There could not, on the whole, have been much intercourse and connexion between the Spartans, as possessors of the land, and the bondsmen upon their estates. For how little interest would the Spartan, who seldom left the town, and then only for a few days,(122) have felt for Helots, who dwelt perhaps at Mothone! Nevertheless, the cultivation of the land was not the only duty of the Helots; they also attended upon their masters at the public meal,(123) who, according to the Lacedæmonian principle of a community of goods, mutually lent them to one another.(124) A large number of them was also doubtless employed by the state in public works. 2. In the field the Helots never served as Hoplitæ, except in extraordinary cases; and then it was the general practice afterwards to give them their liberty.(125) On other occasions they attended the regular army as light-armed troops; and that their numbers were very considerable may be seen from the battle of Platæa, in which 5000 Spartans were attended by 35,000 Helots.(126) Although they did not share the honour of the heavy-armed soldiers, they were in return exposed to a less degree of danger. For while the former in close rank received the onset of the enemy with spear and shield, the Helots, armed only with the sling and light javelin, were in a moment either before or behind the ranks, as Tyrtæus accurately describes the relative duties of the light-armed soldier (γύμνης), and the Hoplite. Sparta, in her better time, is never recorded to have unnecessarily sacrificed the lives of her Helots. A certain number of them was allotted to each Spartan;(127) at the battle of Platæa this number was seven. Those who were assigned to a single master were probably called ἀμπίτταρες.(128) Of these, however, one in particular was the _servant_ (θεράπων) of his master, as in the story of the blind Spartan, who was conducted by his Helot into the thickest of the battle of Thermopylæ, and, while the latter fled, fell with the other heroes.(129) Θεράπων, or servant, is the appropriate, and indeed honourable, appellation which the Dorians, particularly in Crete, gave to the armed slaves;(130) these in Sparta were probably called ἐρυκτῆρες, in allusion to their duty of drawing (ἐρύκειν) the wounded from the ranks.(131) It appears that the Helots were in the field placed more immediately under the command of the king than the rest of the army.(132) In the fleet, they composed the large mass of the sailors,(133) in which service at Athens the inferior citizens and slaves were employed; when serving in this manner they were, it appears, called by the name of δεσποσιοναῦται.