The perioeci, or perioikoi, were the members of an autonomous group of free but non-citizen inhabitants of Sparta. Concentrated in the beach and highland areas of Laconia, the name περίοικοι derives from περί / peri, "around," and οἶκος / oikos, "dwelling, house." They were the only people allowed to travel to other cities, which the Spartans were not, unless given permission.
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Achaeans who had been invaded by the Dorians - where the Achaeans of the plains became helots, the perioeci were also Dorians; however when the Dorians settled in Laconia there were five different groups of Dorians who rose to power. The Spartans rose to become the most powerful of these five colonies and defeated the others; the others then became the Perioeci. There was another theory that they were settled from Lacedaemon, thus being analogous to the Roman colonies. However, Messenia was one exception to this theory, and it became difficult over time to believe that Sparta could found hundreds of perioecid villages.
Under the rule of Sparta, the perioeci belonged to the Lacedaemonian State, subject to the suzerainty of Sparta but not Spartan citizens. If their free status was not the object of controversy, the situation was unclear concerning the precise nature of their subject status within Sparta versus the status of allied cities and the strangers. In the same way, their political and social organization was quite poor.
Their territory, the Perioikis (Περίοικις), formed part of their territory within Sparta itself. Their villages were described as poleis by Herodotus (VII, 234), Xenophon (Hellenica, VI, 5, 21) and Thucydides (V, 54, 1). It can be noted that their poleis acted as a sort of buffer around Sparta, shielding it from outside influence and to some extent to present a form wall to the helots; preventing escape and enforcing discipline out of Sparta's area of immediate control and watch. They were permitted to have some contact with outsiders and to trade.
The perioeci had the rights to own lands, and belonged to the civic army the same title as equals: they were hoplites in the army and epibastes in the navy. They could not participate in any political decisions and could not marry Spartan men or women.
PERIOECI (rEpioucoc, those who dwell around, in the neighbourhood), in ancient Laconia the class intermediate between the Spartan citizens and the serfs or helots. Ephorus says (Strabo viii. 364 seq.) that they were the original Achaean inhabitants of the country, that for the first generation after the Dorian invasion they shared in the franchise of the invaders, but that this was afterwards taken from them and they were reduced to a subject condition and forced to pay tribute. The term, however, came to denote not a nationality but a political status, and though the main body of the perioeci may have been Achaean in origin, yet they afterwards included Arcadians on the northern frontier of Laconia, Dorians, especially in Cythera and in Messenia, and Ionians in Cynuria. They inhabited a large number of settlements, varying in size from important towns like Gythium to insignificant hamlets (Isocrates Xll. 179); the names of these, so far as they are known, have been collected by Clinton (Fasti hellenici, 2nd ed. i. 401 sqq.). They possessed personal freedom and some measure of communal independence, but were apparently under the immediate supervision of Spartan harmosts (governors) and subject to the general control of the ephors, though Isocrates is probably going too far in saying (xii. 181) that the ephors might put to death without trial as many of the perioeci as they pleased. Certain it is that they were excluded not merely from all Spartan offices of state, but even from the assembly, that they were absolutely subject to Spartan orders, and that, owing to the absence of any legal right of marriage (Eirryayia) the gulf between the two classes was impassable. They were also obliged to pay the "royal tribute," perhaps a rent for domain-land which they occupied, and to render military service. This last burden grew heavier as time went on; 5000 Spartiates and s000 perioec hoplites fought at Plataea in 479 B.C., but the steady decrease in the number of the Spartiates necessitated the increasing employment of the perioeci. Perioeci might serve as petty officers or even rise to divisional commands, especially in the fleet, but seemingly they were never set over Spartiates. Yet except at the beginning of the 4th century the perioeci were, so far as we can judge, fairly contented, and only two of their cities joined the insurgent helots in 464 B.C. (Thuc. i. ioi). The reason of this was that, though the land which they cultivated was very unproductive, yet the prohibition which shut out every Spartiate from manufacture and commerce left the industry and trade of Laconia entirely in the hands of the perioeci. Unlike the Spartiates they might, and did, possess gold and silver and the iron and steel wares from the mines on Mt Taygetus, the shoes and woollen stuffs of Amyclae, and the import and export trade of Laconia and Messenia probably enabled some at least of them to live in an ease and comfort unknown to their Spartan lords.
See G. Grote, History of Greece, pt. ii., ch. 6; C. O. Muller, Dorians (Eng. trans.), bk. iii., ch. 2; A. H. J. Greenidge, Greek Constitutional History, p. 78 sqq.; G. Gilbert, Greek Constitutional Antiquities (Eng. trans.) p. 35 sqq.; G. F. Schomann, Antiquities of Greece (Eng. trans.) p. 201 sqq.; G. Busolt, Die griech. Staatsand Rechtsaltertumer, § 84; Griech. Geschichte, i. 528 seq. (2nd ed.); V. Thumser, Lehrbuch der griech. Staatsaltertumer (6th ed.), § 19; B. Niese, Nachrichten von der wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft zu GOttingen, Phil.-Hist. Klasse, (1906), tot sqq. (M. N. T.)
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