the whole of Messenia . Their exact status was already disputed in Antiquity: according to Critias, they were "especially Slavery in ancient Greece" whereas to Pollux, they occupied a status "between free men and slaves"....
 freed after passing a time of service as hoplites in the Spartan Army
Spartan Army

The Spartan Army was the military force of Sparta, one of the leading city-states of ancient Greece. The army stood at the centre of the Spartan state, whose citizens' primary obligation was to be good soldiers....
.

The date of their first apparition is uncertain. Thucydides
Thucydides

Thucydides was a Greeks history and author of the History of the Peloponnesian War, which recounts the 5th century B.C. war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 B.C....
 does not explain the origin of this special category. Jean Ducat, in his book Les Hoplites (1990), concludes that their statute "was largely inspired by the measures dictated concerning the Brasidians", i.e. the Helots freed after taking part to the expedition of Brasidas
Brasidas

Brasidas was a Spartan officer during the first decade of the Peloponnesian War.He was the son of Tellis and Argileonis, and won his first laurels by the relief of Methone, which was besieged by the Athens ....
 in 424 BC.

Their existence is attested from 420 to 369 BC.






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The Neodamodes (neodamodeis) were Helots
Helots

The helots were an unfree population group that formed the main population of Laconia and the whole of Messenia . Their exact status was already disputed in Antiquity: according to Critias, they were "especially Slavery in ancient Greece" whereas to Pollux, they occupied a status "between free men and slaves"....
 freed after passing a time of service as hoplites in the Spartan Army
Spartan Army

The Spartan Army was the military force of Sparta, one of the leading city-states of ancient Greece. The army stood at the centre of the Spartan state, whose citizens' primary obligation was to be good soldiers....
.

The date of their first apparition is uncertain. Thucydides
Thucydides

Thucydides was a Greeks history and author of the History of the Peloponnesian War, which recounts the 5th century B.C. war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 B.C....
 does not explain the origin of this special category. Jean Ducat, in his book Les Hoplites (1990), concludes that their statute "was largely inspired by the measures dictated concerning the Brasidians", i.e. the Helots freed after taking part to the expedition of Brasidas
Brasidas

Brasidas was a Spartan officer during the first decade of the Peloponnesian War.He was the son of Tellis and Argileonis, and won his first laurels by the relief of Methone, which was besieged by the Athens ....
 in 424 BC.

Their existence is attested from 420 to 369 BC. They were part of Sparta's army and 2,000 of them are recorded taking part, for example, to Agesilaus II
Agesilaus II

Agesilaus II, or Agesilaos II was a king of Sparta, of the Eurypontid dynasty, ruling from approximately 400 BC to 360 BC, during most of which time he was, in Plutarch's words, "as good as thought commander and king of all Greece," and was for the whole of it greatly identified with his country's deeds and fortunes....
's campaign in Ionia
Ionia

Ionia is an ancient region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey, the region nearest Izmir, which was historically Smyrna. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Hellenes settlements....
 between 396 and 394 BC.

The name comes from the words ???? / neos, meaning "new", and /dêmos, meaning "deme or territory". Differently from what is written by Hesychius of Alexandria
Hesychius of Alexandria

Hesychius of Alexandria , a grammarian who flourished probably in the 5th century CE, compiled the richest lexicon of unusual and obscure Greek words that has survived ....
, who brings together the neodamodes and the Athenian
Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
 demotes (citizens of a deme
Deme

In Ancient Greece, a deme was a subdivision of Attica, the region of Greece surrounding Classical Athens. Demes as simple subdivisions of land in the countryside seem to have existed in the 6th century BC and earlier, but did not acquire particular significance until the reforms of Cleisthenes in 508 BC....
), they never acquired full citizenship. The suffix -?d?? (-ôdês) signals only a resemblance. In truth, the only deme they joined was that of the Perioeci.

See also

  • Helots
    Helots

    The helots were an unfree population group that formed the main population of Laconia and the whole of Messenia . Their exact status was already disputed in Antiquity: according to Critias, they were "especially Slavery in ancient Greece" whereas to Pollux, they occupied a status "between free men and slaves"....
  • Perioeci
  • Sciritae
    Sciritae

    The Sciritae or Skiritai were a people subject to Sparta, whose status is comparable to that of the Perioeci. They lived in Skiritis, a mountainous region located in northern Laconia on the border with Arcadia, between the Oenus and the Eurotas River rivers....
  • trophimoi
    Trophimoi

    The Trophimoi were children of non-Spartiatae - Perioeci or foreigners - who underwent Agoge.The trophimoi are temporarily adopted by a Spartan oikos....