Another class of persons[230] commonly ranked among the Laconian slaves were the Mothaces,[231] to determine whose origin, rank, and condition, appears to be a matter of no small difficulty. That they never, during the flourishing ages of the commonwealth, formed any part of the servile caste may be regarded as certain, whatever may be found to the contrary in the grammarians of later times. For the Mothaces, observes Athenæus, though not Lacedæmonians, were _free_. And to the same purpose speaks Philarchos, whose words are: “The Mothaces were the brotherlike companions of the Lacedæmonians. For every youthful citizen, according to his means, chose one, two, or more of these to be brought up along with him; and, notwithstanding that they enjoyed not the rank of citizens, they were _free_, and participated in all the advantages of the national education. It is even said that Lysander, who defeated the Athenians at sea, was one of this class of men, but raised to the rank of citizen for his valour.”[232] To the same section of the Laconian population belonged also Callicratidas and Gylippos,[233] a circumstance which of itself appears completely to overthrow the hypothesis of those who derive the Mothaces directly from the Helots; for Cleandridas, the father of Gylippos,[234] was chosen to accompany King Pleistoanax, as chief of his councillors, during an expedition into Attica, an honour which would not, I imagine, have been conferred upon a Helot. Again, Lysander, whom by one authority we are taught to regard as a Mothax, is by another spoken of not barely as a Spartan, but as descended from the Heracleidæ.[235] ----- Footnote 230: See Book ii. chapter vii. Footnote 231: Cf. Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 632. Ubbo. Emm. iii. 132, seq. Mention is made in Plutarch of two Syntrophoi of Cleomenes, who were called Mothaces, and these we find at the head of a party of soldiers. Vit. Cleom. § 8. Cf. Valck. Diatrib. p. 231. Footnote 232: Athen. vi. 102. Müller, alluding to this passage, says, “In Athenæus they are called _free_ in reference to their _future_, not their _past_, condition.” Dor. ii. 44. n. b. By the same rule, the vicious man who is one day to be virtuous, might, in the midst of his crimes, be pronounced a pattern of morality. Footnote 233: Ælian. Var. Hist. xii. 43. Perizon. Footnote 234: Cf. Diod. Sicul. xiii. 106, who calls the father Clearchos. Footnote 235: Plut. Vit. Lysand. § 2. -----