Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

) 2 RItELOTEl'. HEMINA.
a general name for armeodslaves. The Ilelots only'r Teps were those employed in war; the Ea'rroio'voa
s8orved as hoplites in particular emergencies; and raL served on board the fleet; and the VEoseatiWaEs
onl such occasions they were generally emancipated, were those who had been possessed of freedom for
if t!ley showed distinguished bravery. The first some time. Besirles these there were the /doeOwEs.
instance of this kind was in the expedition of Bra- or gldasces, who were domestic slaves, brought up
sidas, B. C. 424. (Thucyd. iv. 80, v. 34, vii. 19.) with the young Spartans, and then emancipated.
The treatment to which the Helots were sub- Upon being emancipated they received permission
jected, as described by the later Greek writers, is to dwell where they wished. [Compare CIVIrAS
marked by the most wanton cruelty. Thus -Myron (Greek), p. 290.]
states that " the Spartans impose upon them every (Aliller, Dorians, iii. 3; I-ermann, Politicat
ignominious service, for they compel them to wear Antiquities of Greece, ~~ 19, 24, 28, 30, 48; AVaclsa cap of dog's skin, and to be clothed with a gar- muth, IIelle2. Alterlh. 2d ed. see Index; Manso,
spent of sheep's skin, and to have stripes inflicted Spartc, see Index; Thirlwall's RIist. of Greece,
upon them every year for no fault, that they may vol. i. pp. 309-313; Grote, HIist. of Greece, vol. ii.
never forget that they are slaves. And besides all pp. 494-499.) [P. S.]
this, if any rise by their qualities above the condi- HE'MERA ('jsiupa). [DIEs.]
tioil of a. slave, they appoint death as the penalty, HEMERODRlOMI (1fuepospd/uoi), were cou.
anld their masters are liable to punishment if they riers in the Greek states, who could keep on
do not destroy the most excellent." (Athen. xiv. running all day, and were often employed to carry
p, 6.57.) And Plutarch (Lyc. 28) states that He- news of important events. As the Greeks had no
lqts were forced to intoxicate themselves, and per- system of posts, ansd but few roads, such messenform indecent dances as a warning to the Spartan gers must have been of great service. They weree
youth.. These statements must be received with trained for the purpose, and could perform the
some caution. There is no evidence that they are longest journeys in an almost inlcredibly short space
true of the period before the Messenian wars; nor of time. (Herod. vi. 105; Corn. Nep. Mlilt. 4; Plut.
can we- believe that such wanton and impolitic op- Arist. 20; Paus. vi. 16. ~ 5.) Such couriers appressions, provocations, and destruction of a valu- pear to have been kept by most of the Greek
able servile population formled any part of the ori- states, and were in times of danger stationed on
ginal system of Lycurgus. Whllat has been said some eminence in order to observe any thing of
above, respecting the legal condition of the Helots, importance that mlight happen, and carry theindicates a very differentstate of things; and their intelligence with speed to the proper quarter.
real condition is probably not misrepresented by Hence, we frequently find them called HemelroGrote, when he says: — The I-Ielots were a part scopi (suEpootcdiroi, Herod. vii. 182, 192; Xen.
of the state, having their domestic and social sym- tlell. i. 1. ~ 2; Aeneas Tact. c. 6.) That the
pathies developed, a certain power of acquiring ltzemeroscopi were the same as the Iles2erodronli
property (Plut. Cleoon. 23), and the consciousness appears not only from the passage of Aeneas Tacof Grecian lineage and dialect-all points of ticus just referred to, but also fiom the words of
marked superiority over the foreigners who formed Livy (xxxi. 24) " ni speculator (henmerodromos
the slave population of Athens or Chios. They e vocant Graeci, ingens die uno cursu emetientes
seem to have been no way inferior to anly villtge spatium), contemplans regium agmen e specula
population of Greece." As is usual with serfs, cquadam, praegressus nocte media Athenas perevery means was taken to mark the distinction be- venisset." (See Duker, ad Liv. I. c.) The Hetween them and their masters: they were obliged merodromi were also called Dromoezokersks (8posloto wear the rustic garb described above, and they IcpvsKes, Harpocrat. and Hesych. s. v.).
were not'permitted to sing one of the Spartan songs. HEMEROSCOPI. [HIIEMRoDnolaoIm.]
(Plut. Lyjc. 28.) But the state of things descrisbed HEMICHRYSUS. [AURUsi; STATER.]
in-the above quotations belongs to a period when HEMICO'NGIUS. [CoNGIuS;andtheTables.]
the fear of a servile insurrectionl bad producced the HEMICY'CLIUM (lkutsiscAXlo), a semnicirnatural result of cruel oppression oil the one part cular seat, for the accommodation of persons en —
alMd rebellious hatred on the other. That the gaged in conversation, either in private houses or;
cruelty of their masters knew no restraint lhen it in places of public resort; and also the semicircular
lwas thus stimulated by fear, is manifest enough seat round the tribunal in a basilica. (Plut. Alcib.
from the institution of the CepiJ-7s-eCi [CRY'PTEIA]. 17, Nic. 12; Cic. Lael. 1; Vitruv. v. 1. ~ 8,
eowv fasr the statements of ancient writers respect- comp. Schneider's Note.) [P. S.]
ing the cripeiac are to be believed, is somewhat HIEMIECTEON, HEMIECTON. [HrIcdotbtful; but there can be no doubt of the fact TEUS.]
related by Thucydidfes, that on one occasion two HEMILITRON. [LITRA.]
thousand of the Helots who had rendered the HE'MINA (/I/xv~a), the name of a Greek andgreatest service to the state in war, were induced Roman measure, seems to be nothing mnore than
to come forward by the offer of emancipation, and the dialectic form used by the Sicilian and Italian.
then swere put to death. (Thuc. iv. 80.) Greeks for rio'uav. (See the quotations from Epi-.
I The Helots might be emancipated, but in that charmus and Sophron, ca. Ath. xi. p. 479, a, b.,
case, instead of passing into the class of Perioeci, xiv. p. 648, d., and Hesych. s. v. s'v r/yl'va, whrich
they formled a distinct body in the state, known, at he explains as eY jIUrc'sv.) It was therefore naturally
the time of the Peloponnesian war, by the general applied to the half of the standard fluid measure,teoum of vEolaCtguaetsI but subdivided into several the i-Esr s, which the other Greeks called morT;ix,
classes.'Myron of Priene (aop. Athen. si. p. 271 f.), and the word passed into the Roman metrical
clnumerates the following classes of emancipated system, where it is used with exactly the sanme
Ilelots: -&(peTal, aisrosro, pPVCrorot,pEs, aEs'roeo-o- force, namely for a measure which is half of theaivral, and Vreosauwets. Of these the a'&eal sextarizs, and equal to the Greek cotyle. (Bckclsh.
were probably-released from all service; tile pvuic- letrot. Uiztersucl. pp. 17, 200, 203.) [P. S.]