Periœci, who at the battle of Platæa were allotted as light-armed to the same number of heavy-armed soldiers, were in part perhaps artificers. The industrious pursuit of trade did not, however, suffer so much as might be supposed, from the low estimation in which it was held; for not only were many raw commodities obtained in a high degree of perfection in Laconia, but many Lacedæmonian manufactures were also used and sought after in the rest of Greece. The Laconian _cothon_, a drinking vessel used in camps and marches,(77) the bowl,(78) the goblet,(79) tables, seats, elbow chairs,(80) doors,(81) and cars,(82) the Laconian steel,(83) keys,(84) swords, helmets, axes, and other iron fabrics,(85) the shoes of Amyclæ,(86) the Laconian mantles,(87) and woollen garments dyed with native purple, which adorned alike the warriors setting out to battle and the bloody corpses of the slain; all these bespeak an active pursuit of trade, and at the same time a peculiar sense of propriety and comfort, which brought several of these goods and implements into general use. Many men were probably employed in the iron mines and forges;(88) stone quarries of Tænarus had also been worked from early times;(89) and that their industry was not confined to the mere drudgery of manufactures is shown by the schools of Lacedæmonian embossers and brass-founders (probably a branch of that in Crete), to which Chartas, Syadras, Dontas, Dorycleidas and Medon, Theocles, Gitiadas, and Cratinus belonged,(90) all of whom were probably Periœci, although Pausanias, neglecting the distinction, calls them Spartans. Upon the whole we may venture to affirm that the Doric dominion did not discourage or stifle the intellectual growth of her dependent subjects, but allowed it full room for a vigorous development. Myson, by many reckoned one of the seven sages, was, according to some, and perhaps the most credible accounts, a husbandman of the Laconian town of Etia, and resided at a place called Chen in the same country.(91) Even the highest honour among the Greeks, the victory at the Olympic games, was not denied to the Lacedæmonians; an inhabitant of Acriæ was found in the list of the conquerors at Olympia:(92) from which circumstance it is evident that the Periœci of Sparta were in all other parts of Greece considered as free citizens. They must also without doubt have possessed civil rights, but only in those communities to which they immediately belonged, and which would never have been called _cities_ (πόλεις) unless they had to a certain point been independent bodies. Isocrates,(93) indeed, states that they possessed less freedom and power than the demi of Attica; but no general comparison can be drawn between the δῆμοι of Attica and πόλεις of Laconia. Perhaps they had the power of electing their own municipal magistrates, though we find that a Spartan was sent as governor to the island of Cythera.(94) The same was the case in war.