passage,(154) where the philosopher settles, that in his state sixty agronomi or phylarchs, should each choose twelve young men from the age of twenty-five to thirty, and send them as guards in succession through the several districts, in order to inspect the fortresses, roads, and public buildings in the country; for which purpose they should have power to make free use of the slaves. During this time they were to live sparingly, to minister to their own wants, and range through the whole country in arms without intermission, both in winter and summer. These persons were to be called κρυπτοὶ, or ἀγορανόμοι. Can it be supposed that Plato would have here used the name of _crypteia_, if it signified an assassination of the Helots, or rather, if there was not an exact agreement in essentials between the institution which he proposed, and that in existence at Sparta, although the latter was perhaps one of greater hardship and severity? The youth of Sparta were also sent out, under certain officers,(155) partly for the purpose of training them to hardships, partly of inspecting the territory of Sparta, which was of considerable extent. These emissaries may probably have kept a strict watch upon the Helots, who, living by themselves, and entirely separated from their masters, must have been for that reason the more formidable to Sparta. We must allow that oppression and severity were not sufficiently provided against; only the aim of the custom was wholly different; though perhaps it is reckoned by Thucydides(156) among those institutions which, as he says, were established for the purpose of keeping a watch over the Helots. It is hardly necessary to remark that this established institution of the crypteia was in no way connected with those extraordinary measures to which Sparta thought herself compelled in hazardous circumstances to resort. Thucydides leaves us to guess the fate of the 2000 Helots who, after having been destined for the field, suddenly disappeared. It was the curse of this bondage (of which Plato says that it produced the greatest doubt and difficulty)(157) that the slaves abandoned their masters when they stood in greatest need of their assistance; and hence the Spartans were even compelled to stipulate in treaties for aid against their own subjects.(158)