Finally, we know that in some countries the Hellenic population originally resident there were subdued by foreign tribes, and became the slaves of their conquerors, and their position differed in but few respects from that of the barbarian slaves purchased in the markets. Such native serfs were the Helots at Sparta, the Penestae in Thessaly, the Clarotae in Crete, etc. We have most information about the position and treatment of the Helots; but here we must receive the statements of writers with great caution, since they undoubtedly exaggerated a good deal in their accounts of the cruelty with which the Spartans treated the Helots. Still, it is certain that in many respects their lot was a sad one. The constant fear of general insurrection on the part of the Helots entertained by the Spartans, whose own numbers were far fewer, and the terrible severity with which they punished, not only real insurrection, but even merely suspected revolution, prove to us that the statements concerning the cruel treatment of the Helots are not absolutely without foundation. But, as a rule, they did not perform menial slave offices in the houses of the free citizens, but cultivated their lands, and as they were only obliged to hand over a certain part of the profit to the owners, they were able to keep the remainder for themselves, and sometimes to accumulate fortunes and even to purchase their freedom. Nor do we hear of cases in which individual Spartans treated the Helots who were subordinate to them with especial severity--most of the cases of cruelty towards Helots are those in which State reasons seemed to require such proceedings, and were aimed, not at individuals, but at the whole mass of slaves. This was due to a curious arrangement by which the Helots were not, like other slaves, private property of the Individual citizens, but State property and assigned to a particular piece of land, and along with it to the owner for the time being, without enabling him to maintain right of ownership over them. We must not therefore regard the Helots in the same light as ordinary slaves; they were rather public serfs, and on this account they were better off than those who belonged to individual owners. There seems no doubt that besides the Helots there were also private slaves at Sparta, who rendered personal services in the households.